@qurlyjoe@mstdn.social2026-05-27 04:21:10
#joshJohnson is a smart guy. I’m watching him being interviewed and he’s giving an example of his process. He tells stories. He told a story about a couple of his friends taking another friend to a strip club. And in the course of the evening this friend became convinced that the dancer was falling in love with him. She was just doing her job, and doing it well, engaging with him and making him…
@hex@kolektiva.social2026-06-27 04:05:41
Now, I don't especially like the term "church" so I may use something else... like "coven." You can do what you want. But I happen to have already mapped out an example. (It is exactly that, just an example, so take if it's useful, change if you need, and don't stick to anything too closely.) Oh, this mapping also means that you would, for religious reasons, only be allowed to work under capitalism 4 days a week instead of 5.
Given the increases in productivity over the last 100 years, a 4 day work week is a completely reasonable expectation. If we have to annex Monday for the weekend by force of religion, so be it. It is rightfully ours anyway. If enough people try it, this will probably work. If it doesn't work, it just needs more people.
The Practice of Worship:
It is recommended to break down worship in to three sections: the functional, the communal, and the spiritual. It is also recommended to break these across multiple days. A common structure for some Christian churches is to take 10-15 minutes for announcements (Functional), an hour or two for services (Spiritual), followed by (Communal) coffee, tea, and cookies for an unspecified time up to two hours after. When starting or working with limited time a single compressed model like this may work, but it's not optimal.
- The Functional
The purpose of this section is to address the functional needs of the coven. Block out time (less than 90 minute blocks is recommended) to go through reports and updates from those involved in the Dispensary, Library, Works Committee (infrastructure), and Services Committee (providing services internally and, potentially, externally). Talk through any additional announcements, including those from other covens you may be federated with.
It is helpful to include unstructured communal time, such as shared meals, during or after functional meetings. As the federation grows, more time will be needed. It is recommended to break functional meetings, work parties, and such across multiple days. When a federation becomes sufficiently large, it is recommended to take every Monday, on top of Saturday and Sunday, as a third day of community and worship.
The scope of the functional spans 3 realms (which may be more-or-less fluid): the personal or family, the coven and federation, and humanity itself. It is up to each coven and individual to negotiate how to allocate the three days of the weekend once we have liberated Monday from the work week, but it is important to reserve it for one of these three. However, some people must work on weekends. Medical personnel, for example, cannot conform to a standard work week. While the work week should be universally restricted, which specific days are used will be up to the specific coven and their members.
A functional meeting can start with an agenda like the following:
Functional Invocation
Announcements
Report Backs
Dispensary
Inventory Check
What is low
What is empty
What is expiring
What is needed
Funds status
Library
Inventory Check and Items needing return
Library acquisition requests
Funds status and budget check
Works Committee
Upcoming projects
Subcommittee updates (Following the Works Committee agenda)
New committee formations
Funds status
Services Committee
New capabilities announcements
New needs requests
Subcommittee updates (Following the Works Committee agenda)
New committee formations
Funds status
Task Check
Breaking the Circle
This agenda is a suggestion for those who don't know where to start. It can be adapted or ignored as appropriate.
- The Spiritual
Spirituality is necessarily an undefined space. It is deeply personal. Each individual taking time to share their own personal spiritual experiences can help each connect with each other. This experience of connection can itself be a spiritual experience. It may also be useful to read esoteric, mystical, or philosophical texts together as type of "book club" and share thoughts. Others may draw from their own knowledge or traditions. This is something that must be defined together within a group.
- The Communal
The communal aspect of the practice of worship bind the coven and federation together. Within the community we find joy and release, connection and comfort. The coven is where we turn in times of need, and where we share our hopes and dreams.
@cdarwin@c.im2026-05-25 03:54:23
Failing chemical tank in Orange County rises to 100 degrees
— the maximum temperature on the gauge
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-05-24/failing-orange-county-chemical-tank-rises-to-…
@Techmeme@techhub.social2026-05-26 14:56:05
Filing: Monzo reports its "refer a friend" payouts grew 40% YoY to £29.5M for the 12 months ending March 2026, as part of a broader £143M marketing spend (Financial Times)
https://www.ft.com/content/23de626c-0359-462a-b06b-ce7fe7095a89
@mgorny@social.treehouse.systems2026-04-26 18:14:50
A long time ago, when I was still going to school, I often thought about some class or other: "What's the point of this? I'm just wasting time on stuff I won't ever need. And my grades are going down because of it." So I supported all these bright ideas like having schools work the curriculum out with the industry.
Nowadays, I know better. The purpose of school is not to produce ready-made employees. It's to give people a wider perspective. Perhaps they won't use most of what they learn there, perhaps they'll have bad memories of some classes, but that doesn't really matter. What does matter is that you learn how to learn, how to reason, how to think.
I hate what's been happening to schools lately. They are becoming conveyor belts: we throw children on them, throw specific knowledge at them and see what sticks, we do exams and classify them. We expect to get a thoughtless laborer at the end, someone ready to take a specific job immediately.
A human whose only purpose in life is mindless labor and mindless consumption. Metaphorically, someone who's just going to spend their time off by drinking beer in the front of the TV and breeding more babies. Babies who will eventually become more cogs in the machine, fueling the infinite growth, trying to prevent this mindless system from falling apart.
#AntiCapitalism
@funkvolk@mastodon.social2026-05-26 12:56:09
@raiders@darktundra.xyz2026-04-25 23:44:37
Las Vegas Raiders front office discusses NFL draft, trade of Tyree Wilson —WATCH LIVE https://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/raiders/las-vegas-raiders-front-office-discusses-nfl-draft-trade-of-tyree-wilson-watc…
@hippyjo@c.im2026-06-25 18:08:15
Ukraine update from Giorgio Provincialli: Belarus and the strategic depth of Moscow.
Share the friend link to bypass the paywall and help the world learn better: https://medium.com/@giorgioprovinciali
@cdarwin@c.im2026-06-26 19:22:30
Flowing best right now near Eastern Goleta Valley
Updated about 1 hour ago
Ranked by live stream-gauge flow versus each waterfall's seasonal normal.
1Sisquoc Falls
Roaring · 0 cfs
96th
PERCENTILE
2Wellhouse Falls
Moderate · 4 cfs
62nd
PERCENTILE
3Rose Valley Falls
Moderate · 2 cfs
43rd
PERCENTILE
4Tangerine Falls
Moderate · 12 cfs
41st
PERCENTILE
5Nojoqui Falls
Moderate · 34 cfs
27th
PERCENTILE
6Jackson Falls
Low · 7 cfs
@hex@kolektiva.social2026-06-27 03:36:29
Distinct legal existence:
This is a distinct legal entity, such as an LLC. Your "church" will need a governing body to run the legal entity it's formed under. However you decide to do this, it must be spelled out clearly in filing forms. There are a lot of ways to "govern" a community, and, since diversity allows evolution, I'm not going to describe any of them.
Basically, all you need is *some* legal incorporation. This is important for the legal aspect (if you are trying to subvert the legal framework within the legal framework). You will need this in order to own bank accounts and property collectively, and you may need this to remove or reduce the influence of the dominant system on your collective governance of finances and property.
If you, on the other hand, just have a communal squat that operates economically entirely in black markets then I don't know why you're reading this.
(Fun fact, which I'm skipping to because I don't want to forget it: As I understand it, The Church of the Subgenious skipped a lot of this by including "paying taxes" in their definition of their church. They pay their taxes every year, and the IRS rejects their payment, which proves they're a church. OK, back to what I was talking about...)
Edit: One thing I forgot about this. There must be *at least 3 /unrelated/ people* named on the legal documents. That is the minimum number to be a legal church.