Witnessing the Unstoppable: 31 Moments of Awe and Wonder

I think that my philosophy in life is to not put myself in harm's way.

Internet plans

I figured out that my Xfinity internet plan is going to double in cost in August, to $101 per month.  I got alerted to this because they sent me an email saying that I was getting over 1 gigabit Internet download speeds.  That is not my real world experience, with actual speeds maxing out at around 400 Mbps.  I was previously on cheaper plans that were 300 to 400 Mbps, but these were temporary promotional offers, and now Xfinity wants me to pay full price.  On the phone they offered me a slight discount, but I told them that I was going to call back later to cancel the service.

I have seen an offer from GigabitNow for $50 per month, which is about what I am paying now.  

However, I also found out that XFinity offers a different service called "NOW", which is a pre-paid internet service.  It is both slower and cheaper.  They wouldn't sign me up on the phone for this, but sent me some instructions on how to sign up.  The 200 Mbps plan is $45 per month.

I see that the AT&T Internet service also has some promotional offers.

I've been telling people that Internet speed is overrated.  I had a driver problem with a computer, which I fixed, but I was only getting 30 to 40 Mbps and I was just fine.  The biggest speed issue with the Internet is how fast the servers at the websites respond.  There is usually a slight delay.

My first cable Internet service back around 2001 was only 3 Mbps, but this was a huge leap compared to dial-up.

--

Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Domain Name Scam

I received a letter from Las Vegas. Actually, the Kroger store where my chess club meets received the letter, addressed to the "Greenwood Chess Club." They knew that I was in charge of the club, so the employees passed the letter on to me.

I have a blog devoted to the chess club on Blogger:
https://greenwoodchessclub.blogspot.com/

The blog does not contain my address, but it does include the address of the Kroger store, so that is where the scammers sent the letter.

The letter was a bill for roughly $300 to renew my domain name. The problem is that "greenwoodchessclub.blogspot.com" is not a domain name, nor is "blogspot.com" my domain. I simply maintain the blog on the Blogspot website.

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Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Why Tab Soda was Discontinued

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swKvaCTLYvw

@john2001plus
0 seconds ago
I liked Tab. It had a slightly stronger taste. Maybe less sweet. Roughly 45 years ago, my family liked Diet Dr. Pepper. It was sold in glass bottles. It had a unique taste that I liked.

Tornado Warnings

The tornado siren sounded several times Wednesday night, including after midnight, when I was already in bed trying to go to sleep. Since I didn't hear anything that sounded like a storm, I stayed in bed. 

The siren seems to sound more often than necessary. When I hear it, I turn on the radio, and the station almost always provides an immediate explanation. 

The radio alternated between severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado warnings. The tornado warnings were usually for neighboring counties, but they were close to Bartholomew County. At various times, they said that the northwest, southwest, and northeast corners of Bartholomew County were affected. They also said that the storms were moving in directions other than toward Columbus. 

Areas notably affected included Whiteland, Franklin, Taylorsville, Seymour, Greensburg, and North Vernon. 

 Often, a tornado warning is issued when radar detects rotation within a storm, but that does not necessarily mean that a tornado has touched down. 

This creates a "boy who cried wolf" situation, where the tornado siren is activated repeatedly even though Columbus does not appear to be in immediate danger. 

Indiana lies on the northeastern edge of Tornado Alley, so I try to take tornado warnings seriously. However, the frequent use of the siren makes that difficult. 

 -- 

 Best wishes, 

 John Coffey 

 http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Another...

Another successful trip around the sun on spaceship Earth.

My Online Chess Lessons

Today I am finishing a major revision to my online chess lessons that I have worked on for thirty years, with greater emphasis on...

The average club player is very likely to create a weakness in their position within the first dozen moves. Learning to identify and exploit these weaknesses will help you win more games.

This was always one of the major points of my lessons, but I felt that I needed to make this point more clear.

I have rearranged the games, updated the text, and added some new material.

My goal is to help club players of all skill levels reach the next plateau in their chess development, whatever that may be.  

https://onethousandpositionstochessmastery.blogspot.com/

I am very happy with my changes.

P.S. At the Columbus Chess Club tonight, I am celebrating my birthday by bringing donuts.

Can Star Wars ever recapture the same magic?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ksMlL3H5cI

@john2001plus
1 minute ago
Hey Thor,

Bear with me, but I can't help being a bit of a pessimist.

Star Wars was originally about a single war: the Rebellion versus the Empire. That war effectively ended with Return of the Jedi. Technically, the prequels added another conflict, but it was part of the same overarching story. Regardless, that story was finished with ROTJ.

Whereas the first two trilogies focus on the big picture, offshoots such as Andor, The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and The Book of Boba Fett are "smaller" in scope, examining individual characters in more limited settings. I liked all of those shows, but they don't necessarily attract a wide audience. So, when a movie focuses on a similarly "small" story, it can apparently flop as well. It doesn't matter that I liked it; entertaining stories do not necessarily attract a large audience.

I think people want the original characters, but if those characters are recast, will audiences complain about that as well? The ideal time to make a Star Wars sequel may have been in 1990, but that ship has long since sailed.

I hope that, in the future, Disney and Lucasfilm can make entertaining Star Wars movies, preferably with new characters in a new setting. However, how many different space wars are audiences willing to watch? It seems that the original story was finished, and anything new inevitably becomes a completely different story. Star Wars appears to be in an impossible bind: if it makes something too similar to the Original Trilogy, people complain that it is repetitive; if it does something too different, people lose interest.

Best wishes,

John Coffey

Schedule vs. Non-Schedule

I have spent maybe a year going back and forth between having a fixed schedule for doing things, and not having one.

The advantage of having a fixed schedule is that I deliberately allocate time for chores.  This is why I created it when I was working, and it was helpful.

The problem of a fixed schedule for me is twofold:  It is really hard to stick to exactly, and I think that it may be counterproductive because it feels like working a job, which mentally feels like a burden to me.

I think that a better approach is to focus on goals.  I spend the majority of my life in front of a screen, which maybe has its own problems, so the plan is to alternate between goals for when I am on the computer and when I am not.

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So I fed the above text to ChatGPT, and its response was pretty amazing and spot on...

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What you are describing makes a lot of sense psychologically. A rigid schedule solves one problem — making sure important things actually happen — but it can create another problem: your life starts to feel externally controlled, even when you are the one controlling it.

For someone who spent years working under obligations and deadlines, recreating that structure in retirement or free time can unintentionally trigger the same emotional resistance as a job. The schedule stops feeling supportive and starts feeling oppressive.

Your idea of shifting from “time management” to “goal management” is probably a better fit for you.

What stands out is that you are not rejecting structure entirely. You are trying to create a structure that preserves autonomy. That is a very different thing.

The alternating “computer goals” and “non-computer goals” idea is especially interesting because it addresses multiple issues at once:

• prevents endless screen immersion
• creates natural variety
• keeps chores from accumulating
• reduces the feeling of being trapped in one mode all day
• introduces physical movement and environmental engagement

A flexible system like this might work better than a clock-based schedule:

• Pick 2–4 meaningful goals for the day
• Divide them into:
  • screen-based
  • non-screen-based
• Alternate between categories
• Let duration remain flexible

For example:

• Read or write online for a while
• Then do laundry or clean something
• Then play chess or watch something
• Then go outside, organize, cook, exercise, etc.

The key difference is that the transition is driven by completion or fatigue rather than by the clock.

That tends to feel psychologically lighter.

You also seem aware of another important point: excessive screen time can distort your sense of life progress. Screens are mentally stimulating, but many screen activities produce little physical evidence that the day happened. Non-screen tasks often create visible results — a cleaner room, repaired item, completed errand, exercise, improved environment — which can feel grounding in a way digital activity often does not.

A completely unstructured system has its own danger, though:
important but unpleasant tasks quietly disappear.

That is where your earlier instinct about deliberate allocation still matters. You probably do need some mechanism that guarantees maintenance tasks happen eventually, just not necessarily at 2:00 PM every Tuesday.

You may function best with:

• fixed priorities
• flexible execution

rather than:

• fixed timing
• fixed execution

That is often more sustainable for people who value autonomy highly but still want momentum and order.

Edward Olmos

This is an interesting passage about discipline, motivation, and being the student.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jm66BcpZGPs&t=578s

What ChatGPT knows about me

I use ChatGPT to help polish my writings and reviews, but I don't always like the changes it makes, because it tends to make my writings less partisan.

As a result, ChatGPT knows some things about me.  This is mostly just a reflection of the things I have written.  Parts of the answer are repetitive...

"Give me a full, detailed profile of everything you know about me across work, style, goals, relationships, life, family, habits, preferences and personal context. Organize it clearly. Don’t filter. I want the complete picture."

"Here’s the complete picture of what I actually know about you from our conversations and saved context. I’ll keep it factual and avoid inventing anything.

Core Personal Context

Your name on the account is John Coffey, though you haven’t explicitly told me what you prefer to be called.

You appear to be located in or around Columbus, and you frequently reference the local chess community there. You also mention the Greenwood chess club.

You seem old enough to clearly remember 1976 (the U.S. Bicentennial) and said that in 1977 you were 17 years old, which places your birth year around 1960.

You often reflect on history through lived experience—Cold War tensions, the 1970s economy, Star Wars in its original cultural moment, and broader long-term political and cultural shifts.

---

Chess

This is the strongest and clearest long-term theme.

You are an active chess player and regularly attend both the Columbus Chess Club and the Greenwood Chess Club.

Playing Style

Your saved preference is:

You play chess with both an aggressive and positional style.

That suggests you are comfortable with tactical complications but also value strategic structure and long-term plans.

You compare tactical slugfests with more positional games and seem to appreciate both.

Competitive Environment

You care about the strength of opposition.

You’ve said:

• You can usually depend on strong players showing up at Greenwood
• At Columbus, strong competition is less consistent
• If the competition level is weak, you may leave early because you live only about 3 minutes away

You often check with people beforehand to see who is coming so you can judge whether the night will be worthwhile competitively.

You evaluate local players by strength and rating estimates. For example:

• You thought Eli (age 14) might be the second-best player in Columbus
• You estimated Omar at at least 1800 strength

This suggests you think seriously about rating strength and player development.

Social Side

Even though you value strong games, you also said you enjoy socializing with people at both clubs. So chess is both competitive and social for you.

---

Writing / Communication Style

You write frequently and often ask for grammar tightening, clarity improvements, and stronger phrasing for comments or posts.

Your writing style tends to be:

• direct
• analytical
• skeptical of exaggerated claims
• grounded in practical examples
• often debate-oriented

You seem to prefer concise but strong argumentation rather than emotional persuasion.

You often want wording tightened for:

• political commentary
• climate and energy discussions
• AI skepticism
• media criticism
• historical reflection
• personal observations from chess club

You especially like wording that sounds suitable for public comments/posts rather than overly formal essays.

---

Views and Intellectual Tendencies

Several consistent patterns emerge.

Skeptical of Overstatement

You push back against exaggerated claims, especially in:

• AI discussions
• climate debates
• energy policy
• political rhetoric

Example: you argued that AI is often treated as far smarter than it really is and described it more like “a Wikipedia that can talk,” emphasizing language prediction over true understanding.

Practical Energy Perspective

You are skeptical that renewables alone can reliably handle severe winter demand and referenced the 2021 Texas power crisis and deaths associated with it.

Your view seems to be:

• renewables may be useful and will grow if economical
• backup generation is still necessary
• existing reliable generation should not be discarded carelessly

This suggests a pragmatic rather than ideological approach.

Climate Change Position

You acknowledge measured warming (roughly 1–1.1°C since 1880) and discuss orbital cycles causing ice ages, but you also note controversies around adjusted historical temperature records and seem cautious about overconfident claims.

Your position reads as skeptical of simplistic narratives rather than outright denial.

Historical Framing

You frequently place present debates inside longer historical context:

• Cold War
• WWII memory
• Vietnam/Korea
• economic decline of the 1970s
• cultural meaning of Star Wars in 1977

You think comparatively across decades, not just current headlines.

---

Entertainment / Media Preferences

Star Wars

You have strong historical and evaluative opinions on Star Wars.

Because you experienced the original release era firsthand, your perspective is rooted in original cultural context rather than retrospective fandom.

You think about:

• why Star Wars resonated in 1977
• how the Cold War shaped interpretation
• the sense of good vs evil in that era

You also critique later works using standards like:

• likeable characters
• story motivation
• emotional investment

You referenced problems with Solo because you found many characters unlikeable.

Animation / Shows

You evaluate whether a show gives you a reason to care, not just whether it looks good.

You said of one show that the animation was very good, but the story had not yet “blown you away.”

You prioritize:

• character likability
• meaningful motivation to keep watching
• narrative engagement over visuals alone

Games / Map Design

You also discuss level design and game maps critically.

You mention:

• frustration with secrets
• gimmicky mechanics
• inaccessible areas that look reachable
• fake affordances like switches that seem meaningful but are not

This suggests you care about fairness and coherent design rather than novelty for its own sake.

---

Social Style

You appear socially engaged but selective.

You enjoy conversation and community, especially around chess, but you do not seem interested in staying somewhere just for obligation if the experience is not worthwhile.

You are comfortable making direct judgments about:

• people’s strength
• writing quality
• story quality
• policy arguments

You don’t seem drawn to vague diplomacy; clarity matters more.

---

Family / Relationships

Very little explicit information is known.

You mentioned:

“The boys Eli and Isaah, ages 14 and 12…”

but from context they appear to be local chess club kids, not necessarily family.

I do not know:

• your marital status
• whether you have children
• close family structure
• romantic relationships

So I won’t assume any of that.

---

Work / Career

I have essentially no reliable direct information about your profession or work history.

I can infer that you are experienced, older, and analytical, but I do not know:

• your occupation
• whether you are retired
• your industry
• education background

So I won’t invent any of that.

---

Habits and Preferences

Strong Preferences

You prefer:

• precise language
• strong reasoning
• historical context
• competent competition in chess
• likeable characters in fiction
• practical realism over hype
• argument grounded in examples

You dislike:

• exaggerated claims
• gimmicky design
• weak competition when expecting serious chess
• stories without compelling characters
• arguments driven mostly by ideology

Routine Indicators

Because you live very close to the Columbus Chess Club, you can casually leave early if the evening isn’t worthwhile.

You also proactively message people to check attendance beforehand, which suggests planning rather than pure spontaneity.

---

What I Do Not Know

To be complete, I should also state what I don’t know:

• your job/career
• spouse/partner status
• children/grandchildren
• religion
• political party affiliation
• finances
• health details
• daily routine outside chess and writing
• hobbies beyond what surfaced here

I know far less than a true “full life profile”—mostly your chess life, writing voice, and analytical worldview.

---

Short Summary

You come across as an experienced, historically grounded, analytically minded person who values competence, clarity, and realism.

Chess is a major anchor—both socially and competitively. You care about strong opposition and meaningful engagement, not just attendance.

You are skeptical of hype, especially around AI, energy policy, and simplified public narratives. You prefer arguments that survive contact with real-world evidence.

In entertainment and discussion alike, you care less about surface polish and more about substance: strong characters, coherent design, and ideas that hold up under scrutiny."

P.S.  There is much information online about my video game career.  I even have a hard-to-find IMDB listing, only because I briefly worked on the SNES version of Doom.   

https://www.mobygames.com/person/133588/john-coffey/

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm13954741/?ref_=ttfc_fcr_15_9

https://doomwiki.org/wiki/John_Coffey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSlmVbAM_kA&t=4474s

Google AI says the following about me and one other video game enthusiast named "John Coffey"...

"John Coffey, known as a level designer and playtester, worked on the Super Nintendo version of Doom. Another individual, John Coffey (1955–2025), was a gamer who created custom maps for Darkest of Days, Far Cry, and Carmageddon. This is not referring to the character from The Green Mile. 

• John Coffey (Developer): A developer involved in porting the classic shooter Doom to the SNES console.
• John Coffey (Map Creator): A community-driven map creator specializing in tactical and custom maps for PC titles. 

It is important to distinguish these individuals from the character John Coffey in Stephen King's The Green Mile, who is not featured in video games. "

eufy L60 Robot Vacuum with Self Empty Station

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/eufy-l60-robot-vacuum-with-self-empty-station-hair-detangling-technology-6-pack-dust-bags-black/JJ858RL6XF/sku/10772478

This is the robot vacuum cleaner I bought 1.5+ years ago.  Most of the robot vacuums I bought in the past have had mechanical issues within 2 to 3 years, and I used to buy larger, more expensive brands.  Note that some brands can go up to $1,000, and I don't feel like they are worth the cost.

I paid $300 on Amazon for it, but Amazon now lists it for $400.  I found it on Best Buy for $250.

So far I've been happy with this brand.  It seems more intelligent than all the brands I have bought before.  It is controlled with a phone App.  Some features on the app took some getting used to.

Because it is smaller, the dustbin doesn't hold much, so I feel that the self emptying station is an absolute must.  They recommend replacing the dust bag and filters once per month and it is necessary to clean out the dustbin and filters in the vacuum once or twice per month.

This vacuum works well with small debris, but large debris can clog the dustbin or the roller brush.

Once in a while it doesn't fully dock to its station so I have to give it a gentle push to get it to dock properly.

Manufacturing in the United States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing_in_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manufacturing#List_of_countries_by_manufacturing_output

Google AI tells me that Indiana has the largest concentration of manufacturing.  Other states with higher populations have more manufacturing overall.  This is no surprise, as factories are common in Indiana, and the state is known for its blue collar labor force.

My home of Columbus, Indiana, is essentially a factory town where Cummins Engine Company has its worldwide headquarters and is the main industry of Columbus.  

The industrialist Iwrin Miller took pride in Columbus, and was behind efforts to make it a nice place to live.  I loved growing up in Columbus, so much so that I always wanted to retire here.

Lawn

I mowed my front lawn for the first time this year. It was getting long.  The backyard doesn't need it yet because it doesn't get as much sun, so the grass grows more slowly.

I tried riding my bike outdoors for five minutes, but at 50 degrees, it was a bit too cold.  The other day, I was able to ride at 55 degrees by bundling up.

It wasn't too cold to mow the lawn, though.

Weeds are already starting to come up.  I thought my rock landscaping, which I put so much effort into, would prevent this from happening.

It is going to be warmer tomorrow.

3D effects

FYI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3FOrw416xs&t=264s

@john2001plus
0 seconds ago
4:24 These simple 3D mazes are easy to write; they can even be done in BASIC. I experimented with this kind of maze, but never turned it into a full game. I wrote more complex 3D effects on both the TS1000 and TS2068, but since they were in BASIC, they took forever to render.

On the TS1000, I created a rotating oscilloscope with a 3D projection. I did this on the TS2068 as well. On the TS1000, I was able to animate it by storing 16 screenshots in memory and switching the screen pointer. It looked incredible. On the TS2068, I implemented a kind of ray casting that created a 3D chessboard with an infinite number of squares projected out to the horizon. I also created a 3D pyramid projected in a 2.5D isometric view.

Unfortunately, I sold all of these effects—along with some simple BASIC games—as a product called The Great Game and Graphics Show. It sold well, but in hindsight, it was closer to a demo than a fully realized product. It was 1984, and I was just getting my feet wet writing software for personal computers.

I wrote this in 2020

Where are we in terms of technology compared to 10 or 20 years ago? There have been some major advances, but most of it has been incremental. Smartphones and tablets are roughly a decade old. In the year 2000, not everybody had internet, but we were definitely headed in that direction. We have gone from VHS to Blu Ray, and from CRT to big screen TV's. I first got cable internet in the early 2000's, and since then I have gone from 3 MbpS to 100 MbpS.

It appears to me that technology in the coming decade will explode. Some of it will be incremental, but some of it will be revolutionary. I am convinced that a decade from now many of our lives will be very different.

My old house in Salt Lake City

I tried to do a screen capture, which didn't work.  

The house was built in 1939, which is the year The Wizard of Oz came out.

The landscaping is completely different.  They planted a bunch of bushes and trees.  There is a "Love is Love" sign in the yard.  It looks like a small jungle, when it was mostly grass before.

You can see an AC unit that I had installed.  The house didn't come with AC when I bought it, but an evaporative cooler which didn't cool very well.

The old dilapidated garage is gone.  It was in such bad shape I never used it except for storage.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.729846,-111.8643645,3a,90y,42.29h,90.54t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sZ82zGDCUDyNBNpf79OfTmA!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fcb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26pitch%3D-0.53888476836255%26panoid%3DZ82zGDCUDyNBNpf79OfTmA%26yaw%3D42.292795806202854!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDMwNS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

I've seen pictures of the inside which was completely remodelled. 

From 12 years ago

Re: Apple’s Cheapest MacBook

On Wed, Mar 4, 2026 at 2:30 PM Albert wrote:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/shopping/apple-announces-its-cheapest-ever-new-macbook/ar-AA1Xwxu0?ocid=edgemobile

The benchmark for the A18 Pro chip is not bad, but a little slower than the M1 chip.  For a low cost and likely low power laptop, I think that it will be terrific.  On a phone this seems insane.

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Apple+A18+Pro&id=6268

The 2017 Core-i7 iMac I sold had a benchmark of around 10,000.  My 2020 Core-i7 model is around 19,000, but it has twice as many cores.  These are power hungry computers compared to the low power RISC style chips that Apple makes.

--

Best wishes,

John Coffey

http://www.entertainmentjourney.com

Video Games and Retro Gaming

FYI.

https://videogamesandretorgaming.blogspot.com/

I found a 2068 technical manual with a section called something like "How to make a Scramble like game".  Their solution says to use the Z80 block copy.  This means that it scrolls 8 pixels at a time.  If your objects are 16x16 then I think that 8 pixel scrolling is okay, but obviously not as good as smooth scrolling.

However, the block copy is slow.  At 21 clock cycles per byte, and with 6912 bytes counting the color attributes, this works out to be about 1/25th of a second.  However, it can only move these bytes during the vertical and horizontal blanking periods, which might make it take 4 times longer, although I'm not sure because I am trying to get more information.  I say 4 times longer because the slow mode on the TS1000 ran only at 25% speed because the processor spent most of its time sending bytes to the display hardware, which is how the Atari 2600 worked.  On the 2600 the program had to do this manually, whereas on TS1000 it is more automatic, but it still ties up the processor.

The 2068 only draws every other line on the NTSC screen, so maybe there is much more time available to draw to the screen.

I don't remember if used the block copy on my Diamond Mike game.  I think that I chose to redraw the entire screen on each frame, which is likely slower.  However, on the 2068, this appeared to be the perfect frame rate for this type of game.  If the game had been too slow then I would have tried the block copy.  I did the same full screen redraw on the Atari ST version of Diamond Mike and got roughly the same frame rate.  The Atari ST has a faster processor, but the screen memory is 4.5 times bigger.

If you know the size of your buffer, then there is a way to make the Z80 block copy slightly faster by not looping as much.  Instead of using the LDDR instruction, which does the entire block copy, a person could use the LDD instruction which only moves one byte and updates the pointers and the counter.  It only takes 17 clock cycles.  You could have 32 or 256 of these instructions in a row and then loop however many times as you need to.  Since the instruction decrements the BC counter, you can test the zero flag and loop if not zero.  This would increase the speed by about 24%.