There is a space, I suppose I could call it a virtualized instance when breadmaking that—maybe that's not right. Yes, the place is a one-off thing, never repeating and it feels self-contained. Still, this tech angle has its own connotative angle and I am not wishing to convey that, regardless of the relationship between the construct and its user.

...OK, so there's this special spot when breadmaking where I feel singular in the moment. And for the lack of a better metaphor, yes, it is in this special moment where I think.

Developing my eleventh and twelfth loaves since July 1, I had this idea in my head: when does life (or perhaps our focus/outlook) shift from what life 'is' to what life 'was'? And by extension, when do we wrap up life at that point?

When you're young, the whole world is out there—you can go in ANY direction! But as the odometer spins, the number of roads available to you narrows until I suspect you are left with only the road you are on, not unlike those pavement paths.

I'm not saying that is going to happen to me anytime soon, of course. Still, I recognize that eleven years ago today, I just started teaching in the Czech Republic. I have driven far beyond those days.

I'll look at this 2018 archived version of this site on Wayback Machine with a smile. Sure, it is primitive even for that design as I made better choices further down the road. But, it was representative of the time when I didn't know what was out there. I hoped, but did not know I could get below 200 lbs. I spent many years above that 300 lb threshold; we can easily adopt a "Well, this is just who I am" mindset. In those days, I knew nothing of carnivore. I believed wholesale in the calorie/vegetarian nonsense. I might as well have just returned to the 90s and demonized saturated fats. "Vegetable oil is good for you because it is made with vegetables!" Who knew that the margarine folks completely got that one wrong? We get too smart for our own britches.

That low-calorie slow lane is among the roads I won't be driving down again.

I have been watching old episodes of Computer Chronicles. In the one below, the new Windows 98 is featured. While it is a Microsoft-heavy episode, it also interviews someone who should be right up there with Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, if not beyond, for his contributions to tech, Linus Torvalds, the inventor of Linux.

The Internet runs on Linux; most smartphones run on Linux; the best supercomputers run on it. And it's a nifty desktop OS. It has fostered the open-source community. The Internet would not be what it is today without that. And it all started with just a dude who gave it away.

YouTube Link

Still, I remember where I was and how I thought about tech and what I was going to do with it. It was a niche, a hobby, something that was unique about me. Computers were not like today where everyone falls asleep to it and immediately grasps for it upon waking. No, I cannot return to that road. I can look back and point to where it was on the map. But, there's no route back.

And who knows of the road hierarchy that lies ahead? But, I recognize the opportunity costs of driving down this road; for every single highway I choose, I choose to not go down all the other avenues.