Funding Real Thoughtful Discussions

Concept: Allow two or more parties to easily create a single multi-sig address on Cent, such that a single post can be created that's associated with that address and that any funds the address would receive would get be split evenly on a 1/n basis, with 'n' representing the number of parties that created the address together.

The key thing would be that these individuals are somehow philosophically (e.g. politically, spiritually, etc...) rivals to one another.

Via the post associated with the multi-sig wallet, users could fund and therefore incentivize a real thoughtful discussion between the rivalrous parties.

Funders of the real thoughtful discussion would be able to cast votes on whether or not they believe the discussion was real thoughtful or not, and based on that crowd evaluation, funds would either get distributed to the persons who participated in the real thoughtful discussion, or it would not, in which case funds would be refunded to those who initially funded the event.

Dropping the Ball

Today I dropped the ball during a major executive reporting session.

I failed in a couple of ways, but mainly I failed to communicate what I was doing with my co-workers, who despite being my juniors, have a couple extra years working here and can really teach me a lot.

Me, I'm two months in, and while I have very nearly finished securing recruitment for my first new recruit, I still have a lot to learn, particularly the formulas we use to determine new compensation packages.

Gaining a clearer mental picture of the overall organization and how each team plans to use a specific candidate post-hire is another area I really need to enhance asap. Only then will I be able to paint a simple but clear picture during my next executive reporting session so I can get the consent I need to move ahead with whatever the next stage of recruitment happens to be.

I want to be a leader. I want to really help my team. And I want to add value to the business. But I really need to be careful not to run before I have walking down pat.

There is nothing to do now but take a deep breath, go out for a quick run and get my mind right to face tomorrow. So that's what I'll go do. Fighting yall.

Fee-based Revenue Models on Web 3.0

So, let's say you're developing a DApp with a fee-based revenue model.

And let's say that your DApp actually becomes that killer app for crypto.

What would stop any other potential competitor from simply copying your product and eliminating fees?

Startup Indecisiveness

In my last blog post I discussed the common tendency of people working for startups to criticise anything "corporate."

Now I want to take a quick look at a critique of startup culture as seen through a pair of corporate eyes.

If decisions at large, legacy corporations are slower to reach due to what are typically quite robust internal decision making processes, decisions at startups are lightning quick.

Due to the substantial investment (in time as well as money) that it takes to reach a final decision at large corporations, changing course after a decision has been made is very rarely possible - but it has been known to happen.

At startups though, while the ability to be quick and nimble in making decisions definitely has its advantages, the risk of the key decision makers flip-flopping and/or completely changing their minds after a decision was previously was made is very real, and if it is left unaddressed it is something that can begin to rot away the life force of a startups culture not to mention operational efficiency.

So what are some ways startups can avoid flip-flopping themselves to death?

Obviously accountability is important. The key decision makers should endeavor to keep themselves accoubtable and ask for help from others to keep themselves accountable for the decisions they decide to take. And actually that should probably pretty much apply to each member of a startup.

But beyond that, having a great memory and remembering all the little as well as big things that were already decided is, in my honest opinion, even more important than accountability. Because if you can't remember what you should do, how can you hope to hold yourself accountable?

And it's that attribute - the fantastic ability to remember seemingly sundry details - that seperates the operators of large, legacy corporations from average startup founders and employees. It's also an attribute that I am sure successful startups and their founders and early employees have.

Corporate Mindset

[Note: this is the post for October 27 - posting was late on account of the stunning beauty of fall in Seoul]

A lot of people working in startup land seem to have an aversion to anything "corporate."

Corporate to many working in startups seems to be understood as anything that large and especially legacy companies do from an operational perspective.

The pejorative tinge that accompanies the corporate descriptor seems to stem from the belief that processes at such places needlessly slow down progress and/or exist for no real reason other than keeping the people responsible for them in a job.

In a word, criticising something as being "too corporate" is another way of saying something is inefficient.

Coming from a corporate background, the critique of corporations as slow to adapt or embrace change is directionally correct, but the absolute disregard for anything corporate is super short sighted.

One of the amazing thing about many - but not all - senior executives and operators at large, legacy corporations is their memory. They remember everything.

Now if you couple their amazing memory with their average 2~3 decades of experience, and if you are at all honest with yourself you should probably reason that they may know something you don't, and thus their way of doing things "corporately" may have some merit that you're missing.

Anyways, being open minded will provide you better opportunities for discovering better or at least interesting ways of thinking an problem solving. So be open minded.

When all the Cars in the Parking Lot Look the Same

Imagine that you have a black, white or grey car. And let's say pretty much everyone else where you live does too. The car market itself is also pretty restricted so everyone pretty much drives the same few brands and models.

Now imagine you are in a massive parking and you don't remember where you parked. All the parked cars look pretty much the same. In fact there appear to be hundreds of your exact car.

How would you find your car if you could only rely on sight alone?

Maybe you'd remember that ugly scratch on the front right bumper. And then you'd recall the scratched tint on the front passenger window. And so on and so forth, and you would seek those minute, distinguishing details out until you see the car with those matching imperfections.

When everything else looks pretty much the same, you start looking really closely at any distinguishing details or differences.

On the flip side, when a Ferrari or Lambo shows up amongst a sea of black, white or grey Kias or Hyundais, it quite literally offends the senses. Stark deviation is offensive. Or at least that's the way it seems.

The parking lot and car market that I described above actually exists in real life. If you've ever been to Korea, you'll know that's the case.

What's even more interesting is the fact that Koreans tend to scrutinize one another (and anyone else that comes to Korea) the way that you'd look for your white Kia amongst a sea of nearly identical white Kias.

And just to be clear, I don't think that's something unique to Koreans. It's just that people tend focus on differences as a way to differentiate amongst many similar things, and that just happens to apply equally to the people on the sidewalks as much as it applies to the cars in the street.

Now imagine that you are one of those Kia or Hyundai cars, so to speak. You are one Korean amongst an ocean of Koreans. Your features are all pretty much the same with everyone else, with subtle variations here and there, of course.

So people focus on those variations. Eunji's nose is flatter than normal; or Mijung's eyes are smaller than normal; or Sujin's eyebrows are bushier than normal; or Soyeon is overweight (even though she is a size 1).

It extends beyond the physical too though: age, family background, school affiliations, aptitudes become objects of hyper-focus and are - from the perspective of someone not from a homogenous society - scrutinized to death. Literally.

Korea's suicide rate is the highest in the world. I'm not sure if the rate of plastic surgery is tracked, but Korea would top the list if it is. These statistics are for sure a function of the hyper-focus by most members of society on differences.

This explains the stark differentiation between Koreans and foreigners. Or any homogenous society and the in- versus out-group dynamic. Even if you literally adopt Korean citizenship and speak Korean, you will never be seen as Korean; at the most you will seem *like* a Korean.

But this phenomenon, as uncomfortable, damaging, contradictory, and inefficient as it seems, is also understandable. At least it seems understandable to me now. But then again, didn't we invent the remote key so that we can find our car quickly and avoid the hassle of having to look at each individual difference?

Selling It

S: I still haven't made it into Seoul yet. But where should I even go? Do you know any good tours?

M: I'll personally show you around. But the first place I'd take you is Mt. Nam. The fall colors are gorgeous, and it's a pleasant walk. At the top you can literally see every part of Seoul. So when we're looking out, I'll ask you which part looks like somewhere you'd like to explore, and then we'll go there.

The BOTI Bounty as a Growth Driver

Cent has done a lot of stuff in a short amount of time. It's proven that bounties aren't just for programers or vigilante types. And thanks to the Ethereum network, it has created a few unique bounty distribution methods (e.g. automatic, simultaneous payouts from 1~100 users that are payback resistant).

On top of that technical innovation an exciting emergent development appeared and has continued to persist and even grow over the past few months. This newly emergent "thing" has become a new user habit; a ritual if you will. It's something that I as the poster and other users as paid contributors/curators look forward to each week.

That "thing" is of course the BOTI, my weekly bounty that asks users to source, share and curate what they think was the best of the internet over the last week. The result of each BOTI is a super timely list of some pretty good and often delightful content from around the world.

Lists have always been a thing. Buzzfeed listicles are the most recent popular instantiation of the lists as a thing. But just think of the 10 commandments or equally ancient SportsCenter top 10 highlights or even elections which list up the most to least possible candidates as well as the common 'best of' lists that are as ubiquitous as air: lists have always been with us.

But for as long as they've been around, they've also always been local, individually or centrally determined and highly edited.

The list that comes out of the BOTI each week is global (users hail from 148 countries!), decentralized, and open to include literally any piece of content on the internet. And again, the result is not terrible; in fact, it's pretty darn good, all things considered.

That said it for sure could be better. The main limitation, though, to increasing the quality of the BOTI as well as broadening its application (becuase lists can literally be applied to *anything*) really comes down to the potential pool of contributors.

And while Cent has been growing its user base, the overall number is still relatively small. That is where Seeding comes in. Since that feature will coincide with the ability to make bounty-less posts, the potential base of users should increase as soon as or shortly after Seeding is introduced.

Aftet that happens, it's my belief that the BOTI, especially BOTIs or BOTI-like bounty posts applied on a broader basis, could potentially act as a lever that could accelerate user growth and satisfaction at a high rate. Maybe.

Nothing like this was ever possible before. And it's kinda crazy that this is even theoretically possible, since the result would mean that a large percentage of the world would begin receiving large amounts of crypto...

Notes on Coffee Brewing

When brewing coffee water temperature is crucial. The ideal range is between 195-205 degrees - remember, 212 degrees is boiling.

Every barista will have their own special formula for how to dial in whatever beans they have just right. For example, Vivace Espresso likes to dial in their coffee at 203.5 degrees.

If the water is too cold, you won't be able to extract the sought best oils and flavours of the beans.

On the other hand, if the water is too hot or you carry out the extraction for too long, you'll be left with a highly tani and bitter (i.e. overextracted) tasting coffee.

The golden ratio is a 18-22% extraction rate. You achieve that through a combo of heat and time.

The fineness of grind is another key variable as is the method of extraction. For example, when using a french press you'll want to steep your ground coffee for 4 ~ 6 minutes.

Discussion Poverty

There is a hunger within me, and perhaps many others, for discussion. To talk. To dialogue.

Podcasts have helped to temporarily satiate the pang that arises when I have no one I can *really* talk to about what I want to talk about. But there is something unfulfilling about only listening to others talk.

I could always try to reach out over whatever social network to my favorite podcaster - and I have - to let them know my thoughts on what I just heard them say, but, you know, unless you are a somebody, you aint getting a *real* reply let alone a chance to *really* talk about something. And I'm a nobody, so there you go.

There are exceptions, of course - there are always fucking exceptions - and while they may seem pretty "magical" and "special," they don't ever really ever help to quench that yearning for real, consistent conversation.

And thus I remain discussion poor.

Discussion poverty is super real. It's a problem that so many people besides me suffer from. The black sheep. The best mate-less chap. There are so many of us.

But things are changing, for me personally, but also for everyone who has felt like I do.

Luckily for me, I was able to get a seat front and center on the inside of a change that has begun to provide me with more chances to have more conversations with the dead ass dopest interlocutors I could ever have imagined.

That change is of course Cent specifically, but crypto more broadly. With Cent, my dream of being able to call up, on demand, my own personal cast of thoughtful commenters to my daily blog entries is finally nearly a reality. I've actually pretty much already been doing that, but with modified posts.

Through those regular posts I have already identified a few readers who really dig my writing, leave me comments on Twitter or Cent and share their thoughts with me on the regular (shout out to @BrianXV and @mohamedhayibor). There are other users on Cent that I'm able to get into regular chats with too, particularly below my BOTI bounty post each week.

And the result of it all is I feel richer. Richer in discussion. Richer in spirit. And I can't wait to share the wealth yall.

Mass Psychology is a Lukewarm Pool

It's kinda funny.

As I'm making my way through Ron Chernow's "Washington: A Life" I am constantly struck by the descriptions of the how most Americans felt about the Revolutionary War at any given time as it was going on.

Aside from the initial outburst of patriotism at the outset of the war, a majority of the American populace seemed largely indifferent, both towards the war itself as well as towards both the Continental and British armies.

People just wanted to get on with their lives.

Even at the height of American patriotism, the Continental Army was constantly fighting to hold onto or bring on a few extra mediocre troops.

When the troops were literally starving to death in cold, dreary Valley Forge during the brutal winter of '77~'78 - well after the initial patriotism at the outset of the war in '75 had subsided - the farmers living closest to the pitiful army didn't bat an eye at the death in front of them. Instead they tried as hard as they could to sell their livestock and crops to the British Army in Philadelphia for their solid sterling pounds.

The Revolutionary War ended in 1783 mind you.

But we know how the story ends: America wins its independence then charges up and to the right in the annals of world history.

What happens when mass sentiment turns lukewarm is the stuff that defines the direction that history heads and turns mere mortals into legends.

Amazon gutted it out and did innumerable laps in the Olympic sized pool of lukewarm human sentiment following the dot-com bust before ascending into the upper echelons of elite, global corporations.

And there are a few of us in the crypto-space who are doing what seem like Sisyphean laps in the same luke warm pool of public indifference. But just as Washington emerged victorious, and Bezos stands vindicated, Cent will take its place at the podium of human history and beam ascendent as a beacon of hope for everyone that wants to earn a life sustaining income from anywhere. That day will come. Soon.

Notion - The Modern Workspace

There are so many tools and apps out there for the modern business.  Like a ton.

It can be overwhelming to have to pick what tools and apps to actually use, particularly if you don't have any previous experience working in a modern business.

Prior to working at Cent I know I would've been hard pressed to suggest even one tool or app to use. But now I not only have two solid recos, but a pretty awesome workflow management process as well.

Outside of Slack, the workspace management app Notion has quickly become a core app for the entire Cent team.

Notion allows us to easily and simply save and track everything from meeting minutes to product suggestions to feature launch protocols and most importantly the daily tasks that each team member has.

Our tasks are referred to as '⚡Actions' and we strive to carry them out within a day. In ptactice that means that aftet we complete our action we set ot to 'Done' which disappears the task from our individual action column. If there is an issue preventing resolution within a day though, we say the task is 'blocked' which pings the relevant party so that we are able to clarify what we need in terms of support in order to get it done with and off of our list.

This is great for accountability and it's pretty simple. From a manager's perspective it provides a bird's eye view of the actions of your direct reports and lets you quickly see what actions are blocked so that you can formulate a strategy or solution to help un-block the action and get it done.

I really like it. In fact, I like the combo of Notion and our task management flow so much that I think I'll introduce it to my team at my other job where I am a global recruitment manager.

Explose = Explode + Expose

When something is really good, it's hard to do something so much better.

 - Signed,
   Last Night

Most People Don't Care About Money

If more people cared - like really, truly, actually cared - about money, more people would be rich. The fact that more people aren't rich partially confirms the reality that most people don't care about money.

Now that's an uncommon belief. And potentially offensive, not to mention uncomfortable.

But I think there's something to it.

That said, I think more people are (finally) beginning to care about money.

People are literally creating their own currencies.

Not only that, but I think we are witnessing the genesis of a world where more people care about more things - like really, truly, actually care - than ever before.

The problem, though, is that the number of people who *really care* is still relatively small, so most people, perhaps especially people who *really care* haven't yet picked up on this epoch shift, and thus still have yet to realize how they can unite and aggregate the population of individuals who *really care* about something or other.

I say 'realize' because I'm pretty sure the means towards accomplishing just that has already appeared. And of course, it involves money.

While a penny for your thought probably isn't enough to get you or anyone really to care about something, you'd be surprised how far a quarter or dollar goes. You'd also be surprised how many people pass up $10 or $20 in exchange for caring about something without giving it a second thought.

These are observations gleaned from Cent, the quietest revolution the world hasn't heard of, yet.

What I've found on Cent is that attaching money, even a trivial amount, to a content post as a crowd bounty that is automatically distributed to multiple users really works wonders in attracting thoughtful responses on-demand from people who *really care*.

This post was inspired by this tweet from Jordan Gonen.

Indian Market Segmentation

If I had to pick one country that I wish I knew more about and had a deeper understanding of I wouldn't hesitate one second before giving my answer: India.

There is just sooo much going on there. The undervalued talent, the rich diversity of cultures and of course their food just seem to the best building blocks a large, rapidly modernizing country could ask for.

But it's so big. There has to be a better way to reduce the reality of India to an easy to grasp conception.

One reduction of the Indian consumer market that I came across today that really helps to accurately reflect reality today is the Splurgers, Strivers and Survivors segmentation.

The Splurgers are the 100M affluent, urban elite. Strivers are the group 100M upwardly mobile aspiring workers. And finally Survivors are the remaining roughly 1000M people who are just getting by.

About Last Night...Part Deux

I had my third welcome party last night...

It was actually great fun, even if I am feeling super duper jaded at the moment.

The VP in charge of our team (who is essentially a mini-CEO) presided over the festivities last night and we had a pretty awesome talk. 

All things considered the future for me here is extremely bright, and the opportunities to learn and develop are numerous.

With that out of the way, I think I have found a pretty decent hangover remedy. 

Like I said I am still feeling pretty jaded, but by pounding some pocari sweat (a gatorade-like ion drink sold in Japan and Korea) before and after some light sleep, I think I was able to by-pass the physically uncomfortable symptoms of being hungover (e.g. headache, nausea). 

This is the second time I tried that remedy and so far I'm two for two. Get through hump day in one piece yall.

Money Talks

Legendary investor Paul Graham tweeted this out last night:

It really got me thinking about mind changing conversation and which mediums encourage such conversation.

Cent has the potential to be one such medium, especially since any user can incentivize other users to listen to and engage with their ideas. The ability to attach a monetary bounty to an argument is a lot like what political lobbies have done for a while: it harnesses the power of money to not only speak on behalf of specific self-interests but it strongly incentivizes others to really listen to those self-interests, ideas or arguments.

Conversation as a feature on Cent is still an afterthought, but more and more users are beginning to engage in meaningful and thoughtful conversation. I cannot wait though, until the power of conversation is finally unlocked on Cent. For when that day comes, a world of change will soon follow.

Numbers Always Matter

You have a vision. Or a dream. You're on a mission. That's all that matters, right? Focus on that and everything else will sort itself out, right?

Nope. Well at least not 99.9% of the time. It may seem old hat, but along with mission and product the numbers always matter. Always.

You can have the best interests of your users and the world at heart along with a product that is loved by many, but if, for one second, you try to delude yourself or the team into thinking that numbers aren't important, you're setting your project up for failure.

Numbers always matter. They matter for a few reasons. In the first place they keep you honest.

Ventures are usually born out of a dream to create something that doesn't exist. But all dreams end. When you wake up it's the numbers that help you check reality against your original dream to see what matches, what worked and what didn't so you can re-align your next moves into the future.

Numbers help you raise capital to continue your dream.

A growing venture is fueled by capital. Great leaders allocate part of each day to raising. Part of raising is knowing your venture's numbers inside and out, not because the numbers alone will be enough to get investors to write you a check, but because they enhance and support the story of how your product is changing lives and paving the way for a better future for many, many more people.

Know your numbers, or die dreaming.

Sunday Strolls

About to head out with the wife on our regular Sunday stroll.

Normally our stroll follows a well trodden path, but today we're going to explore a new part of the city.

Actually we haven't even set our final destination, but we have a few in mind.

Hope everyone else has the chance to try something new today. Happy Sunday everybody.

Generalized Mining

On the Venture Stories podcast Jake Brukhman, heavily influenced by Chris Burniske, defines generalized mining as: Supply-side services to decentralized networks.

As an example, that could include content creators/curators for a decentralized social network.

And now I'm kinda obsessed with the concept.

My Favorite Madmen Quotes

Madmen is something really, really special.

It is a tv show. But it is also a cinematic masterpiece. Somehow it is a soundtrack and an epic novel as well. And it never gets old.

My wife and I are *literally* on our tenth viewing of the entire series. Yep. We've watched every episode of the seven series show nine times, and ten times for four full seasons and two episodes of the fifth season.

Anyways, there is so much gold in this one show that I could go on forever, but all I want to do today is highlight some of my favorite quotes from my favorite character, Peter Dykeman Campbell.

Please enjoy these quotes that I've arranged in no particular order:

"Christ on a cracker, where do you get off?" 

"I can use my expense account if I say they are whores." 

"That is a very sensitive piece of horse flesh!" 

“Does it look like I'm wearing a skirt?" 

"Every time you jump to conclusions, Tom, you make me respect you less."

Thoughts on Enzypt.io

I just finished reading the first two installments of @BrianXV's animated Cold Storage series, and they were pretty freaking good.

Although he published the stories on Enzypt.io a week or so ago I wasn't able to read them until now because Enzypt doesn't provide support to mobile Web3 dApp browsers like Coinbase Wallet or Trust. Enzypt does that because those mobile browsers apparently don't support in-browser downloads. And that's a shame because mobile is all I use and it's the most convenient.

Anyways, I finally booted up my wife's notebook, paid for @BrianXV's stories, downloaded them and read them.

There is something special about what Enzypt is doing. Something futuristic. Something so right. I love how 100% of payments go to the content creators. I love how the content lives on IPFS and is essentially uncensorable.

But Enzypt also definitely feels like a single feature; not a fully fledged product. There is something missing. If Enzypt gets combined with something else (what that 'something else' is I have no idea...) it could be a game changer.

For some reason my mind goes to podcasts when I think of Enzypt. Hmm I dunno. I'm tired and my thoughts aren't getting any clearer, so I'll stop here, for now.

Time With Family

Yesterday was Hangeul Day in Korea, so I had the day off.

In the afternoon I spent an amazing time with my mother-in-law.

She's an amazing person and cooked up an absolute feast for my wife and me. 

After eating and drinking a bunch of (really, really good) homemade liquor, we gave her a present we bought her during out trip in Portland. She loved it. And it looked perfect on her.

All in all it was a perfect day and time well spent with family.

New Cent Wallet

Finally. Now it's official: The new Cent Wallet, running on those sexy state channels, is a thing. Could we have made it official a bit earlier? Yep. Should we have? Possibly. But the result is the same: Cent has released an awesome product development, and a feature that will be integral in the growth of Cent and other planned future releases.

In terms of UX improvements, after users get past the initial on-chain transaction to deposit ETH into the Cent Wallet, every action - from tipping to bountying to getting paid - is lightning fast.

There are a lot of technical details under the hood of this release though, but Cent's co-founder and CTO Camerom Hejazi does an awesome job explaining those details as well as some of the tradeoffs Cent is making to bring users the best possible dApp ecperience possible today.

Check out that explanation in this Medium article.

Capital Opportunities

Life is all about capitalizing on opportunity.

For too long though, those capital opportunities have been out of reach or unrealistic for too many. Until now.

Now anyone around the world can log on to beta.cent.co and earn cold hard cash simply by being a thoughtful and diligent contributor.

By consistently contributing anyone can build up a professional resume of work performed like my man @brianxv has been doing.

It's no longer about waiting for your 'one shot' or for 'the perfect time to strike' - it's only about whether you can respond or not. So respond. And seize your opportunity.

Portland Signs *SPEAK*

Signs in Portland are something else. Really.

I only managed to jot a few gems down that I saw during my short trip, but they are all winners.

Enjoy your weekend everybody.

1. We're so excited we wet our plants (Personal residence entrance sign attached above steps to front door)
2. Midwives help people out (prominent bumper sticker)
3. Reunite families, Abolish ICE, Practice radical care (random window sign)
4. The Gates (the name of a gated community)
5. No Justice, No piece (pizza place)
6. Tip your barista. Not your bank. (Umquah Bank advertising no-fee atm benef8t)
7. Ore*gun*ian (pink bumper sticker)

Sippin' Perry Atop 130 Yr. Old Bar Tops

This is an American Shuffleboard (and yes, it is dead ass long)

Perry: Fermented pear juice aka pear cider

Portland is full of surprises. All the time.

There is an unlisted bar (at least on Google maps) that is tucked away within the 7 story tall annex of a still very popular 70 year old theater that is home to a 130 year old bar top. And two American shuffleboard tables. Plus like 7 or so pool tables spread out over four rooms and three floors.

All of that exists within an absolutely unpretentious atmosphere. And pints are $6!

Enzypt.io

I had another blog post in mind to write about originally, but thanks to fellow Centian @BryanXV I found out about a really cool new project to write about instead.

As the title of this post makes pretty clear, that dApp is called Enzypt. Enzypt was developed by Melbourne based Flex Dapps and in their own words:

"Enzypt was borne of our fascination for IPFS and distributed storage technologies. Enzypt allows [creators] to encrypt and upload files and their metadata, and create a completely p2p payment gateway for themselves. When money hits the creator's wallet, the files are downloaded and decrypted..."

There are a few more things I'd like to say about the dApp, but I want to put the dApp through its paces a little longer before I go deeper. That plus it's late and I'm beat.

Check out Brian's website (he has a lot of good stuff going on and is a rising crypto-native creator/entrepreneur) here: https://brianxv.wixsite.com/home/enzyptstore.

Sequoia Sempervirens

There is something special about watching a classic film in an old theatre. I think it's the 'seeing something as it was intended to be seen' coupled with 'this is how so many before me saw it' that makes me feel nostalgic.

Tonight I did just that. I saw Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' over at the Laurelhurst Theater on East Burnside Street.

It's a great film with a quick end, but what struck me about the movie, which happened to be set in SF, was a particularly short scene within a redwood forest.

There Cary Grant's character John (or Scottie) informs us of the redwood's scientific name: sequoia sempervirens. The latinate species 'sempervirens' translates to 'always green' or 'ever living'.

It's a fun fact, and I instantly thought of Sequoia Capital, the famous VC-firm, and how boss their name actually is. They want to be around forever. And with their run of amazing investments, their capital will remain and keep them evergreen.

Extraordinary Ordinary Americans

I just walked out of a movie very surprised - well not I, but we: My wife and I. We're kinda shocked, actually, with what we just spent the last 120+ minutes watching - Michael Moore's new film 'Fahrenheit 11/9'.

After a long evening spent strolling through Portland's Southeast Belmont, Stark and Burnside neighborhoods, about a 4 minute walk from where we're staying, we passed the perhaps famous(?) but in any event rad Bagdad Theatre. There was one last movie showing for the night at the Bagdad. And it looked not terrible.

At least the ratings aren't that bad; even if I can smell the narrative from 6 feet under. Or so I thought.

While the movie does for sure take aim at Trump (including an awkward as hell montage where Moore tried as best as he could - but crucially without ever stating it explicitly - that the current POTUS got all West Virginian on his daughter at some point), the whole film was an assassination on the entire political framework and cast of characters over at least the past 30 years.

Obama. Between the eyes.
Hilary. Murked.
Bush. You already know.
Clinton. Zee-boom.
Rick Snyder. Murked in front of his kids.

As for the current party in power including DJT? Well, as Moore would like you to think, *they* are at best a group of maniacal, ultra-rich racists or at worst the second coming of the third-reich.

The latter point is what was pretty surprising: whereas the reviews that I read before the movie made it seem like Moore singled out POTUS as the next Hitler - hence leading me to assume the complete narrative initially - what ended up happening was Moore sacrificing all traditional politics beginning with the "fascist-probably" Republicans and continuing on to the elitist and treasonously (Bernie got robbed!) self-serving Democrats.

While Moore dismisses any rank-and-file Democrat he provides a decent amount of time on some incredibly promising new politicians. For me at least that was an eye opener. While Moore didn't present this grouping as such, they represent what I see a a real potentially powerful third political party.

Despite the politicians themselves self-labeling as either Democrat or Republican, it may very well only be a matter of time until a formal announcement; or very well "announcements" - plural - are made.

At least that was my initial takeaway after the movie ended and my wife and I slowly began to make our way to the exits.

The wind was snappy and brisk on the walk home. What optimism I had been feeling about the future prospects of my mother country cooled a bit.

You gotta have faith, but there are times when you gotta be real. And it looks like shit is about to get (or at the very least could very easily get) real.

Regardless, we need some Extraordinary Ordinary Americans asap.

Crunchy Leaves and Crisp Autumn Air

Autumn is my favorite season.

It just feels and smells so good.

The crisp air. The warm cozy feeling of layered clothes. The scent of fallen leaves.

After a long, hot and sweaty summer, it's just so relaxing.

Long walks feel better. Hugs last longer. Kisses more passionate.

I love autumn, and the next few days are all fixing to be fall classics.