Tim Apple

I’m always jumping back and forth about correspondence. It’s one of the things I think analog is the best way to do it. Good ole’ pen and paper. I also understand that people handwrite so little these days that it’s actually physically difficult to write for longer periods of time, so I think I can find email acceptable.

My point being is I would love to correspond with some of the people who may be reading this. I think it’s great to have penpals. There are options to this plan.

• If I don’t know you in real life, I would like to stick to email in the beginning until I know you better. But we could switch to analog and snail mail in the future possibly.

• That said, if I know you personally then we could do snail mail or email, whichever you’re more comfortable with.

I think this could be really fun and a great way to get to know someone or reconnect in general. There will be no expectations on time, we all get busy. If it takes days, weeks, or months to respond, that’s ok. Better to wait till you have something to say or comment on than to just pump out a note because you feel the need to respond quickly. Same goes for me of course.

If you’re interested drop me a note here (click on this link). Again, if you’re a friend, cousin, rando person from the internet or around the world, feel welcome to join in the fun. I’m curious if anyone will respond at all.

Cheers!

I’ve come to the conclusion I follow way too many sites, people, or products on social media. I find myself scrolling the different sites and rarely stopping, mainly because I am uninterested. And I’m on a few networks, Nostr, Threads, Mastodon, BlueSky, and Facebook. 

If I’m not stopping a lot, it because I am uninterested, or it’s repetitive, at least that’s my assumption. On almost all but Facebook, which I will explain later, I initially followed a lot of accounts I thought would be interesting, so there would be something in the feed initially. This has backfired for what I consider one major reason, I misjudged my own interests. 

Let me explain. I am pretty techie in my tools, and in my work. It has come easy to me. This makes me follow a lot of techie accounts. Of course, some do interest me at times, but I’m finding the things I seem to stop at more often have nothing to do with tech. I like to see animals, things about agriculture, music, religion, writing, the indieweb (i guess this is tech), heartwarming stories, and peoples thoughts on life and the spirit. Again, some kind of tech news now and again, but these days I find it bores me. 

So, I’m not going to blanket delete everyone, not all at once. What I plan on doing is, as I notice I pass an account enough, I will just unfollow. Nothing against them, but why litter the feed, if I’m not reading it anyway. Then I am going to seek out those who do catch my attention, ones who more often or not I stop to see what they have to say. 

The Exception

Facebook, it’s a love hate relationship. Of all the social networks, it is the most useful, and maybe the most troublesome. What Facebook has going for it is all the people I love or have interacted with in real life are there. Some of them say a lot I don’t agree with, or I haven’t seen in a decade or more, but we have that real world connection. They have been or are currently a part of my life, and I don’t want to lose those connections. It also is great at creating communities in real life. I am a member of a farm co-op, local naturalist groups, and a local community group that are all super useful and informative. In the end, Facebook is the one social network with people that are completely real to me, thus it’s harder to prune. 

Let me see how this goes, and see if it improves the social experience with the rest of the people in the world, I don’t really know. I really feel social media when used properly is a great tool for connecting with the rest of the world, if I can get better at filtering out the noise. 

Cheers!

I’ve used Proton Mail on and off for a few years now. The premium package is pretty handy and comes with a bunch of extra services, there is no doubt it is worth the money if that is what you're looking for. 

I’ve also been a “Hey!” customer for some time, and had sort of split my personal and internet persona between the two. As time goes on, I find this unnecessary, since my internet persona is me and not some secret alt. And though I will lose a bunch of bells and whistles leaving Proton, I just like “Hey!” much better functionally. It’s just a fun way to deal with email. 

Another thing is I already pay for other services that offer me the same thing Proton does (minus all the encryption on some), a big chunk coming from Apple who get a lot of my money anyway, may as well use the stuff. Not to mention my five hundred gigs of lifetime pCloud storage I paid for years ago that can replace Proton Drive. 

In the end, I just don’t see the point to paying for a bunch of services that all do the same thing, and “Hey!” really does email good, it wins at that game hands down. So, I’m transitioning from Proton slowly, but I think it will be gone from all my systems in the next few months. 

Cheers!

Well, it’s here, 2025. It seems like Y2K was just yesterday and we all the world was going to end, wasn’t that a laugh. To be honest, I don’t have much planned for 2025. We just moved to Texas, and hopefully we are done with moving for some time. 

Career, work, or just being productive wise, I have two more SANS certs to complete in the next five months. Hopefully I will be back in the gainfully employed world not long after that. 

Other than that, though, I don’t have a lot planned.  I would like to read more, which I say every year. Get healthier is also on the list. But I don’t have any grand plans. Take care of the home and the kids are the main priorities. Oh, and as stated above, become gainfully employed again. 

I hope everyone out there in ole’ internet land has a fruitful and peaceful year ahead. Here is to making it to 2026!

So back in 2019 at peak covid our family moved from Dallas Texas to Staten Island, New York, where we stayed three years. I’m not the biggest fan of NYC, but it was a pleasant stint in the Big Apple. From there we moved to Huntington, West Virginia. This was one of the most beautiful places I have ever lived. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer much beyond its looks, and we lasted there for six months. I still miss the place a little.

We ended up in Beloit, Wisconsin where we have been exactly a year. It’s ten minutes from where I grew up, and I have a few wonderful friends here that I hadn’t seen in ages. Though I did see them some, I quickly realized that now we’re in our fifties and the days of loitering at each other’s homes and showing up unannounced are over. We all have kids, jobs, and many other responsibilities. They were the only reason to possibly stick around, but it really wasn’t happening. The four times we hung out in a year wasn’t really worth staying in the area, better to visit. 

So now, two days before Christmas, we will be moving back to Texas, the place that is really more our home. Neither my wife nor I were born there, but our children were. So the natives out number us. We’ve finally dropped the renter life after thirteen years and bought ourselves a house, hoping to dig in some roots for the kids; who, if it all goes smooth, will get to spend Christmas and Christmas Eve in their new home. Bonus, they don’t have to share a room anymore. So everyone, have a Merry Christmas! Here’s to new beginnings. 

<img height="1024" width="1024" alt="An image with caption: Cowboy at a PC" src="../rails/active_storage/blobs/redirect/eyJfcmFpbHMiOnsiZGF0YSI6MjMxNzYsInB1ciI6ImJsb2JfaWQifX0=--1ebaf566d821d59b09a54d553fc61dd6fac344f2/a%20cowboy%20hacker.png">

<figcaption class="attachment__caption">
  Cowboy at a PC
</figcaption>

It may sound silly, but about once a week, sometimes more, I find myself wishing I were a cowboy.  The freedom that would come from the total disconnect from the rest of the world. The peaceful feeling of open spaces and working with animals. And let’s not forget a tinge of adventure. 

At 52, I find myself wishing this still. There was a time in my early thirties I seriously considered it, then came marriage and kids and it slipped away. These days, I still find it nice to think about. 

Today I sit attached to my desk, living in a semi suburban world. The only animals I tend to are my two dogs. Sometimes I sit alone and listen to old cowboy songs from the likes of Chris Ledoux. I guess it helps that I live in Texas, giving me default western status, though nowhere near that reality. 

I work in cybersecurity and hang out in more undeveloped parts of the web where outlaws may dwell, I guess that is as close as I get. It’s nice to daydream. 

And the trial of new blogging products continues. I recently just heard of Pika and figured I would give it a peek. It seems to hold to the original ideals of Ghost when it first came out. Just a simple place to write and post from. 

Playing around with the interface so far, I like it. It’s simple and clean. I will have to play around with it a lot more to see if it truly fits my needs. I was going to use ghost, but in all reality it’s pretty expensive, and I’m not going to be having a ton of people paying to read what I write, so why bother. 

Well this post is mainly an experiment and will be deleted sooner than later, so let’s see what happens. 

Cheers

I joined the Baha’i Faith in 2010. After a childhood growing up Catholic, my stint in high school as a proclaimed atheist, to a seeker after my time in the army, finally finding and falling in love with the Baha’i Faith. As I now read the history of the faith and its writings, I think back to being a soldier.

On March 20th, 2003, I crossed over the border from Kuwait to Iraq for the first time. I was a ball of fear, excitement, and wonder all rolled up in one. I spent most of the first few days in the back of a Bradley fighting vehicle. I remember seeing a sign telling us that we were atop Babylon, which all I could see was sand and some old brick walls scattered about in the region. With the occasional view of MLRS rocket systems sending volleys and feeling sorry for those on the receiving end. Other than knowing the name Babylon, it held no significance to me on that day.

One of the subsequent significant events I remember from the invasion is doing a feint to make the enemy think we would cross a particular bridge over the Euphrates. Of course, there was quite a lot happening there, and at no time did I put too much thought into the river’s name. But I remember artillery hitting buildings, lots of gunfire, and having my first opportunity to engage the enemy. That day is very much ingrained in my mind.

I saw the Tigris river for the first time a couple of days later. I didn’t give it too much thought beyond recognizing the name from various holy writings of the many faiths. I must have crossed that river a dozen times after that. It sat in my memory banks as that place I’ve heard of in the Bible, but the history never came to mind.

I then left Iraq to return yet again, not long after. I was wounded ten miles from the Tigris as I and many others fought for their lives on the bloodiest day I had ever witnessed. Again, I used lethal force against other men.

Now all these years later, I sit and read holy writings and see Babylon, Euphrates, and Tigris repeated all the time. Bah’u’llah, the figurehead of the Baha’i Faith Himself, was exiled to Bahgdad and declared his message in the Ridvan garden along the Tigris river; I was wounded around six miles from that holy and historic location. Let alone, after some investigation, I discovered I was less than two miles from His home in Bahgdad, which was destroyed in 2013; I could of, or may have even seen it, chances are pretty high for that matter. I have pictures of buildings not far from its historical location.

Now that I am a Baha’i, I cannot help but think of these facts as somewhat mystical coincidences. I did more praying in Iraq than I had in the previous decade. Was I spared in battle to later become a member of the Baha’i faith? Is there some link that I won’t ever know until I move on to the next world? It’s exciting to dwell on. The entire idea I was so close to something I believe so strongly in now but had no clue then fascinates me.

Did my fighting in Iraq in consequently have any effect on my being in the Baha’i faith today? I have to wonder.

This photo shows the building I lived in for some time in relation to Karkh which is the are Baha’u’llah’s home was located

<img height="485" width="881" alt="An image with filename: QkTqzwcg.jpg" src="https://timapple.micro.blog/uploads/2025/qktqzwcg.jpg">

This evening, I listened to the song I Believe by Andrea Bocelli and Katherine Jenkins. I am always so moved when I listen to this song—the blend of those fantastic vocals and the lyrics that touch my heart so profoundly. The entire piece makes me melt. I’m not sure if you have heard the song, but I just wanted to share some of those lyrics.

One day I’ll hear The laugh of children In a world where war has been banned

One day I’ll see Men of all colors Sharing words of love and devotion

and

Open your heart To those who need you In the name of love and devotion

Yes, I believe

I believe in the people Of all nations To join and to care For love

I believe in a world Where light will guide us And giving our love We’ll make heaven on earth

Someday when you have the time, put the song on and meditate on those lyrics if we could all make something so beautiful manifest, truly making heaven on earth.

I just finished the series Afterlife about a widower who is having trouble getting beyond the loss of his wife. It has to be one of the greatest love stories I have ever watched, even with the ridiculous amount of foul language it contains. It’s funny how Ricky Gervais can offend yet still break my heart. I just found it to be such a moving little series that it is definitely worth the watch. But I’m sad it is over. I really recommend it. If you’re offended by foul language, you may want to avoid it.

<img height="2048" width="1382" alt="An image with filename: 4e7b4adb551aac176ea7112befe2fa79.jpg" src="https://timapple.micro.blog/uploads/2025/4e7b4adb551aac176ea7112befe2fa79.jpg">