Thoughts of a Canary

The Bitcoin Bubble And Blockchain Bonanza A Word About Bubbles. What is Blockchain and Should I Care? Picks and Shovels. (Accessed via Yahoo! Finance, 12/12/2017) Heard of Bitcoin lately? Stories of multi-millionaires who bought at $.30/bitcoin are a dime a dozen right now, as FOMO whips the market into a frothy frenzy. Should you get in? I work in the payments industry, facilitating exchange from one currency into another for individuals who need euros/pounds/yen, etc. for the currency or currencies they have in their bank accounts. Day in and day out I watch fluctuation of these currencies in relation to each other, and night after night I do my research around security opportunities for investments. This blend of both worlds gives me a nice platform of knowledge to soapbox a bit about cryptocurrencies (crypto from here on out for brevity). Take that as you will. This article has two simple goals: I want to first establish something...

Hump Day 2016 Tomorrow is Hump Day (Hillary/Trump, see?), as a day we've long been dreading as a society. In classic fashion, it falls before Wednesday, giving us two straight days in the middle of the week we wish didn't exist. This election stands apart in recent memory, as it is one in which both candidates are among the most disliked politicians ever to receive major party nominations. It is a battle of which one do you hate more, not which one do you want to lead your country. I was multitasking after work today: having a bit of a run while trying not to die. My oxygen-starved brain somehow stumbled upon a small revelation in the midst of doing these things: " Power is the ability to effect change. " The power of dictators lies in the control of their subjugated masses, wealth gives the power to travel, purchase objects or favors, etc., an athlete's power lies in his/her ability to make the difference in a contest. Knowing I couldn't be alone in...

"Keep Austin Weird." That's the mantra of this city. I can't help but think of how that applies to the country as a whole.  We live in weird times, to say the least. Our current president is using a real issue  in the black lives matter/police brutality struggle to further an anti gun platform that contradicts the manifestation of the founding principles of this country.  Meanwhile our president nominees on both sides of the aisle offer a caricature of what a president could be both to us domestically and to the world at large. We're stuck as a country between the rock of a presumptive felon and a hard place of a bigoted narcissist.  What are we to do? Do we cast our lot with the one who offers a better diplomatic façade (also, hello Benghazi) or do we trust in a candidate who feeds on American unrest with a show of devil-may-care impetuousness. Either way poses a moral issue, no matter what you try to convince yourself with the lesser of two evils approach.  I ...

"You'll understand when you're older" We've all heard the phrase from our parents growing up. It is usually accompanied by a teenage eye roll and a spoken or unspoken (depending on the recipient) eye roll. For my own self, at least, these words came to ring true once I had the wisdom and maturity to accept them, begrudgingly or not, months or years after they were said. After many Lents and just as many Easters, these words are ringing again in my ears. I wasn't quite sure why they popped into my head, only that their arrival was strangely coincidental with the start of the Easter season, that most joyous of time periods that follows the most grave of liturgical seasons. Between mimosas and general congeniality, I was struck with the contrast between Lent, in which mortification and self-denial is preached and promulgated, and Easter, the greatest liturgical season, marked by joy and (most often) indulgence. After forty days of discipline,...

This blog has been petering off of late. That's such a weird phrase. A long time ago I guess there was some guy named Peter who had serious issues following through with things.  So it's been a busy few months. I've had a lot of thoughts to write down, but little desire to make the time to do so  I suppose that might be because every time I decided to write on a topic I had been thonking about a new one took hold all the more strongly. To reflect that I thought that it might be a good idea to tweak my TOC format a bit.  This blog is titled thoughts of a canary; what greater aptitude could there be than to give a bulleted list of my thoughts once a week! So please text/phone/email/carrier pigeon me your thoughts on the format tweak. You can tell me that A) You like it B) You love it or C) You only read this because I constantly pressure you to do so.  So without further ado, here's your 4/27/15 TOC: •Sexism is discrimination because of the sex of the person. The liber...

I had a good Lent. I think I benefitted from this Lent in a few different ways. Why, then, did Easter feel almost like a letdown??? I was at P3 last week (Prayer, Penance, Pub) and the priest giving the talk to all of us young people said something that I could really relate to. He said "It's easier to be holy during Lent." That's it. Pretty simple.  I look forward to Lent every year; it's actually my favorite ecclesiastical season (the hipster in me). The reason I enjoy it so much is that subconsciously I recognize that it brings us back to our roots as human beings.  Something I've mentioned in a couple of posts in the past is how radically the speed of our gratification has increased with the technology boom of the 2000s. Want to watch a show with your friends? You can watch the whole season in a day. Would you like to ask someone a question? Hit a couple buttons and it's sent.  What this power has done in the members of our culture is, in a word, coddl...

Happy Ash Wednesday to everyone! The advent of the Hipster Uprising has brought many unpopular things to the forefront of the trendy parade for the sake of simple irony. It's really quite amusing and for those in less urban areas completely unintelligible. Unfortunately this ironic effect is spilling over into the ancient and aesthetic Christian observance of Lent.  The purpose of Lent to the Chrisitan faithful is simply to unite with the sufferings of Jesus through sacrifice, and gain virtue through habitual practice of this sacrifice. I'll come right out and say we ourselves have lost the forest by focusing on the trees in this ecclesiastical season.  As a disclaimer this post is not directed at any individual or group of individuals, except for the group of Christians as a whole. It's a trend I've seen in myself and others, and it's gotten to a point where it's absurdity needs to be proclaimed.  We have all become a people of excuses.  In the time period wher...