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Rats in a cage.

Power will not give up power.

Power corrupts.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

We know these ideas, but rarely see them in action. When we have a genuine social problem, Covid, power needs to be used. Action has to be taken, and people need to be managed. 

There is a new truism that we need to consider: the larger the problem, the greater the action, and the less granular the control. Covid has shown that the management and the control is a one-size-fits-all, this does not work.

There’s also a second problem when a set of controls that have been put in place and are then found not to be effective, that the science does not support the mandate, and then the governing bodies cannot rescind the control. The power has corrupted the governing body as it (she) cannot afford to look weak, to change their mind, to backtrack, to follow the science, and so they Double Down, they keep a mandate in place that is obviously medically and scientifically wrong.

Such is the nature of politics.

When you’re keeping a bad mandate in place, how do you manage the obvious discontent that that mandate is going to produce? You treat everyone like rats in a cage. 

A quick recap on what rats in a cage is. 
This is a series of experiments that has been done many times to see how social animals act towards each other in times of stress. 
Put one rat in a cage.
Electrify the cage floor such that at random times the rat gets a shock.
Set the cage up so the rat has no way to avoid getting a shock. 
Quickly that rat becomes so stressed that it curls up in a little ball and just suffers the shocks.

Now introduce a second rat into this cage. 
Shocked them at random intervals.
Very quickly they will start fighting each other. They can even fight each other to the death. 
They don’t know where the shock is coming from.
They don’t know why the shock is coming.
Each rat blames the other rat for their tortured life.

Does this not sound like our country today? We have various sectors of our society manifesting anger and frustration against another sector of our society.
We have two sets of rats being shocked by an unknown external force and being pitted against each other, even to the point of violence.
This is then fueled by the rhetoric coming from our political overlords, our media overlords, our tech overlords, our business overlords, our law enforcement overlords.
However, all of these overlords are also rats in their cage getting shocked.

How much is Jacinta (or Trudeau or Biden or Boris or Morrison) being shocked by forces we have no idea they are under. They also are rats in a cage. 
This does not excuse these people from the mandates they have enacted. Our democratic system is such that they got into politics to serve the People, not themselves and especially not some other unelected power structure.
When it comes to the police, I’ve been very pleased to see the actions of the freedom protesters to encourage everyone to not react to the police’s overextending of themselves, to their bad use of force and the police outright lying to the protesters and to the media.

I’ve also been glad to see the way that the freedom protesters have been presenting themselves to the media, even if the media does a poor job of actually reporting what is going on.
The police are rats in a cage, getting shocked by the system, just as the freedom protesters are getting shocked as well. And what the police do and how they do it is less to do with systemic violence in the police system, and more to do with the situation we all find ourselves in getting shocked by this situation.
The media is another great example of this. The shock that exists for the various people in the media sector has them pre-wired to only follow that narrative that is now well-established in the media system. Talk about a crazy feedback loop.
The alternative media structures that are coming up, from bloggers to podcasters to live streamers, feed into shocking the mainstream media such that they cannot help but react against them.
And finally, another great example of this ‘shocking’ is the rhetoric from Jacinta asking us all to be kind. And Kindness was the very thing she did not show as she shocked the nation again and again and as she herself also got shocked. Whoever is pulling her strings is making her a rat in the cage. She is stuck in a corner of her cage where she cannot let go of the mandates and can only lash out at anything and everyone.

With all these rats and all these cages getting all sorts of shocks, we need to not react, to not lash out, to not see the other rat as the problem. 
Rather we need to be redemptive, we need to act with true kindness, to still say things that others may not like, to speak truth to power, but to do it without trying to shock those rats in those cages.

We need to stand our ground and find a way forward that will release all the rats from all the cages.

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Moving a WordPress

The scenario is that you have a fully functional WordPress, somewhere, and it is a different name, and you want to transfer it.
An example of one I have done was a new site being build as 21.mysite.com and it is going to replace mysite.com.
I have even done this between servers, and on the same server.

Step 1

  1. Update all plugins.
  2. Update all themes.
  3. Update WordPress.
  4. Make a backup.
  5. Better still, if you have access to the CLI, make a mysqldump of the database (see below) and a zip of the documnet root.
  6. If the transfere is between servers, download both files to your local computer.

Step 1.1

Making a MySQLdump.

mysqldump -umysite_wp2 mysite_wp2  -p'S.2TgD7jpNLtAvhgWLE49' > 05092021.sql

You find the user, site db, and password in wp-config.php

Step 2 Find & Replace

I use emacs on a Linux machine to do the find and replace.
The find and replace command is ctrl-shift-alt-%

We need to find and replace

  • https://21.mysite.com and replace it with https://mysite.com
    • This makes sure all redirects are corrct to the new url
  • /home/user/21.mysite.com and replace it with /home/user/public_html
    • This makes sure the document root is correct.
  • @21.mysite.com and replace it with @mysite.com
    • This makes sure any email addresses have been changes to the correct domain name
  • Search on 21.mysite.com, and see what you find you may have to do
    • 21.mysite.com and replace it with mysite.com

Step 3 Move directories

  • Up load the SQL file and the ZIP file to your new staging area.
  • I move the existing public_html to old.public_html.
  • Unzip the zip file to a hold directory.
  • Create a new public_html with the correct ownership and permissions 
drwxr-x---.  7 myname nobody      4096 Sep  6 07:02 public_html
  • Copy wp-config.php from old.public_html to public_html replacing the one from the old staging site
  • Copy the files from the Zip Hold area to public_html
  • Make sure they have the right ownership, myname.myname, and permissions.

Step 4 import the SQL archive.

Using the correct settings from the wp-config.php file run:

mysql -umysite_wp2 mysite_wp2  -p'S.2TgD7jpNLtAvhgWLE49' < 05092021.sql

This is the reverse of what we did above.
There should be no errors and the command line should just drop down one line.

Step 5 plugins

Plugins should just work.

However, I have found one issue with Wordfence. There is a setting that want to point back to the old site.

; Wordfence WAF
auto_prepend_file = '/home/oldsite/21.mysite.com/wordfence-waf.php'
; END Wordfence WAF

And change it to where the new document root is.

; Wordfence WAF
auto_prepend_file = '/home/mysite/public_html/wordfence-waf.php'
; END Wordfence WAF

And everything now works.

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06 Key Subscription

The People I am talking with do not seem to draw back from hard questions.

I have been on a couple of Zoom calls for the branch I belong to, and there is a tranperancy that I find refreshing.

I am currently paying $8.88 a month for myself and another subscription for Chris at $8.88, and as I have mentioned before, at the end of two years this total is returned to us, or we can roll it in to a Key Subscription.

So what is a Key Subscription?

Continue reading “06 Key Subscription”

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05 Roadmap

One of the first things that I appreciate about what I am getting into is the coaching that is becoming available.

Yes, I am paying $8.88 a month, however, this does come back in time.
There is also a push to start to invest on a monthly basis, something I want to do anyway.

I’ve wanted to learn for some time how to grow wealth. There is no end of programs and seminars on YouTube, or in person, that you can pay thousands for and maybe learn something useful.

Rather than having books on a shelf I may never read again, I have access to a coach, as part of my subscribing.

They are simple questions.

Continue reading “05 Roadmap”

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3d Village

Elegance In Interior Design.

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Know More

A Minimal Interior Can Change The Game.

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We Make Interiors Exceptional.

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Our Services

Shopping-Mall Interior

Hotel and Cottage

Workstation Interior

Our Works

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Browse More

Leading Interior Design Firm.

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Towfiq Omi

Creative Director, Daffodil

From The Blog

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Moving a WordPress

by | Sep 5, 2021 |

The scenario is that you have a fully functional WordPress, somewhere, and it is a different name, and you want to transfer it.An example of one I have done was a new site being build as 21.mysite.com and it is going to replace mysite.com.I have even done this between...

06 Key Subscription

by | Aug 7, 2021 |

The People I am talking with do not seem to draw back from hard questions. I have been on a couple of Zoom calls for the branch I belong to, and there is a tranperancy that I find refreshing. I am currently paying $8.88 a month for myself and another subscription for...

Read More

We won’t spam!

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04 $8.88

So what is with this $8.88?

As a Private Equity Company, they are not a bank and they are not Financial Advisors.

They are private people, entering into private transactions with each other under a private company with their own private rules.

Therefore, unlike a Bank or Financial Institution, you need to have a stake in the company to be involved. So the $8.88.

I pay this membership each month, however, at the end of 24 months, I get this membership fee back. Really, $8.88 times 24 months is $213.12 and I am told the return is something like $230.00.

You can take this as cash or reinvest in your Key Subscription, and start another two-year subscription.

This $8.88 does several things.

Continue reading “04 $8.88”

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03 Make it grow

I don’t want to just talk about money here, but the purposes I want to put it towards.

This is making money work for us, rather than work on us. Working with money, rather than working for money. Of course, you have to make some money before you have any to put to work.

We all know how 1 Timothy 6:10 has been poorly used to demonize money when money itself is not evil, but only that the love of it leads to all sorts of evil, (not evil itself).

Money is a tool, and what do I want to use this tool for?

Continue reading “03 Make it grow”

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02 Too good to be true.

I had an Aunt that tried to get me into Amway back in the ’80s. I was on my way to YWAM in the Philippines at that time, so dodged that bullet.

Now a new friend, who is also an old friend is introducing me to some Finance Coaching.
Is it a Ponzi Scheme?
Is it Multi-Level Marketing?
Is it commission based referrals?
We shall see.

I am going to share my experiences here, and at first blush, it sounds good enough to get our toes wet. And it also sounds too good to be true.

I hear you, “How much does ‘getting your toes wet’ cost?”

Continue reading “02 Too good to be true.”

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01 Where it begins

We have constantly been looking for better ways to do things, and whenever difficulty strikes, to look at it as an opportunity.

This is not about inviting success, or speaking attraction, or the power of positive thinking, but if you put your shoulders back and look at life in the eye, you can gain a sense of command, rather than waiting for the next thing out of left field to hit you.

COVID was an example in this, 2020 has been one of our most prosperous years, not because of stimulus cheques, but because we were able to engage a reset and look at life differently. It was about educating ourselves, and even using our entertainment time to not merely watch YouTube or NetFlix, but to watch things that taught us about investing.

Nothing quite equips you to learn than when your money is where you are learning. So I got the Robin Hood app, I brought a couple of shares in AMD, (I’m a geek, so I invested in something I already knew). It went up and it went down, I bought a little and sold a little so I could learn. Over a month and a few hours of research I made $5.00. Who can say I took a class that did not cost me, but actually paid em. Maybe 0.50c an hour, but, hey it’s a start.

Always using the principle that you only ever invest or play with money you CAN afford to lose, I then purchased a few Tesla shares when they were at about $800.00 each. This was before the split so think, $160.00 each, and these are now worth $600.00 each (or a presplit price of $3,000). So that was a lucky buy, but not totally luck, I had done a fair bit of research, that was why I did not sell them when they got to $900.00 either (Jan 2021).
This is a long-term investment, I don’t follow the market swings, that is not the point, I want to hold these for ten years. That is what my education has taught me.

  • My takeaway is never to stop Learning.
  • To only use the money you I afford to lose.
    • This is not totally true, I have invested money that is not part of my day to day expenses in to Tesla. However this is not money that is menat to pay next months rent. However if Tesla was to crash, I would be bummed. I have invested this way in Tesla and not Carnival Cruseline, becuase my research says Tesla is going to the moon. (Or is it Mars)
  • Take small risks to learn what they feel like, especially if they fail.
    • In playing with stocks I mad a small profit with FUV, but sold too soon.
    • I have played with SPACs, and narrowally avoide a loss with NKLA
  • I have learnt so much from my failures I am planning some more.
  • And don’t let the euphoria of success make you think you know what you are doing!
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Our God is too small.

I see many people “losing their faith” because the god of their childhood is eclipsed but their growing knowledge and understanding and their faith crumbles like a sandcastle before the incoming tide.

There is of course a big problem if your god is merely a sandcastle of experiences from your childhood, when in reality He is the creator of the tide.

At whatever time in your life, when you first profess a faith in God, why would you ever consideration that that declaration would be static?

I think we give god a name, we give him a compartment in our lives, and we tick that box off our list. God does not want a name, a cubbyhole or our autograph. It is simplistic to say he wants us, yet he does, as a disciple, as a follower, in an ever-expanding relationship of information, knowledge, understanding and wisdom.

Look at it this way.
We may have a lot of information entering our lives. Not all of it true real or useful. So rather than being a sandcastle against a tide, be the tide, be the beach, be the ocean.

If we do not bring new information into our lives, good or bad, useful or useless, obvious or vague, then our faith will become stagnant, this can lead to one’s faith atrophying.
As we acquire information, we will order it, knowingly or unknowingly, the information will become knowledge, and from that knowledge, we will continue to build our lives, build our faith. We are meant to examine this information and this knowledge, to refine it, test it, see if it holds up to the light of day, can stand the test of time, for it to become understanding. We will discard some information and reinforce other areas of information. As we practice our understanding of our knowledge from the information we have, so we build wisdom into our lives. Wisdom is the ability to tackle the contradicting buckets of information we receive, the differing understandings we glean from these processes and create a cohesive faith from realising we can hold two competing views simultaneously. Uniformity is not the goal of faith. God is so much bigger than this.

We do not need to be afraid of the information surrounding us. We do not need to stand in front of this wave of information as if we need to protect our sandcastle of God. That He is fragile and information and rationality might make Him go, poof. Rather stand next to the Creator of the Universe and let the two of you process information so that you gain knowledge, and from this knowledge understanding, so wisdom can flourish, and you can thrive.

How big is your God?


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