Abstraction

Rick Thues October 21, 2026 Uncategorized No Comments

Episode #925 October 24, 2026 On the way to my house is Ricardo  Breceda’s outdoor art gallery.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhTqkl_RjTs&list=PLADDmA834nnO2GGfGYmLyCyFWKDcKIxpl&index=12 Ricardo is known for his original installations in Borrego Springs, California. There is a dragon whose body weaves in and out of the ground, diving under the road to show its head above the desert sands. I started a tradition with Paula of buying a rock-and-wire ant sculpture for birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays. Ricardo makes the kind of ants that are golfing or gardening or playing tennis, but we like the plain, realistic ants. We have bought so many ants...

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Patience

Rick Thues October 15, 2026 Uncategorized 5 Comments

Episode #924 October 17, 2026 I was halfway through a thought when my friend smiled and said, “Exactly. You’re saying people are too dependent on technology.”   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Meav10BSlok&list=RDMeav10BSlok&start_radio=1 I nodded, then quietly finished my sentence. “…when it replaces their ability to think for themselves.” Those last nine words changed the shape of everything. A sentence is not simply speech. It is sometimes thinking out loud. Most conversation is not the exchange of finished ideas, but the unfolding of ideas in real time. The difficulty is that we rarely listen to the unfolding. We listen for the outcome. Patience is more...

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Meanings We Forgot

Rick Thues October 7, 2026 Uncategorized 1 Comment

Episode #923 October 10, 2026 When you use an app like ChatGPT, it is an application running on a server in a farm of computers.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY&list=RD8UVNT4wvIGY&start_radio=1 The app applies computing to the task of an artificial intelligence collaborating with a user. The application software is a program that executes mathematical routines, with electrons following many miles of microscopic copper interconnects within a computer's processor, connecting transistors, logic gates, registers, caches, and arithmetic units. The term program described what programmers created to direct a computer through the step-by-step execution of a task. As programs evolved into tools that helped people...

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Look Where You Are Going

Rick Thues October 2, 2026 Uncategorized 1 Comment

Episode #922 October 3, 2026   There are two stages to every skill.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN2BLHqkgSc&list=RDbN2BLHqkgSc&start_radio=1   The first is learning the rules. The second is allowing those rules to become spontaneous action. Muscle memory, instinct, and body-mind coordination express spontaneity. When learning how to surf, I was taught to paddle on my belly and ride the wave on my feet. I thought, “paddle under the swell, kneel on the board, one foot up, then the other, and stand up.” By the time I stood, the wave had passed me by. A friend who was teaching me said, “Just leap up...

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Dust in the Wind

Rick Thues September 22, 2026 Uncategorized 2 Comments

Episode #921 September 26, 2026 “Dust in the wind All they are is dust in the wind” — Kansas   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfS5hpkr_20&list=RDHfS5hpkr_20&start_radio=1   “I close my eyes Only for a moment and the moment's gone All my dreams Pass before my eyes with curiosity” — Kansas But what if I don’t close my eyes? What if I live my dreams and apply all the focus and pressure of my will on the dust of those dreams? I can apply enough force to make dust into diamonds. The shovel of intent can backfill the pits, voids and depressions of life with the...

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97 Word Stories

Rick Thues September 18, 2026 Uncategorized No Comments

Episode #920 September 19, 2026 My writer’s group’s monthly assignment was to write a 97-word story. Also, we were to write a short story about boulevard stops. I combined both challenges:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=une981B7Q4Y&list=RDune981B7Q4Y&start_radio=1 Boulevard Stops I asked the president of our homeowner’s association why the board installed four-way stop signs on our rural dirt roads. “The ‘5 MPH WHEN HORSES OR PEDESTRIANS ARE PRESENT’ signs are ignored. And stop signs are treated like rolling boulevard stops, where, no matter what direction, the first person arriving at the intersection does not stop,” I said. She replied, “We hoped that an equestrian whose...

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