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Month: August 2025

No Country for Old Shepherds

No Country for Old Shepherds

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Ed Tom: You got a dog in this hunt?
Sheriff Bell: Not really. A couple of kids from my county that might be sort of involved that ought not to be.
Ed Tom: Sort of involved
Sheriff Bell: Yeah
Ed Tom: Are we talkin kin?
Sheriff Bell: No. Just people from my county. People I’m supposed to be lookin after.

I was recently listening to the audiobook No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy and this line hit me.

In this part of the story, Sheriff Bell is following the trail of bodies left behind by killers on the search for Llewelyn Moss who is a blue collar local that stumbled across the aftermath of a drug deal gone awry. He ended up with a satchel of money and is on the run from the drug dealers and psychopathic killer Chigurh trying to get the money back.

Bell is concerned about Llewelyn and trying to genuinely help him – going the extra mile to keep following the case even though it’s far beyond his jurisdiction. Bell often narrates parts of the story and talks about how he comes from a long line of law enforcement officers in the hard desert country. He talks about they saw themselves as entrusted with the care of the communities they lived and worked in – and the hardships, death, and confusing levels of evil they often faced.

The last part of that quote was something that hit me as to the heart of a Catholic priest. A priest is entrusted with all the souls assigned to his parish boundaries – believers and non-believers alike. I think Sheriff Bell has exactly that kind of concern – a shepherd for all the people in his care. Whether they want it or not.

Do we see our jobs, and those we interact with or work with as coworkers, as in our care as well? Do we have the heart of a shepherd with our children and those we serve? Do we act in ways that demonstrates the truth, love, and compassion that Jesus had for those he interacted with while in our jobs and families? All too often, jobs are seen as just ways to make lots of money, gain power and fame, get accolades and attention, or climb to the top and lord it over others.

This is not what we are called to be as Christians. The call of the world is to become the center of attention – in charge of things, in command, taking power and making lots of money.

Instead, we must turn into servant leadership. We are to become less, so others may become more. We become less, so Christ may carry us unweighted with earthly attachments to heaven. We become less, so God can act more. But we must get ourselves and our egos out of the way. What we are called to can be found in the Litany of Humility:

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, Hear me.
From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, Jesus.
From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, Jesus.
That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be praised and I unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

Truth about Careers with frequent travel

Truth about Careers with frequent travel

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After retiring from a career with frequent travel, I feel sympathy for the poor schmucks who get on the plane first.

What they paid to rate that special status, they will never recoup. Their lives are fractionally more comfortable for a few hours because they’re sitting up front and have Club access in every airport, but how much better would it be instead for them to be present for the events that shape close friends and loved ones or sit in the couch at home with their spouse?

I had a job I had to travel on a 2 hour flight back and forth once a week for 3 months. I’ll never do it again. 100% agree with another person that says you want a job where you travel very infrequently – 1-2 times a year is about right.

Link about other over-hyped jobs:

Has it changed?

Has it changed?

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Have things really changed? The dot-com/internet boom of 25 years ago (yes, it was 25 years ago now) was supposed to change everything. It has, but is it better?

I was recently reminded of this 1999 Superbowl ad from Monster.com. Things have definitely changed. More job opportunities are available and more easily searched, but during the tech downturn now we’re also seeing people applying to literally hundreds of jobs with no luck. People want work that is more meaningful, but the ugly realities of ‘bringing your whole self‘ to work and toxic startup-culture has shown to be problematic.

I think it’s worth looking at what the dot com and internet era started out to do and be honest about what we improved, and what we absolutely made worse. Sounds like a good reflection topic.

Downloading O’Reilly and Linkedin Learning content

Downloading O’Reilly and Linkedin Learning content

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I’m a subscriber to several online learning platforms, but sometimes you want to take videos offline to watch on a plane or when you’re off-grid in a remote location (like fire towers!)

My Online Learning Downloader is a Chrome plugin in that lets you download videos and books from O’Reilly.

Linkedin Learning Course Downloader can download Linkedin Learning courses and videos. Be aware you can get 12+ hour bans if you try to download too many videos in a single day

HLS Downloader can be used to download complex split-file M3U8 playlists that you find on O’Reilly and some other sites

Polaroid rendering

Polaroid rendering

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Matt Stark came up with a great little 3D viewfinder/polaroid effect in which you can take a photo then insert that geometry into the world – fully interactable. This is kind of like Superliminal, but with the whole world – not just individual objects.

I do love games like this that bend their worlds with effects like this, or non-Euclidean manipulations like Antichamber. The reality is that these types of games are almost always limited to single-player puzzle games. Makes me wonder if there are other applications of such projective techniques beyond puzzle solutions.

Excuses

Excuses

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A powerful true story about a priest who largely pursued his own desires and agendas. He survives a near death automobile accident to later have an experience of what his particular judgement would have been – and he was condemned to Hell.
It wasn’t because he had some big unconfessed sins or scandalous life. He even went to confession but admits he didn’t really commit himself to real conversion. The real reason he was condemned is because he pursued his own happiness/agendas. He simply served himself before his vow to serve God. Instead of conversion, he simply planned on making excuses for not trying harder to serve God. As he discovered, when standing in God’s blinding truth, excuses do not stand.