Category: Western

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S4 E38 — Billy and Buckey Blow My Brain in Whiskey Row’s Palace

He was a sheriff, newspaper editor, miner, politician,Georgist, gambler and lawyer, mainly in Arizona. His nickname came from his tendency to “buck the tiger” (play contrary to the odds) at faro or other card games. He later became a captain in Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, and died in battle.

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A peak behind the scenes of self-publishing, crowdfunding, and working for yourself

Table of Contents

Hi and welcome to Thursday’s 38th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 12th day of May in the spring of 2022.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12880 this week to 12943 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 220 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Context

As we strolled around, waiting for the cycling race to slow down so we could safely cross Whiskey Row without altering the race results, I wondered who that statue represented — somebody like Wyatt Earp? 

Image Credit: https://www.visitarizona.com/

It would makes sense, because Prescott tourism definitely played up the Old West Themes.

“No,” Jay said as we entered the dark wood old west bordello and saloon-themed restaurant “he’s a Rough Rider named Buckey somebody who was a mayor.“ 

Turns out a little later on Wikipedia I discovered  Bucky O’Neill was a man of his time like Wyatt Earp — a Permanently Temporary.

He was a sheriff, newspaper editor, miner, politician, Geologist, gambler and lawyer, mainly in Arizona. His nickname came from his tendency to “buck the tiger” (play contrary to the odds) at faro or other card games. He later became a captain in Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, and died in battle.

But, a Georgist, WTF? Not a typo? I never heard of that and it can’t be a version of his name like Esquire, right? 

Single tax movement, is an economic ideology holding that, although people should own the value they produce themselves, the economic rent derived from land—including from all natural resources, the commons, and urban locations—should belong equally to all members of society.

He believed in what today’s Representative to Congress from his district, Paul Gosar, would openly consider as socialism.

But, I couldn’t contain myself once my eyes grew accustomed to the dark interior having passed the famous western bar — brown wood walls with dark wood trim — and pictures and paintings and drawing on every wall. I browsed one wall after another.

After we ordered some appetizers to share and I took pull on a long neck bottle of Corona I excused myself to visit more history on both sides of the hallway to the lavatory.  Once in the head standing at the urinal I couldn’t help but laugh.  

Image Credit: WikiCommons

Not everyone remembers William Boyd aka Hopalong Cassidy a stable of cowboy westerns filmed around WWII and later shown on television in the ‘50s, but there he was with his white hair in black hat and black shirt and pants looking down at me in what seemed like a 4-foot poster astride his trademark white horse.

“Anybody remember the name of Hopalong Cassidy’s horse,” I teased Jay, Elle and Emma.  Jay had it on the tip of his tongue.  I then said, “Champion and I’m pretty sure I peed on his feet.”  They laughed and Jay announced he wanted to see for himself. 

Anyone driving towards Mammoth Mountain for a ski holiday slows down to 35 mph while passing through three small towns before accelerating back to 70 on Hwy 395.  

Is it Independence?  Or Lone Pine? I should look it up, right?

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022

Each time we pass we tell ourselves we should stop one time and explore the museum dedicated to all those western movies filmed in the Alabama Hills, including those staring William Boyd.

As Betsy, our dyed blonde server sauntered over in her corseted costume with a knife in a sheath fastened over the small of her back, you know like you’d expect for sex workers here at the faux brothel upstairs, I noticed a little history on the menu.

The Palace is the oldest frontier saloon in Arizona, and the most well-known and historic restaurant and bar in the state.  Past patrons include Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Doc Holliday and Big Nose Kate. Virgil was Prescott’s Town Constable.  Originally built in 1877, The Palace was destroyed in the Whiskey Row fire in 1900.  Patrons moved the bar and lower back bar across the street and drank and watched Whiskey Row burn to the ground.  It was rebuilt in 1901.  Today, The Palace maintains its history, grandeur and old west atmosphere, is a favorite for locals, and attracts visitors from all over the world.

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022

Sitting at our round wood table I glanced at the wall almost directly behind Jay’s shoulder.  A glass display of mining tools used back in the day caught my eye. 

But immediately to the left of the display I saw a small brown framed black and white picture with a brass black below the photo, 

 

“Yavapai County, Burro Man Circa 1890s.”

Two seemingly unrelated factoids tumbled in my mind and came together like a conspiracy theory.  

Could it be?

In the photo a gold seeker in a broad-brimmed hat kneels next to a small makeshift wooden sifting structure.  To his right you can see two pails and a home made scooper — a short wooden handle attached somehow to a metal can.

I vaguely recall pieces of a family story about someone my father’s aunts wrote about in a newsletter which told the story of our extended family ancestors.

Image Credit: WikiCommons

And something I discovered about O’Neill.

O’Neill arrived in Prescott in the spring of 1882. There he rapidly progressed in his journalistic career. Starting as a court reporter, he soon founded his own newspaper, Hoof and Horn, a paper for the livestock industry. He became the editor of the Arizona Miner weekly newspaper in 1884 to February 1885.

That’s it.  Uncle Billy ended up in two Prescott articles and with a little research I discovered one story appeared in the Arizona Miner.  Is it possible Bucky interviewed Billy?

Roughly five years apart Uncle Billy made both the Arizona Miner and the Prescott Enterprise.  Seems as though my great, great uncle’s letter got published in the Prescott Enterprise in 1871.

In the summer of 2005 here’s what I wrote about him in, Uncle Billy, the Earl of Dunraven, Pearl Street & Emaciated Mountain Goats” 

He wrote it to the Honorable S.C. Miller telling him he is living in Castle Rock in Douglas County, Colorado. Uncle Billy wandered from Osage County, Missouri sometime after the 1850 census listed him – as it had Confederate War casualty Nathan – my great, great grandfather.

That got me thinking about Samuel Clemons who began his writing career by sending letters to newspapers signing them “Mark Twain”.  Like Mark Twain, he was drawn to the West to find his fortune working mining claims. 

Twain roamed California and Nevada, while Billy mined his 400 feet lode on Lynx Creek in what is today a quaint vacation spot near Prescott, Arizona – north of Phoenix and south of Flagstaff.

Did he strike it rich? 

Like almost everybody else, he made and lost a fortune in the Gilpin County gold leads. 

In an 1871 report on mining, he’s described as “… a fine specimen of a Western Pioneer, one of the men who have always kept in advance of railroads, and who doesn’t feel well unless separated from civilization by hundreds of miles of Indian country.”

Indian country before trains, huh?

Continuing in the 1871 Arizona Miner interview he describes an incident while going from Prescott to Walker’s Camp, at the head of Lynx Creek. 

Near Yellow Jacket Gulch, he sees a huge fire and rising smoke. He says parties recently from Skull and Kirkland valleys “report Indians aplenty down that way. They are around, sure, and there is no telling when or where they will strike the first blow.”

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard Copyright 2022

So, I’m not saying that photo on the wall next to the glass display is Uncle Billy, but I do know we passed through Skull and Kirkland valleys on the way to Jay and Elle’s Prescott home.

And, the timing is off by a decade or more for Bucky O’Neill to have interviewed Billy, like it sometimes is when you do any ancestry research.  

In letters he wrote back home to Missouri he describes the struggle between guarding against Indian attacks, robbers and the long distance he has to travel for supplies. 

Before Bucky sauntered into Prescott, I’m fairly certain Billy had pulled up stakes already.

Forced to move on due to bad luck, he tries his hand mining in the Black Hills and tries settling for a short time in Castle Rock, before finally returning to his family farm in Missouri.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Everyone is not on the same page. Some around you are not even in the same book. For this story to go right you must establish common ground and build from there.” Taurus

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year. 

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E37 — Racing a Little Wobbly on Whiskey Row; S4 E36 — Big Rigs, Skull Valley and Yarnell Hotshots ; S4 E35 — Prescott Pitstop Knocks Me Off Balance

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E38 — Sliding on a Super Slippery Slope to 2nd or 3rd Cousins; S3 E37 — Tell Me More Lies I Can Believe In; S3 E36 — Placebo, Meaningful Coincidence or Just Feeling Lucky; S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E38 — What Should You Do If You Stumble Across Loaded Information?; S2 E37 — How Deep is the Chasm? What Do We Do?; S2 E36 — Turning Lemons into Margaritas; S2 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E38 — Day 38 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E37 — Day 37 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment;

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

Your victories will be satisfying and numerous. Through the next 10 weeks you work unwaveringly, with unshakeable focus and resilient intelligence. A complicated relationship irons out. As a result of your efforts to broaden your intellectual horizons, your earning potential will increase.

Ten weeks you say?  That’s ending sometime after the middle or the end of July, but I shouldn’t get my hopes up because this is probably your birthday and not mine.

“5”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “Everyone is not on the same page. Some around you are not even in the same book. For this story to go right you must establish common ground and build from there.” Taurus

Well, so far so good.  Elle and Jay have been long-time friends even having traveled to Italy for our anniversary vacation.  But, in terms of politics I don’t hold out any hope that we’d be in the same chapter.  Common ground, yeah that’s the ticket.  Fingers crossed. 

“3”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “You may decide to do things differently from how your predecessors did because new tools are available. Experimentation takes time and the risk doesn’t always pay off, but you’d be remiss not to try. The future is for the brave!” Virgo

So my predecessors wrote long-hand letters, but my mother typed all of hers and posted them by mail.  She included clipped articles from her newspapers or magazine subscriptions.  Me?  I didn’t want all the clutter from paper and files, so I always looked for digital alternatives.  But, even now I feel I can’t keep up.

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “As for the one who doesn’t understand what you’re doing… it could be a perceptual limitation of theirs, but it could also be that you’ve yet to effectively impart the vision. How can you explain it differently?” Libra

So true, I’m in the weeds on most of my passion projects.  And, because I’m one of those endangered introverts, at least by percentage of similar temperaments, I get how most (95 to 97%) won’t understand what I’m doing until I can simplify and simplify some more.  Am I getting closer?

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “Here’s an argument for keeping it simple: If the issue at hand grows more complex, and the stakes are raised too, the analysis of choices will consume more energy, which may lead to decision fatigue and delays.” Pisces

WTF have you been eavesdropping?  I couldn’t put it any better than that.  Nailed it!

Long-Form

    • “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.” 
    • David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small  and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
    • “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President. 
    • “A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.  
    • “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden. 
    • “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

Posted on

S4 E37 — Racing a Little Wobbly on Whiskey Row

Over the loud speaker we heard, “And, here comes #32 Alan Lars.” The cyclists ended their race at the intersection to our right.  Jay told us across the street were Prescott’s historic buildings, including The Palace, Arizona’s oldest restaurant and bar.

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trips

Knowledge ATMs 

A peak behind the scenes of self-publishing, crowdfunding, and working for yourself

Table of Contents

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s 37th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 8th day of May in the spring of 2022.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12880 this week to 12943 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 220 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Context

By the time Jay and I returned from inspecting their property in a cookie-cutter suburb that might have been a stereotypical community in California, except instead of anything green for this spring time of year, all you could see was Palm Springs-like decor but without the palm trees.  

Like at Jay and Elle’s house smaller and larger rocks filled in their landscape.  At least in their front dry-rock gulch instead of a lawn, trees shaded their entryway.  Not so much at their house they had intended to flip or rent to other California investors.

There, the sun reflected off the street, the dry rock landscape and brownish block walls adding to the morning temperature without a breeze.

Image Credit: https://www.visitarizona.com/

As Jay navigated through The Dells (Granite Dells), on each side of the road made up of large boulder granite outcroppings that have eroded into a spectacular appearance of bumpy rock features, we talked a bit about his former career in firefighting, but more specifically about the Yarnell Hill Fire years before he moved to Prescott.

The wildfire near Yarnell, Arizona ignited by dry lightning on June 28, 2013. By June 30, it overran and killed 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots. Just one of the hotshots on the crew survived—he was posted as a lookout on the fire and was not with the others when the fire overtook them. The Yarnell Hill Fire was one of the deadliest U.S. wildfires.

Jay vaguely remembered how the widows survivor benefits weren’t paid, getting tangled up in some sort of finger-pointing and counter lawsuits.  I thought the hotshots were independent contractors so they weren’t entitled to benefits.

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard copyright 2022

We pull into his driveway.  Apparently the two wives had run out of stories to share about us, so they’re ready jump into Jay’s dark blue SUV for a drive into historic downtown Prescott.

As a footnote, Elle points out Jays rearview air conditioner doesn’t work properly and  suggests we switch to her SUV for our next sight seeing adventure.

Jay and Elle point out a few restaurants and shops on the way down the hill towards the main town.  They discuss parking tactics.  Jay swings left and crosses a few intersections until he spies public parking lots near the destination he has in mind.

Image Credit: https://www.visitarizona.com/

The old courthouse.  The one where they have public rest rooms.

Negotiating the space, he tells us he’ll let us out on the passenger side, so he can squeeze in as close as he can to the cement wall.  Elle winces a little as he moves back and forth inching closer and closer to the wall.  She’s now glad he’s not driving her car.

From a distance, the town seems to be laid out like other western towns.  In fact, I’m reminded of a combination of Durango and Telluride in Colorado. Everything old time western radiates out from core frontier square.

My new, left knee replacement holds up well as we walk downhill two blocks and hear cheering, an announcer and gazed over to our left and notice where it looks like a bandstand had been set up and picnickers sat on blankets in front of it.

Wait, I remember the headline of an article that made its way into my Apple News feed before we hit the road in California.  

This must be that race known as the Cocodona 250.  More specifically, Here’s Who To Watch For At The Cocodona 250 – And How.  

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard copyright 2022

Over the loud speaker we heard, “And, here comes #32 Alan Lars.” And over there too must be where you can watch, right?

Jay picked up the pace heading towards a statue.  I joined him as instead of climbing the stairs to the courthouse straight ahead, he veered off to our right and trotted around the side to the back entrance and bolted for the door which said, “Men”.  

I joined him.

Having done our business, we mingled in among a crowd of cyclists and made our was to where the race was under way.

Between occasional cyclists the announcer chattered about how long he’d been calling the race, how you can listen to him and where you could catch his webcast I think.  Honestly it was hard to tell above the general din of supporters, spectators and tourists like us.

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard copyright 2022

I hung back a little scanning the row of cycling gear marketing tents and began to read a vertical banner hung on a light pole, like at a bus stop listing all the stops and transfers you should know before boarding.

I could only make out that this race, it was a race at all, included tiers of participants based upon I knew not what.  But, it burst my assumption about it being the Cocodona 250.

“What?”  I only faintly recognized Jay’s voice.

Jay had to yell out what he told Emma the Baroness and Elle for me.  “This is Whiskey Row.”

The cyclists ended their race at the intersection to our right.  Jay told us across the street were Prescott’s historic buildings, including The Palace, Arizona’s oldest restaurant and bar.  

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Maybe you feel your pattern is very predictable, but people around you still don’t seem to know what you’ll do next. There are advantages to keeping mystery alive as long as possible.” Scorpio

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year. 

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E36 — Big Rigs, Skull Valley and Yarnell Hotshots; S4 E35 — Prescott Pitstop Knocks Me Off Balance; S4 E34 — Preconceived Notions Hit the Road for Prescott

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E37 — Tell Me More Lies I Can Believe In; S3 E36 — Placebo, Meaningful Coincidence or Just Feeling Lucky; S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity; S3 E34 — Why You’re Susceptible to Subliminal Suggestions Like …

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E37 — How Deep is the Chasm? What Do We Do?; S2 E36 — Turning Lemons into Margaritas; S2 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?; S2 E34 — Why Is This Kicking Off the 4th Industrial Revolution? 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E37 — Day 37 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E34 — Day 34 of My 1-Year Experiment;

Evidence

Today’s Holiday Theme: 

Mother’s Day, a celebration of a commonality that goes beyond the human species. This tribute to the person who is, at best, a first friend in life, and at least the double-X chromosome contributing to our physical existence … children, playfulness and theatrics.

“5”  Steve Zahn, 51: “Maybe you feel your pattern is very predictable, but people around you still don’t seem to know what you’ll do next. There are advantages to keeping mystery alive as long as possible.” Scorpio

Haha I remember Jay asking if I was an influencer yet.  He had no idea what I described as phase two of my natural experiment which will lead to “The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

Your magic formula for success starts with curiosity — a most alluring quality that will keep you in the best and brightest company this year. Ask questions, even if you think you know the answers. Thinking you know the answers is disadvantageous, but the rewards you find as you continue to clarify the world will make you positively rich.

Curiosity killed the cat. I’m glad I’m not a cat.  I’m sad. I so wanted to claim this birthday, but it’s not for me.  I hope it is yours.

“4” Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “You’re friendly and inclusive, and yet still careful about who gets into your inner circle. It’s not that you’re afraid, more like practical. It’s cleaner and smarter to keep some things on a need-to-know basis.” Taurus

We’re friends with Jay and Elle.  But, not to the extreme fear of an impending argument about politics, I know something may erupt to harsh our vacation mellow along divisive party lines.   

“3”  Steve Harvey, 62; Stephan Patis, 53;  Stephen Hawking (1943 – 2018): “‘Talk is cheap,’ they say… But if that were true, public speakers and spokespeople wouldn’t be paid nearly so well. Words paint mental pictures that inspire action. Yours are definitely worth something today.” Capricorn

That’s so flattering.  I’m not sure if I hit the 14,000 hours necessary to claim the ability to paint mental images to inspire you, but I’d lie if I weren’t aspiring towards the goal.

“4”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “The secret to your success is that you don’t show up once or twice, rather you do so consistently over long periods of time. Good things are coming to you, hard-earned and well-deserved.” Pisces

I prided myself as a Executive MBA career advisor to be there for the students over the two years they attended, and to stay in touch with them after graduation to see how or if they actually applied what they learned, especially if I had matched them to a mentor.

Long-Form

    • “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.” 
    • David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small  and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
    • “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President. 
    • “A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.  
    • “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden. 
    • “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

Posted on

S4 E36 — Big Rigs, Skull Valley and Yarnell Hotshots

“Why are there so many trucks on the road?” Emma the Baroness asked rhetorically. And, then I glanced in my rearview mirror and spotted a white hatchback riding the right shoulder, “Like he was frustrated by the slow pace and wanted to cheat.”

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trips

Knowledge ATMs 

A peak behind the scenes of self-publishing, crowdfunding, and working for yourself

Table of Contents

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s 36th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 7th day of May in the spring of 2022.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12817 this week to 12880 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 220 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Context

I felt much better after sleeping in on Saturday morning.  Jay made coffee and waited for us to emerge from their guest room. Elle exercised and stretched upstairs. 

While Jay and Elle claimed nobody was in a hurry to do something I could tell Jay itched to take us on a tour.

But, our conversations continued about how when we transitioned to the 10 freeway our CarPlay Apple Maps cautioned us that all lanes were block up ahead.  Emma the Baroness and I exchanged anxious glances not knowing what to do while Siri assured us we were still on the fastest route.

A few hours later we saw no sign of blocked lanes.  Sure the traffic flow slowed, but the lane blockage cleared as far as we could tell.

A couple of times Siri would announce a traffic slowdown and gave us an option to exit.  We declined.  “We followed your advice not to take alternative routes, Jay.”

Emma the Baroness and I took turns telling the story about the portion an hour or two west of Blythe and Quartzite while in the middle of nowhere and climbing two lanes our progress again slowed by back-to-back big rigs ever so slowly passing each other.

“Why are there so many trucks on the road?” Emma the Baroness asked rhetorically.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

And, then I glanced in my rearview mirror and spotted a white hatchback riding the right shoulder, “Like he was frustrated by the slow pace and wanted to cheat.”

“One CHP with siren and lights flashing from the opposite direction, drives down the median embankment to turn and speed in our direction,” I add.

They wanted to know if we ever found out what was going on.  Emma the Baroness told them we were dead stopped in traffic, a tanker had pulled over into the shoulder, but when all four CHP cars finally began waving everybody through we saw the white car catty-cornered with its hatchback open.

The last time we slowed behind a huge bulldozer as we headed downhill after we passed through Skull Valley and Kirkland following Jay’s texted directions as we approached Prescott.

Skull Valley, Arizona Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

   

Jay added, “You noticed the basecamp for firefighters on your way in, right?” He told us Elle had raised money to donate food for them, as they’re on high alert for fires in this part of the West — Prescott National Forest.

Image Credit: Apple Maps

“Yeah,” I said. And, we crested on a hill where a memorial honors those hotshot firefighters who lost their lives a few years ago when surrounded by flames and they couldn’t make their way out.  

Yarnell Hill Fire Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Emma the Baroness wanted to know why the haze seemed more than usual for the part of I-10 which cut through the Coachella Valley, even when we passed exits for Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Rancho Mirage and La Quinta.

“Where are the fires?” she asked.  Here in California, in Arizona where we’re headed or is smoke blowing west from New Mexico we both wanted to know.

And with that, he said he had to check on their property which was closing escrow and invited me along while our wives talked about us and got ready for adventure.

His realtor who represented him and the buyer had tempted him to sell it when she told him how much he could get for it and, oh by the way, she had a buyer for it.  

The only sticking point that Jay felt the builder should fix and the new buyer should be responsible for was a flaw in the guest bathroom bathtub.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

“5”  Steve Smith, 30, Stevie Nicks, 72: “You’ll sort the puzzle, decipher the meaning of the code, or discover the intention. This ability to sense what’s really going on will serve you well and help a friend too.” Gemini

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year. 

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E35 — Prescott Pitstop Knocks Me Off Balance; S4 E34 — Preconceived Notions Hit the Road for Prescott; S4 E33 — When Was The Last Time Honesty and Character Counted?

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E36 — Placebo, Meaningful Coincidence or Just Feeling Lucky; S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity; S3 E34 — Why You’re Susceptible to Subliminal Suggestions Like …; S3 E33 — Do Meaningful Coincidences Really Exist?

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E36 — Turning Lemons into Margaritas; S2 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?; S2 E34 — Why Is This Kicking Off the 4th Industrial Revolution?; S2 E33 — What Happens When Your Business Collapses?

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E34 — Day 34 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E33 — Day 33 of My 1-Year Experiment;

Evidence

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

Though inspiration has been known to strike you, in the months ahead it occurs with a gentler and more constant touch. You’ll absorb the wisdom of great minds. Acting on the pulse of creativity, you’ll bring into form: events, teams, systems, presentations and more. Key relationships will bring sweetness and surprise to your days.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“4”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “It’s scary to go from what you know and love to what you don’t know and aren’t sure you’re going to like. But this is also the way to find out who you are, so it’s worth it.” Taurus 

I guess so.  Wait, I know so based on how many career transitions I negotiated in my life so far.  What’s that old marketing and startup saying, “Fake it until you make it?” I’m re-rating your TauBit, because it just dawned on me that I’m following the full cycle aspect of this roadtrip into a different website I administer.  How will that work out?

“5”  Steve Smith, 30, Stevie Nicks, 72: “You’ll sort the puzzle, decipher the meaning of the code, or discover the intention. This ability to sense what’s really going on will serve you well and help a friend too.” Gemini

Is this all about the sheer number of “Patriot” flags flying in Arizona and specifically in Jay and Elle’s neighborhood including at their home?

“4”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “To the outsider watching you mingle, it looks like you’re having a good time, but inwardly it feels like work. Rightly so. Building relationships is the essential labor of success.” Virgo

Negotiating these encounters make me seem like and ENTP — the emphasis on extrovert.  But, the shear energy depletion I feel at the end of engagement clearly signals I’m a card-carrying introvert, INTP.

“4”  Steve Nash, 45: “You’ll get carried away with a project and you may forget about various responsibilities and healthful necessities. But your complete involvement is warranted — you’re about to make a breakthrough.” Aquarius

 Did I pick this TauBit because it was true, or because it is just wishful thinking like many others over four seasons?

“5”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “While understanding what everyone stands to gain or lose from a situation may be key to achieving your goals, you mostly study people for the fun of it.” Pisces

Yup, that’s me.  I’m a quick read of intentions and motivations and incentives before leading the way forward.  And, yes it is shear fun!

Long-Form

    • “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.” 
    • David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small  and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
    • “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President. 
    • “A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.  
    • “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden. 
    • “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

 

Posted on

S4 E35 — Prescott Pitstop Knocks Me Off Balance

I recalled how Jay and Elle took us down the shared dirt and gravel driveway to Shelly Junior’s “compound” where his divorced wife and son lived at one end of the property.  Junior was in the midst of building out a massive wooden deck on the second or third story home — underneath a gigantic Confederate flag waving in the occasional breeze beneath the trees.

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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Knowledge ATMs 

A peak behind the scenes of self-publishing, crowdfunding, and working for yourself

Table of Contents

Hi and welcome to Friday’s 35th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 6th day of May in the spring of 2022.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12817 this week to 12880 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 220 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Context

“How was your trip?” Jay had been looking for us to pull into his driveway after we texted Siri’s estimated arrival time.  

His house like many of the other neighbors we noticed as we drove uphill to his shared driveway proudly displayed the Stars and Stripes as a signal each housed Patriots.

“Park here” he directed us to a pad in the front near the front door for easy unloading.

He had been expecting us an hour earlier, based on how long he and Elle usually took to make the reverse trip to visit their kids in Ladera Ranch.  “Yeah, well we stopped to eat at Chipotle near the Outlet stores and the Morongo Resort Casino just outside of Palm Desert.”

Image Credit: Google Maps

Later, on Mother’s Day as when we recounted the entire vacation, Delta Girl said she too felt disappointed when she drove out of her way for an advertised bowl that the restaurant no longer offered.

Emma the Baroness and I both ordered substitute bowls and chips and overstuffed ourselves.  Returning to the CR-V the wind blasted us.  Not like the hot oven wind we’d grown accustomed to when enjoying long desert weekends at Shadow Mountain, Palm Springs, Palm Desert, or La Quinta.

In Prescott with Jay and Elle, we sat around in their large dark wood dining room table after being shown to our first floor guest room and laying out our suitcases.

Image Credit: Apple Maps

Dinner was ready. 

Later we retired to the back yard porch for more wine and desert, while former fireman Jay, turned on his natural gas flame momentarily which in turn ignited the wood he piled meticulously on top of the outdoor fireplace grate.

I stuffed myself again overeating, but couldn’t help it. The approaching nighttime darkness found us catching up with stories about our Italy vacation and what it’s like for them living now in Prescott instead of in California.

I wanted to know about how Jay’s longtime fireman friend was.  “How long has he been confined to a wheelchair and when did he suffer his accident?”

Jay thoughtfully paused for a moment and told us his first back problem occurred when they were both new recruits training together.  And, then a dozen back surgeries later he remains in pain.  We briefly stopped by their house when we had visited Durango, Colorado the second time and stayed at Jay and Elle’s home there.

Image Credit: Apple Maps

“Didn’t he and his son own some property together in Durango?”

“Yeah,” Jay ran some calculations in his head.  “Originally 40 acres and Shelby gave his son a couple of acres while selling off most of the other acres.”

I recalled how Jay and Elle took us down the shared dirt and gravel driveway to Shelby junior’s “compound” where his divorced wife and son lived at one end of the property and Junior was in the midst of building out a massive wooden deck on the second or third story home — underneath a gigantic Confederate flag waving in the occasional breeze beneath the trees.

Back then I didn’t realize the significance until driving from Durango to Dillon with stop in Telluride.

If you’re like me your mind wanders as you drive between destinations on long trips. I was day dreaming about our  last vacation trip to this region

We simply ran out of time and skipped Telluride.

This year we skipped a stop in Silverton, because as empty nesters both of us felt the community was just too small and remote for us. We passed ranches and old mines dotted with buildings in various states of disrepair.

And then a strange incident popped into my head.

One that just seemed odd at the time and remained just that until much later after Donald Trump’s 2016 election victory. Only then did it connect two things political.

Our Durango friends reintroduced us to their life long friends. And, took us to visit their friends divorced son. Junior greeted us at his home which was undergoing a major remodel.

Two things.

We hadn’t seen such gigantic log beams supporting his new roof. And, we hadn’t seen someone proudly displaying a huge Confederate flag on the top of the roof. This in contrast to the flowing American flag at the entrance of our friends best friends.

We just hadn’t encountered that before.

On our short vacation it just seemed odd. We didn’t attach any importance to it We were totally clueless. Naively we asked our friends about it.

They glossed it over with a back story that Gen-X Junior had always been rebellious growing up and in school. Now, I wonder if they guessed we knew the significance of it.

But at the time we didn’t.

It just seemed odd flowing so magnificently there, clearly thousands and thousands of miles from the deep South.

We might have figured it out.

Especially when Junior’s mother told him to take it down, in that scolding tone all young boys feel in their bones. But he didn’t, although now it reminds me of the headline about the previous election.

“Swastika On Campaign Sign Sparks Outrage”

On Tuesday, Jeff Widen, a volunteer with the La Plata County Democrats, looks at a Barack Obama campaign sign he put up the previous day near U.S. Highway 160 and County Road 222 east of Durango.

Sure, I can fess up to drinking too much, but not enough to where I lost my balance more than usual or fell victim to my eyes crossing.  But I threw up twice in the night — elevation sickness?

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The mind gets stronger in the same way muscles do — through lifting. In today’s case the work includes words and concepts, feelings, puzzles and a few logistical problems too.” Aries

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year. 

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E34 — Preconceived Notions Hit the Road for Prescott; S4 E33 — When Was The Last Time Honesty and Character Counted?; S4 E32 — A Rudy By Any Other Name Still Smells …  

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E35 — This Ain’t No Zemblanity; S3 E34 — Why You’re Susceptible to Subliminal Suggestions Like …; S3 E33 — Do Meaningful Coincidences Really Exist?; S3 E32 — But, Why Should You Care?  

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E35 — Was this Pandemic Year a 1-Off or New Way of Life?; S2 E34 — Why Is This Kicking Off the 4th Industrial Revolution?; S2 E33 — What Happens When Your Business Collapses?; S2 E32 — Trapped and Bored? Or Unleashing a Reinvention Wave? 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E34 — Day 34 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E33 — Day 33 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E32 — Day 32 of My 1-Year Experiment

Evidence 

Holiday Theme: 

… it’s a fine weekend for hosting. And while a main joy will be the company of others, a side perk is the way you see yourself and your home through the eyes of your guests. Other people are better mirrors than actual mirrors. We are all too familiar with our own visage to properly see ourselves.

We didn’t leave much room in our schedule for a getaway vacation on a roadtrip to Arizona.  First stop, Prescott.  And then a driving tour of Jerome, Cottonwood and Montezuma’s Castle.  Second stop, Sedona.  Then back to southern California in time for  the long delayed remodel or our master bathroom — due to pandemic supply chain disruptions. And finally, hosting the family in honor of Emma the Baroness on Mother’s Day.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The mind gets stronger in the same way muscles do — through lifting. In today’s case the work includes words and concepts, feelings, puzzles and a few logistical problems too.” Aries

Wait, did you include memories and connections? And conversations and topics that spark associations that ignite other “spark-able” links to shared moments?

“4”  Steve Winwood, 71; Stevie Wonder, 69; Stephen Colbert, 56: “People are drawn to the comfort of your warmth. You don’t need to fix anyone or provide structure or direction. To offer your acceptance and love will do more than you know.” Taurus

I’m accepting this compliment on behalf of Emma the Baroness, the true recipient, even though I add offbeat dad’s humor good for a laugh or two.

“4”  Steve Howey, 42: “What you’re doing is inherently important. That means whether you make sure everyone knows this, or hide out and act in secret, it’s just as essential. Right now, the work is what matters, not how popular it is.” Cancer

So operating in stealth mode counts?  Mostly with Emma the Baroness’ friends we find we have to avoid conservative’s topics like religious beliefs and political persuasions — although many who voted for him the first time, could stand to do so the second time.

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41; Steven Spielberg, 74: “People concerned with proving their superiority are typically overcompensating for a deep sense of inadequacy. Align with the successful and laid-back types who live like we are all in this together.” Sagittarius

So just how do you accomplish this TauBit of Wisdom graciously.  It seems like at any given moment 45% of us are against them and visa versa.  

Long-Form

    • “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.” 
    • David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small  and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
    • “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President. 
    • “A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.  
    • “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden. 
    • “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

Posted on

S4 E34 — Preconceived Notions Hit the Road for Prescott

Jay texted us to ignore the GPS which wants to direct you a different way.  Don’t turn it on until you speed past Blythe, drop by Quartzite for cheap gas just across the California-Arizona border, and then trust your CarPlay.

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trips

Knowledge ATMs 

A peak behind the scenes of self-publishing, crowdfunding, and working for yourself

Table of Contents

Hi and welcome to Friday’s 34th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 29th day of April in the spring of 2022.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12733 this week to 12817 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 220 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Context

Surprise, everything fit into my Honda CRV and surprise, surprise we closed our garage door — this time without backing into it like I did in a hurry moments before our Italy Anniversary Vacation. 

And slid onto our street headed first to the 241 toll road and eventually into Highway 91, then Freeway 215 and for the long haul, the 10 Freeway east past Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Coachella, Indian Wells and sped past signs to smaller, more remote destinations along the way.

Image Credit: Apple Maps

Jay texted us to ignore the GPS which wants to direct you a different way.  Don’t turn it on until you speed past Blythe, drop by Quartzite for cheap gas just across the California-Arizona border, and then trust your CarPlay.

Because Jay, who looks like an aging James Brolin with streaks of gray hair, has a good sense of humor I asked him an inside joke, which road should we take to “the Freeway” Alicia Parkway or El Toro Road?

Alarmed almost immediately he called, “Aren’t you taking the tollway?” which was kinda a joke on me, because I hadn’t visualized the route in my mind yet.  “I was just yanking your chain”.

“At the roundabout, take the second exit” had become a running joke when Jay rented a GPS unit in Florence before we headed out into the awesome Tuscany rolling green fields and small towns.  His idea of a vacation was to wing it, you know.  Get in the car rental and follow your whims from vineyard to small Italian town and on to the next.  

Image Credit: Stephen G. Howard copyright 2022

However comma Emma the Baroness and I didn’t want to leave our precious anniversary vacation to chance.  In fact we bought Rick Steves guide for Italy and followed his recommendations as best we could.  Since back then Jay and Elle lived less that a mile away from us, it was fun to kick around itinerary ideas at each others house.

Italian wine and meals got us into the mood.  Google maps displayed on our big screen through Apple TV assisted forced choices accounting for travel time between regions, maximum days at each destination and choice of final accommodations.

In Cinque Terra, either in the hallway or our hotel’s lobby as we waited for Jay to finish his phone conversation, or maybe it was at the same breakfast when we learned from Anna that the Villa Steno had been in Mattes family for 26 years — Carla and he are the owners, that Elle dropped the bomb on us.

Image Credit: Stephen G Howard copyright 2023

They were closing escrow long distance on a place in Prescott, and renting their Italian-planning-home.  Both Emma the Baroness and I were in shock.  Jay and Elle had just returned to their neighborhood in Mission Viejo not that long ago from Durango, Colorado where Elle had tripped on the lower rung of an extension ladder as Jay was fixing something next to the kitchen door in their garage.  She lost her balance and fell on their driveway.  

The fall added to some of her health issues, which kept her from fully enjoying the sights and sounds and walking delights in Venice, Florence, Cinque Terra, Tuscany especially in Sienna and finally in Rome.

While she and Jay made the effort by driving the same six plus hours along the same route to attend Jazzy and Delta Girl’s wedding in Oceanside, California both Emma the Baroness and I agreed she seemed very frail and tired three months ago.

Today we were reversing the trip.

But, Arizona?  

I felt like Daniel on his way to the lion’s den.  

Weren’t there some cyber ninja Q-Anon believers in charge of recounting the 2020 election results over and over and over without finding anything suspicious?

Maybe over the course of the next few days it will be like, “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and we can keep our friendship in tact.

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Preconceived notions are obstacles to overcome. Having zero expectations makes it easier to accept what is. You’ll be amazed at what you can do when you deal in realities instead of fantasies.” Aries

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year. 

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E33 — When Was The Last Time Honesty and Character Counted?; S4 E32 — A Rudy By Any Other Name Still Smells …; S4 E31 — Butt Dialing Your Way to a $Billion, What Could Go Wrong?  

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E34 — Why You’re Susceptible to Subliminal Suggestions Like …; S3 E33 — Do Meaningful Coincidences Really Exist?; S3 E32 — But, Why Should You Care?; S3 E31— Treat It Like a Pawn Ticket to Sketchier Things  

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E34 — Why Is This Kicking Off the 4th Industrial Revolution?; S2 E33 — What Happens When Your Business Collapses?; S2 E32 — Trapped and Bored? Or Unleashing a Reinvention Wave?; S2 E31 — Getting Charged from Box Automattic-aly 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E34 — Day 34 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E33 — Day 33 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E32 — Day 32 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E31 — Day 31 of My 1-Year Experiment

Evidence

Holiday Theme: 

… taking stock of what matters most to us. Old things, systems and beliefs will break. We’ll realize instances in which we were relying unnecessarily on things that have diminishing relevance to our future. We’ll be inspired to change and … talk about it to anyone who might benefit from the sharing.

Won’t it be nice if today’s Holiday Theme actually comes true?  I mean, it does with the love of my life sitting next to me in the passenger seat.  But, I’m not so sure how well talking about old things, systems and especially beliefs will turn out well for us.  Remember, don’t bring up politics or religion.

“4”  Steve Zahn, 51: “If you want to get good at something, there’s much you could add to your practice. But if you want to get great, this will require you to go the opposite direction. Eliminate the extraneous and isolate only what works.” Scorpio

I’m feeling the tension, not what four seasons of one thing propel me forward with its own momentum.  I intended to build out a pipeline of written works in progress and have mastered that.  But, am I trapped?  It will take another year or longer to publish what is already earmarked.  And, I want to shift gears to my “Volume Three” and “Volume Two Manuscripts”.  Will this Arizona vacation help or hinder me?

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Preconceived notions are obstacles to overcome. Having zero expectations makes it easier to accept what is. You’ll be amazed at what you can do when you deal in realities instead of fantasies.” Aries

Isn’t it much more difficult to practice not giving in to preconceived notions with the political circus exacerbating our us vs. them uncivil war in American politics?  I know it is for me.  And here I expect our trip will take us deep into MAGA country.

“4”  Steve Aoki, 41; Steven Spielberg, 74: “Energy has dipped and progress has slowed down. Things will pick up after a good rest. If you needed an excuse to take one, consider this your permission slip.” Sagittarius

Just getting away again on a vacation may pep Emma the Baroness and me up.  I’ve left bread crumbs — notes about where I left off in each of my passion projects so I can regain momentum in those I feel more passionate about.

“3”  Steve Harvey, 62; Stephan Patis, 53;  Stephen Hawking (1943 – 2018): “You will connect the dots of a formerly fuzzy sketch. When you help someone learn things for the first time, you will relearn them in the process — everybody wins!” Capricorn

Connecting dots is what I do, especially in fuzzy, unknown situations.  My opportunity for helping somebody else learn for the first time my be limited on this roadtrip, but we shall see, right mom?

Long-Form

    • “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.” 
    • David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small  and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
    • “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President. 
    • “A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.  
    • “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden. 
    • “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

Posted on

S2 E74 — Summing Up Your Situation in an Intensely Psychological Game

Their mission was to anticipate how future talent development would unfold. By doing so they would have time to prepare their organizations and clients transition to new demands from changing markets and industries.

“5”  Steve Nash, 45: “This is an intensely psychological game. Whether you win or lose will depend on your ability to accurately sum up a situation. Watch and predict before you make your move.” Aquarius

Hi and welcome to Friday’s Episode 74 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 3rd day of July in the summer of 2020.  

 

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E73 — WorkFit: Chopping Off 12 Losers at the Intersection of Speed and Independence; S2 E72 — 20 Niche-Specific Opportunities Found After Making Soul Crushing Mistakes; S2 E71 — My Top 13 Worst Jobs of All Time

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E74 — You Know What To Do, Yeah Right!; S1 E73 — Do You Need a Little Leo da V Time Too?; S1 E72 — It’s Taken so Long, I Could be Wrong; S1 E71 — Isn’t There a Placebo for This?

Context

This is a continuation of “Volume Two Manuscript — WorkFit” a work-in-progress.

In the previous episode I listed 7 out of my 33 positions, as an example,  that fit what the human resource executives identified as the first of four scenarios. 

Their mission was to anticipate how future talent development would unfold. By doing so they would have time to prepare their organizations and clients transition to new demands from changing markets and industries.  

Now we turn to the second at the intersection of high degrees of independence and mastery and add 18 positions to last episode’s list.

High Independence & Speed High Independence & Mastery
6.   Vocational Rehabilitation Services: Worse Fit 7.   Professional Training Company: Worse Fit
23.  Organization Development — Technology: Better Fit 8,   Independent Contractor Outplacement Firms: Worse Fit
24.  Startup — Quantum Learning Systems: Better Fit 9.   Consultant Life and Mutual Fund Company: Worse Fit
25.  Director Continuous Improvement: Better Fit 10. University Extension Instructor: Worse Fit
26.  Organization Development — Tech Company: Better Fit 11. Consultant Leadership Academy: Worse Fit 
30.  Venture Guidance: Better Fit 13. Consultant Professional Services: Worse Fit
32. Consultant — Product Development Merger: Better Fit 14.  Bank CD Conversion Tracker: Better Fit
16.  Graduate Student Assistant: Better Fit
17.   Graduate Assistant Internship: Better Fit
18.   Vocational Rehabilitation Services: Better Fit
19.   Artist — Cards, Poetry, Photos:  Better Fit
20.   Information Preneur — InFox:  Better Fit
21.  Research & Development — Career Change:  Better Fit
22.  Trainer, Management Development: Better Fit
27.  Knowledge Management — Brand Company:  Better Fit
28.  Knowledge Media Business: Better Fit
29.  Key Executive Advisor:  Better Fit
33. Advisor — Executive MBA Program: Better Fit

High Independence and Mastery

Better or Worse Fit?

7.  Professional Training Company — Focus on customizing suite of supervisory training programs.  Seemed old school, been that done that, couldn’t engage my attention and I didn’t sell new business, but it made sense to my growing knowledge management “Robin Hood” sense or repurposing what you’ve done to grow revenue.  But, I also learned I wasn’t cut out to turn out and deliver supervisory courses for clients like a university hospital, a transportation agency, or even to three technology companies. I lost interest in management training in slow moving mature organization types while craving the adrenalin rush of working in Paradoxy-Moron companies. It just didn’t satisfy the idea packaging  talent I developed when the ideas were old and trending towards commodity knowledge — Worse Fit

8.  Independent Contractor Outplacement Firms — I activated Plan B as an independent contractor delivering outplacement group training sessions and coaching at two firms. For the second I held down the fort while the founder underwent heart surgery.  He recognized my heart wasn’t in his business and his pressure to sell.  I was much more interested in conceptualizing which trends — demographic, social, technical, economic, political — through their interconnectedness would produce major opportunities for new products, services and careers — Worse Fit

9.  Consultant Life and Mutual Fund Company — Can you interject innovation into a century’s old mature company?  It was a complex, complicated maneuver with tons of new knowledge and new ideas packaging.  But, I yearned for a return a more Paradoxy-Moron organization that thrives on high degrees of disruptive innovation, independence and speed — Worse Fit

10.  University Extension Instructor —teaching reengineering and continuous improvement as an idea packager thrilled and challenged me, but it represented a hell of a lot of work for low pay — Worse Fit

11.  Consultant Leadership Academy— Medical laboratory that didn’t present the challenge of high degrees of disruptive innovation, independence and speed — Worse Fit

13.  Consultant Professional Services — Advised software startup who seemed to be the Swiss Army Knife of surveys with additional functions and features that could fit almost any requirement in the human resources development profession. Their niche was their ability to conduct a survey and generate findings almost immediately instead of weeks which increased the probability that leadership development could be initiated right away — Worse Fit

14. Bank CD Conversion Tracker — Challenge of manual to technology operations. Problem solving. detective following a pattern of clues. No paper work. Solved, move on, keep my mind engaged — Better Fit

16. Graduate Student Assistant— never received great grades in under graduate classes; more serious after the Army — more autonomy, flexibility, enjoyed research and knowledge work — Better Fit

17. Graduate Assistant Internship — working for the State of California half time and professional services startup 50%.  First job in psychology field — Better Fit

18. Vocational Rehabilitation Services — the more interesting patients were cops, firefighters and sheriffs who filed stress claims. Set up the first behavior modification steps to more objectively evaluate patients and group job club reinforcement for self-placement while marketing not selling. Exposed to Outplacement.  Something new — Better Fit

19. Artist — Cards, Poetry, Photos — Creative expression combining my new found love of photography with prose and poetry.  Considered creating a line of greeting cards and posters — Better Fit

20. Online Membership Start Up — Information ‘Preneur ways of making money while you slept. Based on “Money in your Mailbox.” Experimenting with personal computer. Named InFox for Information Exchange — Better Fit

21. Research & Development — Career Change — field testing my approach — tried to sell to Orange Coast and Coastline Community Colleges. Orange County the Association Training and Development — Better Fit

22. Trainer, Management Development— Research, trends and past information interviews. Internal Outplacement – sold it and got permission. Learned on the job — improve quality, introduce new technology, teach and facilitate sales teams (I know, right) and at corporate headquarters send high potential managers in the developmental pipeline to university executive programs for rounding out.  I learned large-scale organizations resist change like an immune system does. Developed and refined my skill and talent to package new ideas — newer ways of doing things better — than the tried and true, especially during a decline when hundreds of employees receive their pink slips on Fridays.  Oh you need a plan A for thriving in the good times and a plan B for surviving in the dark times — Better Fit

27. Knowledge Management — Brand Company. Strategy and Brand Consultancy. We crashed our models together — learning and development, knowledge creation, media production, internet communities, advertising and marketing. We pioneered a way of capturing the essence of a brand on digital video, searched through audio tracks for the touch points and reused portions of the interviews for orienting new coders hired at accelerated rates — Better Fit  

28. Knowledge Media Business — Three of us tried to make a go of our pioneering efforts to capture the new knowledge being spun off so it wouldn’t fall through the cracks for Paradoxy-Moron organizations.  But the market didn’t support it and we had to go our separate ways — Better Fit

29. Key Executive Advisor — heading up the regions outplacement for C-suite services paid for by their former company. I covered delivered individual and group facilitated services for offices throughout the Southern California Region from San Diego to Woodland Hills, Pasadena and West LA.  It dawned on me that who you knew made the most difference for people at this level I created an online community for information and insight sharing and of course for trusted referrals — Better Fit

33. Advisor — Executive and Healthcare MBA Program — a decade which I view as a field test or a laboratory for the content in these second volume books. I proposed a curriculum to the Director for him to review and meet with me.  “Why would anyone choose to come back to school for an executive MBA (and spend over $100,000 over two years) when you’ve got all they’d ever need in this curriculum? — Better Fit

Summary of the Two Higher Independence Scenarios

First of all more employment opportunities lined up in the High Independence and Mastery list.  Of the 18, 6 made the worse fit list, leaving a dozen better fits.  Looking back, most of them but not all of the opportunities emphasized a professionalism that comes from accumulating more knowledge and experience.  It also emphasizes a more methodical, reasoned approach towards developing others.

In the next episode we turn to higher degrees of affiliation combining with high speed and mastery.

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“3”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The gap between a certain dream and the reality of the situation has been quite wide for a good while. Now, you’re in for the thrill of closing that space and bringing something truly fantastic at hand.”  Aries 

Am I really in for the thrill of closing the gap between my self-publishing efforts and the first drips of support?  Not seeing it.

“3”  Steve Kerr, 54: “What would you most like? You can have what you set out to get, as long as you stick to one thing. If you chase after two or more things, you’ll end up empty-handed.” Libra

Probably true, but I subscribe to the Brian Enos school of creative passion projects.  When one Minimum Viable Product test fails, you move on to the next one while conducting a post mortem on the first to see what can be salvaged and repurposed.

“4”  Steve Harvey, 62: “A good mentor may come from a different background and work in a different field and still have exactly what you need including a treasure trove of mistakes and the learning that goes with that.” Capricorn

Now try telling , no selling  that to a potential protege.  When I matched Executive MBA students to my mentor members I warned all those EMBAs and HCEMBAs (Health Care Executive MBA) to sign up as quickly as possible when I announce the deadline, because as they filled out their applications each one included a timestamp.  I began my matching process with the first person and continued sometimes to student 35 or 40 in year one or year two.  While the TauBit turns out to be true, it’s a hard one to swallow when you’re #35.

“5”  Steve Nash, 45: “This is an intensely psychological game. Whether you win or lose will depend on your ability to accurately sum up a situation. Watch and predict before you make your move.” Aquarius

Isn’t it though?  Accurately summing up the situation seems increasingly polarizing, doesn’t it?  I had high hopes for the some of the elements from “Passing Storm” or “Good Company” would evolve to mobilize the country around shortening the length of our confinement and placing us on a more positive path to recovery.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 4073 to 4231.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey. 

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

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S4 E27 — Who Cares If It’s The Right Thing To Do Anymore?

They promoted the Pence Card as a contingency similar to the 1960 presidential election, in which two slates of electors were prepared pending results of a late recount of ballots in Hawaii

“5”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “To believe in your ability to sense what the right thing to do is and trust yourself to act accordingly promotes confidence in who you are now. For even more confidence, extend the same courtesy backward to Past You. No regrets.” Leo

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s 27th Episode in Season 4 of  “Our Disruptively Resilient Year” on this 16th day of April in the spring of 2022.

We concluded the three-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed — during the “normal” pre-pandemic year compared to the pandemic year, and more recently to the paradoxically normal year. 

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season Four continues now within domestic and global chaos.

Previously in Season Four, The Disruptively Resilient Year

S4 E26 — What Happens If No One Asks a Question?; S4 E25 — Accountability?; S4 E24 — Another Spooky Role to Play on the Outside

Related from Season Three, the Paradoxically Normal Year

S3 E27 — What the World Needs Now Before It’s Too Late; S3 E26 — Following Alice Down the Rabbit Hole; S3 E25 — Art Lives Upon Discussion, Upon Experiment, Upon Curiosity …; S3 E24—Reunion on the Edge of the Pacific Ocean near Legoland? Hell Yeah! 

Related from Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E27 — Why I Have to Keep Leo da V on a Leash and So Should You; S2 E26 — Rethinking the N-Word ; S2 E25— Are You an Innie or Outie Thinker?; S2 E24— Working Remote from KnowWhere Atoll;

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E27 — Day 27 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E26 — Day 26  of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E25 — Day 25 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E24 — Day 24 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

If you haven’t been following along, the previous 6 episodes illustrate political turmoil in this Disruptively Resilient Year which add to our summary in S4 E18. 

Our last episode follows Trump’s announcement for the 2020 nomination after his election denying followers in the 6 battleground states lost when the red wave failed to materialize. Today we pick the continuing story with the “Pence Card”.

What started as the “Pence Card” floated as a legal theory by Ivan Raiklin in a two page proposal, then championed by National Security Adviser Michael Flynn tweeted to the former President.

Raiklin asserted then-Vice President Mike Pence had unilateral authority to reject electoral votes from states deemed to be fraudulent.

So Boris Epshteyn worked with Rudy Giuliani in December 2020 to persuade Republican officials in seven states to prepare certificates of ascertainment for slates of Trump “alternate electors” to be presented to Pence for certification. — Wikipedia

They promoted the Pence Card as a contingency similar to the 1960 presidential election, in which two slates of electors were prepared pending results of a late recount of ballots in Hawaii, according to Wikipedia sources. 

Both parties agreed to that recount, which ultimately resulted in John F. Kennedy winning the state, though the outcome of the election did not hinge on the Hawaii results. By contrast, in the case of the 2020 election, the stated need for slates of alternate electors in multiple states was predicated on persistent false claims of nationwide election fraud.  — Wikipedia

The Epshteyn Show

Epshteyn asserted the slates of alternate electors were not fraudulent and “it is not against the law, it is according to the law.”

In on the ruse, dozens of Republican legislators from Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin wrote Pence on January 5. 

All Pence had to do like the loyal former Vice President he had done many times in the past was to delay the January 6 certification for ten days.

When he did, those 5 key states would have time to replace the elector slates. 

Pence did not act on the request and that day also rejected a proposal made by Eastman:

That a vice president could simply choose to reject the electoral college results; a vice president’s role in certifying the results is constitutionally ministerial. — Wikipedia

Command Center

The Washington Post reported on October 23, 2021 that the Willard Hotel, was a “command center” for a White House plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Epshteyn told The Washington Post in October 2021 

That he continued to believe Pence “had the constitutional power to send the issue back to the states for 10 days to investigate the widespread fraud and report back well in advance of Inauguration Day, January 20th.”

Epshteyn was subpoenaed in January 2022 to testify before the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, according to Wikipedia

Pence didn’t fall for the “Pence Card”  

But it was in that context, that during the January 5 meeting at the Willard Hotel, Eastmen laid out the details in his January 4 memo describing his theory that Vice President Mike Pence could refuse to certify certain state elector slates the following day, and hand Trump a second term instead.

Actually, there were two memos.  The infamous six-step plan and a second, a more extensive plan, with multiple scenarios for Pence to take to overturn Biden’s election according to Wikipedia:

    • The first memo described the constitutional and statutory process for opening and counting of electoral votes under the 12th Amendment and Electoral Count Act, alleging that the Electoral Count Act was unconstitutional. 
    • The memo further claimed that the Vice President, who also serves as President of the Senate and presides over the joint session of Congress, “does the counting, including the resolution of disputed electoral votes… and all the Members of Congress can do is watch.” 
    • The memo refers to the actions of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson during the presidential elections of 1796 and 1800 as evidence for this claim; some supporters of President Trump, such as Congressman Louie Gohmert, had falsely claimed that Jefferson’s counting of Georgia’s electoral votes in 1800 indicated that the Vice President could unilaterally accept or reject electoral votes.
    • The memo then laid out a six-step plan for Pence to overturn Biden’s election

Behind Memo Number Two

The second memo laid out a more extensive plan with multiple scenarios for Pence to take to overturn Biden’s election: 

    • The first section outlined fictional illegal conduct by election officials in six states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin). 
    • The second section again alleged that the Electoral Count Act was unconstitutional, and that Pence had the power to unilaterally accept or reject electoral votes. 
    • The third section referred to “7 states” and outlined various alternatives for Pence to take to overturn Biden’s election.
    • Slates of electors declaring Trump the winner actually were submitted from the seven states, but the National Archives did not accept the unsanctioned documents and they did not explicitly enter the deliberations.
  • If all went according to Eastman’s plan, Pence would have declared Trump the winner.  He would have won more Electoral College votes after the seven states were thrown out, 232 votes to 222.

Evidence

“3” Steve Zahn, 51: “We want what seems somewhat, but not entirely inaccessible. Complete inaccessibility inspires derision. Desire will be ignited where beauty meets the unfinished or unpolished. Rawness makes a thing accessible.” Scorpio

Can I be honest?  I just don’t know how to interpret this observation.  But, somehow I like it.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

Today’s Holiday Birthday: 

You’ll experience many environments and get the best of every world. Chaotic challenges shape you; calm, supportive places allow for intensive, focused work. You are brilliant without trying to be or do anything other than what comes naturally. Someone will travel far to see you — the ultimate compliment.

Really?  Can’t wait!

“4”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “Life is bustling and you’ll do what you can. As for the rest, instead of saying “I don’t have time,” try more empowering language like, “this is not my priority right now” and feel like an absolute boss.”Aries

This is not my priority right now.  

“4”  Steve Howey, 42: “You’ve a talent for understanding just how much you can and should take on. It’s natural to want to distance yourself from a harsh reality or distract yourself from pain.” Cancer

Haha.  A life lesson I learned the hard way.  I never could estimate just how much time it would take to achieve a goal for a client in my consulting practice.  So crafting winning proposals was hardly my strength.  Then, you’re stuck with a contract that pulls more time and energy out of you than is necessary.  

“5”  Steve Carell, 57; Steve Martin, 74; Steve Wozniak, 69: “To believe in your ability to sense what the right thing to do is and trust yourself to act accordingly promotes confidence in who you are now. For even more confidence, extend the same courtesy backward to Past You. No regrets.” Leo

Wow, this like a novel took an unexpected twist at the end.  I felt I’d apply it to how Emma the Baroness and I roll our eyes at what isn’t right, but has been going on for Three Seasons now on the national scene.  But instead it’s a reminder to identify those hard won lessons from the past and not make it so hard on myself.  Here’s to the next manuscript!

“3”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “As you make more of a distinction between what you have to do and what you choose to do, you understand that the list of ‘have-to’s’ is actually quite small. You’ll examine your reasons for continuing with certain responsibilities.” Virgo

Somehow I feel cheated.  Here you started out with a great premise, and then it dissipated.  Really?  I hoped for more insight.

“5”  Steve Harvey, 62; Stephan Patis, 53;  Stephen Hawking (1943 – 2018): “Even though a job is nearly complete, the refinements take almost as much time as the job itself did. Tending to details is hard work, but also very worth the effort.” Capricorn

See, this is what I had hoped for on a day like today.

Holiday Theme for The Day: 

Albert Camus said it’s necessary to fall in love, “if only to provide an alibi for all the random despair you are going to feel anyway.” Can you think of times when you felt a certain way first and looked for reasons later? … The opposite directive — claim hope and watch it blossom in your life.

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll

    • @KnowLabs suite of 36 digital magazines, according to my analytics, grew from 12559 this week to 12654 organically grown followers.
    • Orange County Beach Towns 216 viewers stopped by the week before.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • “Here, Right Matters: An American Story” by Alexander Vindman. “We’d long been confused by the president’s policy of accommodation and appeasement of Russia, the United States’ most pressing major adversary. Russia’s president Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, seizing the Crimean Peninsula, attacking its industrial heartland, the Donbass, from the capital, Kyiv. By 2019, little had changed, Russian military and security forces and their proxy separatists continued to occupy the Donbass. The biggest change was to Ukraine’s importance as a bulwark against Russian aggression weeks earlier, the White House had abruptly put a hold on nearly four hundred million dollars.” 
    • David Enrich begins his book with a suicide in “Deutsche Bank Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump, and an Epic Trail of Destruction” and then meticulously details the bank’s Russian money laundering operations. Deutsche’s Russian business surged after revenues had fallen 50% due to the 2008 financial crisis. Putin’s Russia, poured in to Deutsche from deals it did with VTB Bank, linked to the Kremlin’s intelligence apparatus. Deutsche positioned itself as a crucial cog in “The Laundromat” by doing what couldn’t be done — processing cross-border transactions for banks that were too small  and didn’t have offices outside their home countries.
    • “Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy” by Jamie Raskin recalls one tragedy no parent should endure — the suicide of his son — and then a second tragedy at almost the same time — the insurrection on January 6th 2021, that terrified he and his congressional peers who were tasked by the Constitution to routinely oversee the orderly transfer of power from one former president to the duly elected new President. 
    • “A Warning” by Anonymous (Miles Taylor) written prior to the January 6th Insurrection as an insider’s account documenting how frequently the former President’s behavior and rage without any “guard rails” showed just how far he would go to win the next election at any cost while spinning lies and misinformation on top of each other.  
    • “Peril” by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa provides anecdotes, stories and inside reporting documenting the controversial last days of Donald Trump’s presidency, as well as the presidential transition and early presidency of Joe Biden. 
    • “Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising,” by Joshua Green tracks the money behind the scenes leading up to the 2016 presidential election and the growing influence of Steve Bannon’s network of extreme nationalists.

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

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S2 E59 — See What You’ve Been Missing

“You know the sensation you get when you look back on old photos? Be happy now. Cast worry aside. Trust time. It will handle so much for you.”

“5”  Steve Aoki, 41: “Eventually, you’ll be able to handle more and move faster. But this is still the early stages. You’re still learning, and you won’t regret taking the time to learn it right.” Sagittarius

Hi and welcome to Saturday’s Episode 59 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Natural Experiment” on this 6th day of June in the summer of 2020.  

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One and Two are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E58 — Check Back in 18 Months; S2 E57 — Science and Medicine or Politically-Motivated Misinformation?; S2 E56 — What Iffing 

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E59 — Where Did All the Dillon Millennials Go? Eureka!; S1 E58 — Judging a Stroll from the Hotel Santa Barbara to the Lobero Theater; S1 E57 — More or Less in the Know; S1 E56 — It’s Frickin’ Summer and So Are You

Context

When will we be able to travel?  When will we be safe?  Enjoy this week’s episode:

Feeling Frustrated and Exhausted? 39 New Photo-ready Memories for Summer

Aren’t we all yearning for those special summer moments? Beach vacations. Back country adventures. Family road trips. Fishing and floating trips.

Practice the art of anticipation.  Sometimes looking forward to fun and sun is almost as good as the experience itself.

Remember, while we’re getting closer to re-openings we here on the Atoll don’t expect or encourage you to go check them out immediately.

The Tau: Week Ending 6/6/20

Tags: Beaches, Canyons, Climbing, Deserts, Festivals, Forests, Hiking, Islands, Lakes, Mountains, Parks, Regions, Resorts, Rivers, Road Trips, Seas, Trails

Instead we hope our articles inspire your bucket list ideas for future memories!

But, today there’s no reason not to join our growing group of 3783 followers …. 

See what you’ve been missing.

Check out this week’s headlines pulled from our daily “Top 30 Digest” delivered, “Fresh from the Labs. Literally bottled and set adrift from KnowWhere Atoll.“

Where … ?

Mountains, Rivers and Lakes

          • ”The Natural Swimming Hole At Emerald Pools In Northern California Will Take You Back To The Good Ole Days”
          • ”The Best Kayaks for Fishing and Floating”
          • “Back To The Great Outdoors: Climbing Tahoe’s Via Ferrata”
          • ”The Best Things To Do In Mammoth Lakes During The Summer”
          • ”Is South Lake Tahoe open for visitors? The city won’t fine you, but the state might“
          • ”What A-Basin Looked Like on Day One of Its Reopening”

Pristine Treks

          • ”These Bay Area parks and beaches just reopened their parking lots””
          • Parking lots at 144 California state parks reopen”
          • ”Backcountry Must-Do: Liberty Cap”
          • ”Quintessential Nearby Adventures”
          • ”The Redwood Canopy Trail At Trees Of Mystery Is Northern California’s Newest Aerial Adventure”
          • ”Bald eagles return to nest in Orange County neighborhood”
          • ”With fire season ahead, Eldorado National Forest enacts campfire restrictions”
          • ”The Grand Canyon will reopen this summer. Here’s how it will go”

Deserts, Slopes and Ranges

          • “Echo at Rancho Mirage by Studio AR&D”
          • ”Sanitas Brewing Co. Reopens This Weekend After Shutting Down Roving Beer Truck”
          • ”George R.R. Martin Joins Investor Group To Buy & Restore Sante Fe Southern Railroad”
          • ”Terrific Time Capsule! Designer Arthur Elrod’s ’60s Vision Still Pristine in Palm Springs”
          • ”Where To Find Colorado Restaurants Open for Dine-In Service” 

PCH Regions

          • ”Weigh In on Santa Barbara’s Wildfire Protection Plan”
          • ”Magical Field of Light in Paso Robles”
          • ”Rams employees help with cleanup effort in Santa Monica”
          • ”Image of Santa Cruz police chief, mayor kneeling packs a punch”
          • ”‘It is heartening’ Long Beach overwhelmed by volunteers helping clean up after looting”
          • ”The Best Beaches in Southern California”
          • ”Ventura County to extend stay-at-home order while continuing to ease restrictions”
          • ”Coronavirus concerns: Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival canceled for 2020”
          • ”Face Masks Are a Simple Gesture of Shared Respect”
          • ”How To Spend A Perfect Weekend In Quaint Ojai, California”
          • ”America, unmasked: The public health nightmare I witnessed on Santa Monica beaches this week”

Islands and Currents

          • ”Sea, sand and social distancing: Caribbean reopens to tourism”
          • ”Dogged pragmatism’ needed to save Ocean: UN Special Envoy”
          • ”With Tourism Halted, Hawaii’s Housing Market Takes a Big Hit. Can It Bounce Back?”
          • ”The Art Of Anticipation: Hawai’i Is Still Here For All Of Us”
          • ”Hawaii is effectively closed to visitors, but here’s how to support it from afar”
          • ”10 Reasons Why Hawaii Offers A Safer Vacation In A Coronavirus World”
          • ”Between two storms: Caribbean braces for hurricanes in coronavirus era”
          • ”The Perfect Weekend Getaway: Catalina Island From Los Angeles”
          • ”Caribbean flights: When can you fly to Caribbean? Rules for Jamaica, Barbados and more”

The Tau 12 Months Ago 

“If you don’t take the opportunities that come, you’ll regret it.  If you do take them, and they wind up being foolish, that’s still better than having no story to tell.”

Holiday Mathis, Creators Syndicate Inc.

Evidence

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“4” Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “The urge to complain is a natural reaction to frustrating circumstances, though the mature response is to move past words and into solutions and action.” Aries

Let’s hope these quality-of-life destinations inspire you to plan, rather than add one more thing to how frustrating and angry you may feel during this extraordinary disruptive time.  Is the end in sight?

“3”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “Mistakes are not only opportunities for growth and mastery; they are the best relationship glue there is. Nothing will go wrong without producing an obvious upside.” Virgo

Not feeling this one today, although who can argue with the sentiment if you are a glass half full person?

“4”  Steve Kerr, 54: “The requirements of the day are pretty awesome. You don’t have to solve problems or answer questions. You don’t even have to ‘just be you.’ All you have to do is relax.” Libra

Sure, it’s exactly what summers and Saturdays are for.  

“5”  Steve Aoki, 41: “Eventually, you’ll be able to handle more and move faster. But this is still the early stages. You’re still learning, and you won’t regret taking the time to learn it right.” Sagittarius

It’s all about the burden of the unexpected when normal expectations just aren’t met.

“4”  Steve Harvey, 62: “You’ll bring together the best of all worlds — a spiritual person with a practical point of view. Your open mind will lead you to test theories and run with what works.” Capricorn 

Who can fill those shoes?  I’d be flattered if someone thought it would be me.  But, overall if there is an underlying theme to Season Two and a reason for me to continue my natural experiment into a second year, it would be exactly that combination — wisdom and practicality.  Or what Benjamin Franklin supposedly pursued — practical knowledge.

“3”  Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “To accept differences and tolerate others is only level one. The next level is a celebration of diversity. A world where we honor not only our own traditions but everyone’s could be heaven on earth.” Pisces

Who politicizes mask wearing as preventative medicine during a pandemic.  Which of the four scenarios we are tracking will describe our path forward?

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines organically grew from 3188 to 3634.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life 

Long-Form

    • Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey. 

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

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Season One: The One-Year Natural Experiment

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

Table of Contents

Season One: The One-Year Natural Experiment

S1 E1 – Day One of My 1-Year Experiment

S1 E2 — Day 2 of My 1-Year Experiment

S1 E3 — Day 3 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E4 — Day 4 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E5 — Day 5 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E6 — Day 6 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E7 — Day 7 of My 1-Year Experiment

S1 E8 — Day 8 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E9 — Day 9 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E10 — Day 10 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E11 — Day 11 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E12 — Day 12 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E13 — Day 13 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E14 — Day 14 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E15 — Day 15 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E16 — Day 16 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E17 — Day 17 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E18 — Day 18 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E19 — Day 19 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E20 — Day 20 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E21 — Day 21 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E22 — Day 22 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E23 — Day 23 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E23 — Day 23 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E24 — Day 24 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E25— Day 25 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E26 — Day 26  of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E27 — Day 27 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E28 — Day 28 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E29 — Day 29 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E30 — Day 30 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E31 — Day 31 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E32 — Day 32 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E33 — Day 33 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E34 — Day 34 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E35 — Day 35 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E36 — Day 36 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E37 — Day 37 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E38 — Day 38 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E39 — What’s Up with Facebook? 

S1 E40 — Nothing to See Here, Keep Moving On 

S1 E41 — The Dream Was Over, Long Live the Dream 

S1 E42 — Love on the Run 

S1 E43 — Desperation on Such a Summer’s Day 

S1 E44 — Google Me Some Chopped Liver 

S1 E45 — Day 45 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E46 — Day 46 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E47 — Day 47 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E48 — Holiday TauBit Trumps Funk 

S1 E49 — Magnetize the Version You Imagine 

S1 E50 – The Bias Brothers or Just Plain Losers? 

S1 E51 – Brief, Broad, Fast, Wow and Delight 

S1 E52 – Missing Chapters and Paths Not Taken 

S1 E53 – High 5’s for Tau Secrets Revealed 

S1 E54 – A Version That’s a TauBit Grander 

S1 E55 – All Roads Lead to the Future 

S1 E56 – It’s Frickin’ Summer and So Are You 

12 Hidden Secrets and Stolen Wisdom – Month Two 

S1 E57 — More or Less in the Know 

S1 E58 — Judging a Stroll from the Hotel Santa Barbara to the Lobero Theater 

S1 E59 — Where Did All the Dillon Millennials Go? Eureka! 

S1 E60 — Overlapping Cycles of Life 

S1 E61 — Investment of Time and Effort 

S1 E62 – Next Reality? 

S1 E63 — Day 63 of My 1-Year Experiment 

S1 E64 — Father and Son Rituals out of Storage 

S1 E65 — Focus Your Mental Energy 

S1 E66 — Do Your Proposals Lead to Contracts? 

S1 E67 — Don’t Misunderstand Me 

S1 E68 — Overcompensating for Disappointing Results? 

S1 E69 — Anniversary Trip of a Lifetime Deep in the Heart of Tuscany 

S1 E70 — Lingering Fear My Cover Was Blown 

S1 E71 — Isn’t There a Placebo for This? 

S1 E72 — It’s Taken so Long, I Could be Wrong 

S1 E73 — Do You Need a Little Leo da V Time Too? 

S1 E74 — You Know What To Do, Yeah Right! 

S1 E75 — Dreams and Schemes and Workarounds 

S1 E76 — “The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

S1 E77 — Why This Caper Is Breaking My Mind 

S1 E78 — Drag Me to Obsolescence, Clear the Way to the Future 

S1 E79 — Can I Keep It Up? For a Year? 

S1 E80 — I’ll Give You Adverse Conditions, Steve 

S1 E81— Is This My Wake Up Call, Steve? 

S1 E82 — Why Writers Aren’t the Only Endangered Species. Sigh. 

S1 E83 —The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book 

S1 E90 — Day 90 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment 

S1 E84 — Crisis averted?  Energy depleted?  What are we going to do? 

S1 E85 — What happens when the fear subsides? 

S1 E86 — Day 86 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment 

S1 E87 — Pipe Bombs Destroy Vacation Bliss 

S1 E88 — Who’s Marc Maron and What’s da Vinci got to do with him? 

S1 E89 — Because If You Don’t Someone Else Will. It’s Worth It! 

S1 E90 — Day 90 of My 1-Year Natural Experiment 

S1 E91 — If that, then this … ? The daily double?

S1 E92 — Shh … Secrets Husbands Keep to Ourselves 

S1 E93 — Why is it easier to Hate than to Love the other Half? 

S1 E94 — Wasn’t There a Movie about the Tau of Steve? 

S1 E95 — No Back to Work Days or Hump Days Allowed 

S1 E96 — Old Rabbits Die Hard 

S1 E97 — My Top 19 Reasons for Failing 

S1 E98 — Why Can’t I Leave 26 Orphans for a Well Deserved Vacation? 

S1 E99 — What’s in a Name? Baby Boy Names? 

S1 E100 — Running out of Determination and Grit by the 100th Day 

S1 E101 — From Saint to Soul Mate and Trusted Friend 

S1 E102 — Why Is It Always Hidden in the Fine Print? 

S1 E103 — Innies and Outies and Other Potential Catastrophes 

S1 E104 — How Yesterday’s Success Triggers Tomorrow’s Failure 

S1 E105 — Will Fortune Smile on Us Later in the Evening? 

S1 E106 — Attempts to Upset 9 of My Life Stages Apple Cart 

S1 E107 — How Do You Rate Your Sense of Curiosity? 

S1 E108 — After So Many Defeats is it Time to Catch a New Trajectory? 

S1 E109 — Do All Introverts Take the Long Acetylcholine Pathway? 

S1 E110 — Love, Longing, Belonging, Connection and Loss 

S1 E111 — Is There Half-life of Wisdom? 

S1 E112 —  When Was the Last Time You Wrangled Your Past? 

S1 E113 — Is This an Omen? 

S1 E114 — Setbacks, Frustration, Epic Fails but How Was Your Day? 

S1 E115 — Meandering Minds, Falling Branches and Strange Pacing Until … 

S1 E116 — The Jolt of Lightning that Changed Everything 

S1 E117 — Poets and Priests and Testifying Under Oath … 

S1 E118 — Swiping Your Birthday Is What I Do, So Sue Me 

S1 E119 — What Happens When You Hold an Idea? 

S1 E120 — Metamorphosis, Exhilaration and a Life of Crime 

S1 E121 — When Should You Work Backwards and When Should You Shop? 

S1 E122 — Is the Next Best Thing a Friend with a Bad Memory? 

S1 E123 — Knowing it Wasn’t a Good Choice, But … 

S1 E124 — No Longer a Misunderstood Genius or Child Celebrity 

S1 E125 — No Names Again this Year but Pass the Gravy 

S1 E126 — Who Wouldn’t Want to Choose Steve, Stephen or Stevie for Your Newborn Infant? 

S1 E127 — Why Does My Horoscope Suck Compared to Yours? 

S1 E128 — Messy, Creative Leonardo-like Procrastinations 

S1 E129 — An Elephant, A 500 lb. Gorilla and a Chicken Walk into the …  

S1 E130 — How Do You Go On When Sheer Panic Sets In? 

S1 E131 — Brain Rattling, Self-Criticism and Second Guessing 

S1 E132 — Freudian Pink Slips for Endangered Writers and Bloggers 

S1 E133 — Why Don’t More Creators Write or Blog? 

S1 E134 — What Will This Force Me to Become? No Black Cats Allowed 

S1 E135 — The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book 

S1 E136 — Just How Do Zip Codes Prevent Homebuyer Remorse? 

S1 E137 — Shouldn’t I Bet It All on the Four 5s I’ve Been Dealt? 

S1 E138 — The Inscrutable Paradox of Tom Petty and Joan Irvine’s Estates 

S1 E139  — Crap, OTE, Just Crap 

S1 E140 — Chasing Squirrels While Barking At Nothing 

S1 E141 — Be Your Inner Artist and Let Her Fly 

S1 E 142 — Wisdom Arrives by Putting Knowledge into Action 

S1 E143 — The Grand Prize Winner 

S1 E144 — Down to Final Two Days Left 

S1 E145 — Three Miles of Coincidental Dancing 

S1 E146 — 3 am Dreams Lend No Support 

S1 E147 — Whistleblowing, Melancholy and Curbing Fallen Needles 

S1 E148 — Unforced Errors, Disruptions and Discord 

S1 E149 — Tales and Trails and Mind Blowing Dents 

S1 E150 — Two Tiers Shed for a Dying 4Runner Classic 

S1 E151 — Stepping onto the Pitch with a Lean MVP 

S1 E152 — Why? Again. Why? 

S1 E153 — Only The Names Have Been Changed. And Some of It’s True. 

S1 E154 — Ever Gotten That 3 am Call from Gilligan? 

S1 E155 — Distraction or Viewing Addiction? 

S1 E156 — Hope? Placeholder? Sign? 

S1 E157 — Schemes, Plots and Plans 

S1 E158 — Car-Crash Addiction or Integrated Self? 

S1 E159 — 5 Wise Guy Rankings, Why? 

S1 E160 — Mourning Kobe 

S1 E161— Secret Combinations only Life Hacking Marketeers Know 

S1 E162 — Why Do Her Covert Back Channels End in Discord? 

S1 E163 — A Balboa Island Thank You 

S1 E164 — Picking up Followers While Cascading Down the Face of the Falls 

S1 E165 — 11 Simple Steps for Finding the Authentic Quality-of-Life You Deserve 

S1 E166 — Falling Down the Time Sucking Rabbit Hole 

S1 E167 — Why is Tau the Golden Ratio Showing Up in Nautilus Shells?

 S1 E168 — A Mammoth Thank You to Kobe and Steve Jobs 

S1 E169 — Lockouts and Taxing 1-Year Season Coming to an End 

S1 E170 — Isn’t This Good-Bye?! 

S1 E171 — When’s the Best Time to Air Dirty Laundry? 

S1 E172 — Got it, Nash.  Rules, Heart, Mouth, Action. 

S1 E173 — AI, EVs, MRIs, Me and Steves 

S1 E174 — Isn’t the Lesser of Two Evils Still Evil? 

S1 E175 — Where’s the Finish Line? Is This Ever Going to End? 

S1 E176 — The Cliff Hanging Season One Finale

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S2 E48 — Tracking Millennials from One Resort to Another

We’ve seen this pattern before.  We discovered it and tracked a migration of 20-something lifestyles (Gen-Y, Millennials) who disappeared from one resort town and reappeared in another resort town as the effects of the Great Recession slowly diminished.  

“The Tau of Steves: What You Don’t Know Could Fill a Book”

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “A walk can be a creative and mystical experience. You’ll see sights that affirm your physical course along the way and your general trajectory on the path of life.” Aries

Hi and welcome to Sunday’s Episode 48 in Season 2 of  “My Pandemic Year Experiment” on this 17th day of May in the spring of 2020.  

Season 1 and 2 are a two-year examination of how bits of wisdom changed during the “normal” pre-pandemic and then in this unfolding pandemic year.

Previously in Season Two, the Pandemic Year

S2 E47 — 27 Adventure Regions for Your Remote-Working Bucket List; S2 E46 — Whimsy Passion Project or Epic Novel of Adventure?; S2 E45 — Wildcard What Ifs and Doobie Bros Bias

Related from Season One, the Normal Year

S1 E48 — Holiday TauBit Trumps Funk; S1 E47 — Day 47 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E46 — Day 46 of My 1-Year Experiment; S1 E45 — Day 45 of My 1-Year Experiment

Context

Santa Cruz’s unemployment surges as workers counting on jobs materializing or reopening on the historic boardwalk get the bad news.  

The same occurs across the West in towns blessed and yet dominated by resort attractions — summer and winter adventures in mountains, on rivers and lakes.  

The tourist seasons deliver severe blows to the younger quality-of-lifers in their early and mid-20s.  

We discovered it and tracked a migration of 20-something lifestyles (Gen-Y, Millennials) disappeared from one resort town and reappeared in another resort town as the effects of the Great Recession slowly diminished.  

But, this time around there might be hope for Millennial remote-workers. 

Those with jobs in the distributed working knowledge industries — who, unlike their younger brothers and sisters just graduating from college and high school yearn for adventures.

Where?  Anywhere away from the suburbs and urban centers — just to get away, but who become dependent on the tourist trade.  

Working remotely gives you a steady income while those less fortunate around you in pristine resort towns fall victim to the ripple effects and can’t make it on subsistence wages.  

Have you noticed all those Zoomed entertainers with rustic wood backgrounds wishing everyone else safety and health like they enjoy all hunkered down in Montana? 

In a vicious cycle, the invasion of celebrities triggering the increase in second-home property values spike homeowner property taxes.

The effects ripple from there. 

The locals are forced with gut-wrenching decisions like the three long-time locals in Whitefish, Montana we profiled.

Their dilemma led to our discovery of lifestyle profile shifts in neighborhood communities and that led to figuring out how to use birds-of-a-feather bucket lists to find a new town and community waiting for them with open arms.

Evidence

“3”  Steve Zahn, 51: “No matter how high you rise in position, you retain the no-nonsense outlook you started with. You are skeptical of values based on anything other than human worth.” Scorpio

Well, yes if there is a pattern I follow it, definitely  honoring the development and worth of those I advise or instruct.

Random ones that make me want change my sign.

“5”  Steve McQueen (1930 – 1980): “A walk can be a creative and mystical experience. You’ll see sights that affirm your physical course along the way and your general trajectory on the path of life.” Aries

I’m a firm believer in body and mind fitness for mental health. Plus an opening poem in the first chapter of my first book begins with a “hole” in a sidewalk and progresses to choosing a new path to follow in your life.

“4” Steve Kerr, 54: “There is success in your current course of action, although you will need to remind yourself of this and also incentivize and motivate yourself to continue in kind. Consistency motivates success.” Libra

I’m sure this is true for other days, but I don’t feel the need today.

“3”  Steve Aoki, 41: “You’ll solve problems all day long — problems of different scope and complexity, some easy, others expensive, some that seem pervasive, others you feel privileged to have.”  Sagittarius

Sorry, this bit of wisdom sounds just too generic for me today.

“5” Steve Jobs, (1955 – 2011): “You will stick to your values even when you don’t want to, it’s hard or the rewards don’t come. Your reason? It’s the adult thing to do. The depth of character it takes to stick to values is a reward in and of itself.” Pisces

To be honest, I just don’t see any other way.  Yes it is the adult thing to do, but what else is there?

“5”  Steve Greene, 34; Steve Guttenberg, 61; Stephen King, 72: “Beware of quick fixes, as today they are likely to fall down in both quickness and fixing. Small changes made consistently over a long period of time will give you the best results.” Virgo

I agree, but why do we fall for the temptation to cut corners only to fall victim to things that seem too good to be true and are?

What’s Going On …

Literally Bottled and Set Adrift from KnowWhere Atoll 

    • @knowlabs followers of one or more of my 35 digital magazines grew from 2663 to 2839.

Foresight

Quality-of-Life

Long-Form

    • Saw the movie, didn’t realize that one of my favorite authors, Michael Connelly — his detective Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch book series and Amazon Prime series — also wrote, “The Lincoln Lawyer” which I just finished. Gotta tell you I can’t not see his lead character (Mickey Haller, Bosch’s half brother) as anyone else but Matthew McConaughey. 

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Inspired by: Holiday Mathis – Creators Syndicate

CENTER FOR KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND INNOVATION

The Knowledge Path | Know Laboratories | Knowledge Banking | Knowledge ATMs | Western Skies and Island Currents | Best West Road Trip

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