!Christina's questions
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agk's diary 
13 July 2025 @ 20:12 UTC
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written on GPD MicroPC
before work
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I love when Christina writes five questions, and
look forward to reading answers from across the
gopher net.


1. Has a self-help book helped you?

   Moral philosophy is my krummes Holz (Kant's
   crooked stick to lean on). My two favorite
   papers are Athens and Jerusalem, a tale of 3
   cities by Gillian Rose (published in Mourning
   becomes the Law), and The shame of trauma, the
   trauma of shame by Agnes Heller.

   http://agk.sdf.org/docs/athens-jerusalem.pdf
   http://agk.sdf.org/docs/shame-of-trauma.pdf

   I'm a few weeks short of 18 years sober.
   Together with fellowship and sponsorship, the
   Alcoholics Anonymous basic text helped me. But
   it's more of a "help each other" book than self-
   help.


2. How many times a month do you cook dinner?
   Do you plan meals, or look in the refrigerator?

   I prepare most of my food at home. Soak and cook
   a lot of dry beans, with seaweed and a bay leaf,
   then eat like that as a side or make into an 
   entree. Rice, steel cut oats, winter wheat,
   storebought sourdough bread. Fried eggs or
   french toast. Whatever veg are in my CSA basket
   each week. Whatever fruit's at the 24-hour honor
   system cash box farm stand in Big Hill. Frozen
   fish or tinned sardines. Not much meat. Minimal
   to no planning.


3. Where do you get your recipes?

   I try to learn principles instead of recipes.
   The very meat-based Cooking at Home is good for
   that, or the veg based Healing with Whole Foods.
   I've got some principles for beans and sweet 
   potatoes on my gopher hole. I like exactly one
   website.

   https://recipe-search.typesense.org/


4. What are your great thrift store finds?

   Synthetic workout tops for caving, clock radios,
   videotapes, and glass marbles.


5. What would make, or has made, you more patriotic?

   An inspiring vision of a future in which my
   country is unexceptional in terms of GDP, energy
   use, or military budget, but exceptional in
   terms of attending to the common good, abhoring
   greed, and promoting lifelong flourishing within
   necessarily constrained means.