the iMentor

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This weB-LOG is about the musing of a technical consultant. It is the iMentor's thoughts on technology and the human condition.

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Amtrak Vacation-part 1 of 5

June 9, 2026 Uncategorized No Comments
Episode #907 June 20, 2025 Amtrak Vacation - part 1 of 5 This is the first of five blog episodes recalling Ricki and Paula's Amtrak train vacation. Enjoy.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz97EUAinL0&list=RDKz97EUAinL0&start_radio=1 The Beginning Our dear friend and neighbor picked Paula and me up at our house.  The ride to Riverside train station was clogged with oblivious commuters, unbeknownst that we were on an escape.  Near the train station, we found a hole-in-the-wall deli with outstanding pastrami.  At Riverside train station, we waited for an ironic AMTRAK bus to take us to Fullerton train station.  With two hours to kill, we drank...
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Influencers

June 3, 2026 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Episode #905 June 6, 2026 There was a time when truth moved through a few careful hands.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptX2ilHYpCk&list=RDptX2ilHYpCk&start_radio=1 Editors at The New York Times and voices like Walter Cronkite slowed, shaped, and released information with authority. Now truth moves differently. In the hands of internet influencers, what is accepted as truth travels faster, but also farther. More voices enter. More perspectives surface. Errors spread quickly, but so do corrections. Truth is no longer held—it is tested in public. Wikipedia is an example of at first distrusted content that, through crowd sourcing and editing, became reliable. Authority has shifted...
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Footsteps

May 31, 2026 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Episode #904 May 30, 2026 Footsteps by Ricki T Thues     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOPSETBUgvQ&list=RDTOPSETBUgvQ&start_radio=1   The shadow hurried ahead of Reggie Stanson with the regularity of shadows. It swung behind him with the coming of each streetlamp. It peered into tonight's memories of smooth jazz and slow dancing, disturbing the singular privacy of a man in his 50s. Stanson's intellect shut the door on the prying of the strange phantoms. Shadows are harmless, even at 1 a.m. in Chicago's South Side. The ten blocks from the I.C. train station to the apartment were lonely, except for his shadow-companion. Stanson almost enjoyed...
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360 Sunset

May 16, 2026 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Episode #903 May 23, 2026 When I was in high school, I loved visiting my friend’s parents’ house in Cowan Heights, the eastern foothills of the Orange County basin.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j99i6UqQLY&list=RD4j99i6UqQLY&start_radio=1 The sunsets fired up the western sky, blooming up from the ocean and sparking a green flash as the sun touched the water. Brilliant orange and red streaks brushed across the smog and clouds. And as the color faded to a glow, the lights of Orange County blinked on like a starscape across the basin below. There were visits to Cowan Heights, where I dreamed, "I'm going to live...
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Water Well

May 12, 2026 Uncategorized 2 Comments
Episode #902 May 16, 2026 The saga began when we bought our house.  We shared a well with the vacant lot next door.      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duxjssSGA9k&list=RDduxjssSGA9k&start_radio=1   The flow of the well was only one and a half gallons per minute. Just to give you some perspective, a showerhead requires 2 1/2 gallons per minute. It didn't take us long to look into drilling a well on our own property.  The owner of the well company, Eric, was a dowser like his father and his grandfather before him. He walked around my property with a bent coat hanger, which occasionally...
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Thought

May 5, 2026 Uncategorized 1 Comment
Episode #901 May 9, 2026 Slowing thought down enough to observe oneself is the path to clarity.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjnlA3wzMGU&list=RDvjnlA3wzMGU&start_radio=1 When thinking becomes reflective, it is like a flawed mirror, too smooth, and nothing appears, too sharp and it shatters. The right texture reveals the truest reflection. I prepare for interviews, examinations, and conversations by rehearsing them in my mind. I play out the encounter, tracing the possible paths a line of thought might take. Like a navigator charting uncertain waters, I consider where the conversation might go and where each branching could lead. During a conversation, I sometimes end...
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