In Designing Data-Intensive Appilications, Martin Kleppman points out that you don’t need to operate at Google scale. Developers need to be aware of the constraints and trade-offs that occur in a distributed system. He goes into issues that arise when data is distributed.
In Parts I and II, the discussion concerning all the major considerations that are involved in a distributed database assume there is only one database in an application. Applications commonly use a combination of different datastores. One of the most important things that needs to be done is to integrate disparate systems.
The distinction between timeliness and integrity is inconsequential from the point of view of ACID transactions. Timeliness is not guaranteed when asynchronously processing event streams, but integrity itself is central to a streaming system. Fault-tolerant delivery of messages and suppression of duplicates is important for maintaining data system integrity.
The Coachman of T. J. Klune’s In the Lives of Puppets, acknowledges that a piece of jerky is for animals. He then asks about a little hunk of partially carved wood he takes out of the bag. Nurse Ratched says it's hers, because she likes carving.
In This Tender Land, by William Kent Krueger, the top letter Albert slips out of a stack of letters is addressed to Superintendent, Lincoln Indian Trading School. He tells Odie to read it. Odie pulls the letter from the envelope.
Eve tells Brother WIllis to take her hand. He surprises her and tells her to make his dead wife talk to him or he’ll blow her head off.
Mother Beal tells Maybeth not to be long in finding Odie a soft spot for the night. The stars are innumerable, with the Milky Way a soft, blurry arc across the sky. Maybeth tells him, “It’s kind of scary out here.”
Saturday, December 13th, the women’s group for South Valley had their potluck and white elephant exchange for the holidays. I made Bacon and Basil Succotash and brought a Magic Bullet as my white elephant gift. We had a fun time. There was more than enough food for everyone, and then we later introduced ourselves, saying something that might shock other people.
I told about the time I was two years old in New Mexico. My mom’s friend had a toddler that was exactly two weeks younger than me. We loved to play in the sandbox behind the house, and we were both talkative. One day, she suggested that I just come out on my own to play, so I did. Instead of waiting for Mom, I used my climbing skills that had gotten me out of the crib to climb out the window. My mom never said a word when she later found me. She didn’t respond with shock or anger, just brought back inside when it was time to eat. I later found out that she had already gotten used to the shock that I was a climber, and was getting used to it.
The gift exchange was fun. We first debated how many times a gift could be stolen and that there could be no steal backs. The majority vote was for two steals.
We made it quite a ways in without any steals. I considered stealing a gift that had chocolate and cards, but settled against it, because whatever I wound up with was going to be my gift to the next while elephant. The first item stolen, believe it or not, was the Magic Bullet. I had a huge coffee mug with writing on the side that said “I am down to one cup of coffee per day.” That got stolen, and I went back and retrieved the next gift.
Looking into the bag, I could already see it was at least one book. Having seen that already, I chose the bag, and it had a second paperback book in there as well.
Our hostess had us then play Christmas Song Charades. When it was my turn, I was handed a little slip of paper, and immediately squated down and used my fists like I was playing drums. Almost immediately, someone shouted, “Drummer Boy!”
At service on Sunday, the youth put on a performance of Posadas. It is an indigenous-catholic tradition where a couple representing the holy family goes door-to-door with candles looking for a place to stay, and is turned away, until finally someone lets them in, and a party commences. By tradition, it is a candlelit parade through the streets, with many people following behind.
We are reminded that we are descended from immigrants, that they have always been, and always will be with us. We are reminded that most immigrants are poor, hungry, and need shelter. Most do not want to leave behind the family, culture, and traditions, but circumstances will not be in their favor if they stay. They have to make a hard decision to leave the home they once loved.
We are reminded that immigrants are human. Human beings do not do well when they are not welcomed, when they are not made to feel like they belong, and when the culture they are entering makes it hard to fit in, to make a living, to survive, and feed themselves and their family, and to have a roof over their head. They do not do well when they are threatened with harm, and put under a lot of pressure to forget who they are and why they are here.
Immigrants don’t come here to bring diversity, to shift our points of view, or to force us to understand them; but that is a blessing that they bring to the community that they immigrate to. They bring new ways of looking at the world to not replace, but to add to the ones we already have. They bring new ways of being, of loving, of sharing—if we can do the same for them.
Let’s not conflate immigration with terrorism—ever. Immigrants are travelers, pilgrims, seeking a place they can call home—a place where they can thrive and a community they can contribute to. Immigration happens because people refuse to give up hope, even in the darkest times.
Terrorists live to make change by instilling terror in others, by keeping them afraid. They believe that their way is the only way, the only true way, and that those who do not follow their way must face retribution. A terrorist is someone who is willing to cause death and suffering for their purpose, and does not consider whether those who are their victims are truly deserving or not. They willfully serve death and disorder up on a silver platter.
Immigrants are not terrorists—but the United States itself is committing acts of terror, by using military power to murder foreign civilians at sea in the Mediterranean, and by striking nuclear facilities in Iran.
The world sees the Trump administration as a terrorist threat and they would be right. Our congress people and our judiciary need to wake up and realize that the violence needs to end. We need to embrace one another and solve our issues through diplomacy and not bloodshed.
In The Door on the Sea, by Caskey Russell, Elān’s clan house has fallen into decay. Oddness and kindness are not enough to change fortunes. Aaní adults say they hate violence and want to see peace in the world, but they celebrate violence and war.
When a whip rips a small opening in a nest, raven remarks that he needed a front door and it’ll be easier to crap on the person down below who had whipped the nest. Kwa asks when Elān wants to turn east. Once clear of Shaanax, they can ride the wind due east to Lookana. If the Naakw Aaní want to interrogate the crew, Elān can run up the Aaní flag in hopes they will be left alone. He feels sure Waka can outrun any Naakw canoe.
In 107 Days, Kamala Harris writes that she knew the she’d be closely aligned with Tim Walz’s wife, Glen, on criminal justice reform and the role of educational opportunity in diverting youth from crime. Kamala wondered in what way Kim would manage being in the spotlight for the next ninety-one days. Campaigns done as couples forge intimacy and bring closeness.
The day leading up to the debate between Tim Walz and J. D. Vance is filled with tension. Sirens howl over Israel just before 7:30 pm. Limited damage and few causualties make it less likely Netanjahu mounts a massive counterstrike.
On Tuesday, December 16th, the Veteran’s Committee for West Valley City met at Squatter’s Corner Pub to be thanked by the city staff for everything we did on the committee and in other roles. The city paid for our meals and gifted us forty-ounce to-go tumblers with the city logo on them. I didn’t feel the thanks were quite complete, and I responded by saying I wanted to thank the staff, because without them the committee simply would not exist.
We were spread across two tables, and just chatting about the current state of the world, and what was happening. It is hard to meet with people and not have political concerns come up these days. At one point Councilman Whetstone came to the head of our table and just watched me with silent interest, until I asked him how he was. He then asked me if I had any plans in a strangely cryptic way.
I made the question about what I was doing for the break, that I was just reading, playing my game, and tending to meetings like the ACLU meeting that was to be held the following morning, and I immediately pivoted the question back to him.
Will announced that he was retiring from the National Guard, and we discussed retirement a bit longer, and the benefits we enjoyed by either staying in or going back to school with the GI bill. I took the latter path, and it definitely paid off in the long run. If I had stayed in the reserve another twelve years, I would have been able to start drawing a retirement check in 2027. On the other hand, I would have likely been called back to service, since I left the Navy in 1993.
I ordered the jambalaya and it was delicious! I had been craving jambalaya for months, and seeing it on the menu, I couldn’t resist. And let me tell you, that jambalaya bit back. The plate was huge and I wound up taking half of it home in a to-go container.
On the way out the door, I asked the manager about the possibility of using the back space in March for Oh No They Didn’t, the legislative wrap-up by the Utah Stonewall Dems. He said they could use the money and would have space for fifty people and we could overflow as needed. I’ve already let the board know. We will probably need to set the date at our next meeting.
The following day, the Executive Committee of the ACLU Board of Directors had a quick meeting to determine if we wanted to call for an electronic vote to seat three new board members by our retreat in January. We all agreed, and the electronic vote went gone out asking for responses by end-of-business Friday. The result was unanimous.
In Moon Blooded Breeding Clinic, by C. M. Nascosta, Moriah is familiar with the Azathé tea room. She had been there before with Drea a month or so after her divorce. Once the paperwork was complete, Drea had allowed her to mope for exactly two weeks.
Lowell’s mother tells him he should find some volunteer work. He grumbles something he hopes sounds like an answer. She tells him that she has a room ready for him at home.
In Run, Run Rabbit, Vanessa considers it a win that she didn’t need to climb a tree or hop a fence to get to the festival. She pauses before entering the fray. Someone asks if she has heard the news. Vanessa says that she must’ve missed it. The dark-haired woman on her left tells her, “Changes will be coming soon.”
Vanessa feels an itch in her skin the whole day at work. She considers how important their work is. Grayson treats her and everyone else with a sneering pompousness.
In Working Backwards, Colin Bryar and Bill Car point out that high-quality mock-ups or wireframes can be included as an appendix to a PR/FAQ. They list typical areas a FAQ addresses. Among the“Consumer Needs and Total Adressable Market (TAM)” area, they ask “How many of [the] consumers have the characteristics/capabilities/constraints necessary to make use of the product?”
On December 18, during our monthly caucus leadership meeting, I led those present in a reverse tutorial of how to use the legislature’s public website. Since the majority of the people said they were familiar with the site, I asked them how they could do a number of tasks. I first asked them how to get to the website, and where to find out out what was on the agenda. I asked them to explain how to follow a meeting, read a bill, and how to participate virtually. I explained the best way to discover the nuance of a bill was to Google it, and see what various organizations were telling the press. I also had them show me how to track bills. The caucus leaders felt good about the presentation and planned to take it back to their individual caucuses.
That night, I watched Star of Wonder at the West Valley Performing Arts Center. It was a musical set primarily in Christmas 1914 in the British and French trenches on the border with German forces. The platoon receives letters and gifts from back home. Jack receives the script for the Christmas Nativity his family puts on back home, and together the soldiers sing songs and tell stories celebrating their Christmas traditions. When they hear the Germans also singing, all but Jack head over to celebrate in the famous Christmas Armistice of 1914.
Historically, once leadership on both sides got wind of the celebration, it was forbidden, because they didn’t want empathy to develop among combatants. They didn't want the troops to hesitate killing someone they viewed as human.
On December 19, I met with the ACLU Retreat Planning Committee, and we worked out what we wanted to have on the agenda. We came up with ice breakers, the training we felt the board needed, and committee presentations. We do have some busines set aside that we need to take care of at the end of the retreat.
On Sunday, December 21, the Utah Stonewall Dems had their holiday party. We encouraged people to wear Christmas sweaters and bring potluck items. I brought a crockpot of hot chocolate with mix-ins and a electric tea kettle for people who wanted something else to drink. We had a nice spread of food, and quite a few people showed up, including candidates for congress.
We played Queer Agenda, mingled, had a history lesson, and had a white elephant exchange, using a die to determine each action. It was a lot of fun and I took home a scalp massager.
I loved getting texts from my daughters wishing me a Merry Christmas and sent them messages in reply. I also sent a Merry Christmas to my ex, but as usual no reply. Someday, maybe, there will be a reply, and we can find a form of solace once again. I have been mostly reading during this period. I logged in to go back to work on Friday, and discovered that I was already scheduled to be out until Monday. So, eventually I signed out and went back to reading.
Yesterday morning, Brooke invited me out to get breakfast. We finally settled on The Left Fork Grill in Murray. I haven’t been there in years. I spoke with the waitress, and I believe I will reserve the spot for January’s Queer Connect. Taken together, these moments—technical, literary, political, and deeply personal—tell a story about what it takes to hold complex things together. Distributed systems require care, integration, and an unwavering commitment to integrity, just as communities require welcome, trust, and moral clarity to survive fragmentation and fear. From the quiet intimacy of shared meals and stories to the global consequences of violence and exclusion, the same lesson repeats itself: when we tolerate dehumanization, whether in our data or in our politics, the system fails. As we move forward, the work is not just to understand complexity, but to respond to it with intention—to design systems that preserve integrity, to build communities that practice hospitality, and to choose empathy, accountability, and courage even when the world feels scattered and uncertain.
