Plex: 3 September 2025

The Biweekly Plex Dispatch is an inter-community newspaper published by Collective Sense Commons on first and third Wednesdays of each month. Price per issue: 1 USD, or your choice of amount (even zero).

Special Issue #86

• Cabbages and Kings (Peter Kaminski)
• Nuts and Bolts (Peter Kaminski)
• Kith and Kin (Peter Kaminski)
• Bits and Pieces - SnapStack (Peter Kaminski)
• Fall 1986 - Transgenerational Patterns (Ken Homer)
• Fall 2003 - CPR (Ken Homer)
• Affirming Life (Ken Homer)

Cabbages and Kings

by Peter Kaminski

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “To talk of many things…”

Let's take a break from the regular Plex posts to talk about our own version of “sealing-wax, cabbages, and kings.”

It’s been my honor and pleasure to run CSC Mattermost, an inter-community chat server, and to publish the Biweekly Plex Dispatch, an inter-community newsletter, since November 2020 and February 2022, respectively.

The time has come for me to move on to other things. I’m planning to wrap up and publish the final issue of Plex on September 17th, 2025.

My plan with CSC Mattermost is to start to notify folks, export channel data, and to shut it down by early October 2025.

Both services have had a good run. They’ve helped connect people, form groups, and provide community scaffolding. Thank you so much for being part of them!

But neither service has developed the kind of larger-scale inter-community engagement I was hoping for. Neither service is too much of a bother, but getting the newsletter together twice a month or for Mattermost, keeping the server running, making sure the software and the OS are up-to-date, and stepping in once in a while to solve problems, it’s not zero, either. It’s feeling like time to put these loads down and to pick up others.

Also, for chat, the landscape has changed. In the intervening years since 2020, along with the OGM mailing list that existed then and now, I feel like some additional alternatives have gotten real: Signal, Discord, Mastodon, Bluesky, Matrix. It’s not like folks don’t have places that fit their needs, probably better than CSC Mattermost.

You know the saying, “Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness?” I’m glad I lit these candles, and they have been beacons in some amount of darkness. But these candles are not in the spot to help the most people any more. These days, I need to find better ways to help.

The fact that it stings a little to think about shutting them down tells me they mattered. Maybe that’s how you know when something was worth trying.

For CSC Mattermost, I can imagine an option for a group of community stewards to rally and help me keep the lights on. But I’m not holding my breath on that, and I’m genuinely at peace with wrapping it up. I’m also pretty sure any effort to reinvigorate CSC Mattermost would be better spent adopting community on Signal, Discord, or Matrix. Let me know if you’d like to talk more about that.

Dear Plex readers and CSC Mattermost members: Thank you SO much for your readership and support along the way. It’s meant a lot to me, and I truly appreciate it.

Yours in community,

Pete

Nuts and Bolts

by Peter Kaminski

Following on from Cabbages and Kings above, here are some details about shutting down CSC Mattermost and Plex.

Plex and CSC Mattermost Community Call

If you’re interested in joining a Zoom call in the next month to chat with friends and discuss next steps, add your name here:

Stay Informed: Plex & CSC Mattermost Zoom Call

I’ll email you a scheduling poll and date/time of call(s).

Plex

• If you are a paid subscriber, thank you! Your support has helped me immensely in continuing to publish the Plex. My plan is to stop your paid subscription, and give you a pro-rated refund. If you have any questions or concerns, I want to hear from you, email me at kaminski@istori.com.
• At some point, I’ll convert Plex from a live Ghost blog to a static HTML website. All the URLs and content will be the same. The web styling may change. I have hopes to repurpose the content as well; making individual posts from each issue, making an easy-to-download archive, making it easy to use AI to sift through the issues, etc.

Mattermost

• I’ll make sure all the non-private channels get exported, and private channels where I can do so while respecting privacy considerations.
• Email me with any other questions or concerns: kaminski@istori.com.

Chat/messaging services where you’ll still be able to find me: Signal, Discord, Matrix, Bluesky, Mastodon. And maybe Nostr. :)

Kith and Kin

by Peter Kaminski

Plex wouldn’t have been possible without these kind and generous contributors. Thank you so much for helping me publish the Plex!

Grateful appreciation and many thanks to John Abbe, Vincent Arena, Bill Anderson, Judith Benham, Mark Bernstein, Charles Blass, David Bovill, Douglass Carmichael, Patti Cobian, Joe Corneli, Brad deGraf, Stacey Druss, Wendy Elford, Chris Felstead, Pete Forsyth, Gil Friend, Kylie Stedman Gomes, Julian Gómez, Michael Grossman, Cody Harrison, Ken Homer, Todd Hoskins, Kaliya Identity Woman, Chochi Iturralde, Kevin Jones, John Kelly, Hank Kune, Jon Lebkowsky, Jose Leal, Stewart Levine, Michael Lennon, Boris Mann, Klaus Mager, Wendy McLean, Jerry Michalski, Scott Moehring, Jack Park, Linda Park, George Pór, Grace Rachmany, Jonathan Sand, Killu Sanborn, Doc Searls, Sam Schikowitz, Jordan Sukut, Shaun Swanson, Jamaica Stevens, Tibet Sprague, Jessie Upp, David Witzel, and Marianne Wyne.

(I hope I got everybody–if not, my apologies, and let me know so I can thank you in the next issue!)

Bits and Pieces - SnapStack

by Peter Kaminski

Hey, I’m excited to tell you about a new project I’m working on, SnapStack. In the Massive Wiki - MarkPub universe, it will provide an alternative to Git for sharing and versioning files. If it sounds interesting and you want to follow along, send me an email: kaminski@istori.com.

(In “Massive Wiki”, the word “Massive” is inspired by an acronym, “MaSVF”. The word “Wiki” represents naming and easy linking between pages, as well as the “wiki culture” of collaborative writing. MaSVF stands for Ma rkdown, S hared, V ersioned, F iles.)

SnapStack will be a light collection of workflows and collaborative agreements for a small, cohesive team, say 3-10 people, to use. It will use IPFS as a decentralized, immutable storage commons, IPNS for a canonical pointer to the most recent version of the wiki / vault / repository being worked on, and some lightweight versioning, in a version chain. The workflows are straightforward enough that you could just use a checklist to run through them as you pull and push new versions, but I expect we’ll build some lightweight software to automate the workflows.

A mostly non-technical explanation of IPFS: It’s like there’s a magical interplanetary disk drive, and you can use any of various gateways to access it. You give your local gateway a “content ID” (a CID), and it magically retrieves and gives you the corresponding file.

Underneath, it’s decentralized / distributed. Your local gateway node connects to a variety of other nodes around the solar system, and they all exchange a distributed hash table of who’s got which file. When you request a file that your local node doesn’t have, it asks around if anyone else has seen that file (by ID), until someone says, sure, here you go. Then you get the file. Kinda like interlibrary loan, but with many more books.

(Small tweak, the files are actually handled in chunks, usually around 256KB, and your gateway might get chunks of the file from different servers.)

Content-addressed storage is key. Files are identified by cryptographic hashes of their content rather than location-based addresses. This ensures content integrity and enables the decentralized model.

A “cryptographic hash” is another magical thing. It’s a bit of math that any computer can run when it looks at a file, which produces a unique ID from the contents of the file. So there’s a perfect 1:1 correspondence between the ID and the file or any exact copy of the file. But if the file changes even one little bit, the math generates a different ID!

Fall 1986 - Transgenerational Patterns

by Ken Homer

My dad was 42 when I was born, and his dad was 42 when he was born
Family lore has it that my grandmother was cold and distant towards my dad.
Harsher behaviors were hinted at but never confirmed
He may have been an “oopsie!” what is known, is that he was not very much wanted
All my dad’s siblings were ten to 15 years older than he was
So, all my first cousins were 18 to 30 years older than me
Agewise, they were more akin to aunts and uncles than to cousins
Most of them had kids around my age

My dad had an alcohol problem–a big one–he came by it honestly
Although “honestly” and “an alcohol problem” seems an odd juxtaposition
His dad had the same problem
And his father before him
And all their brothers
And all my male cousins on my dad’s side
All of them succumbed to the allure of ethanol
The dispiritedness that runs so deep in my paternal line
Sent each of them to seek comfort in distilled spirits
Alas, it proved a fruitless search for it wasn’t the balm for their souls they sought
Instead of healing them, their drinking destroyed their lives and livelihoods
With a considerable amount of collateral damage done to their families

In 1986, when my dad lay dying, a cousin of mine told me a story about him
The story takes place in December in 1953 a few years before I was born
My dad was in his late thirties at the time and fully in the thrall of alcohol
My cousin said that my dad was at a bar, and he knew he was too drunk to drive
He was due at my aunt’s house, so, he called my cousin and asked him for a ride
My cousin obliges and picks up my dad who gets into my cousin’s car
He told me that my dad was drunk but coherent and they chatted on the way home
But when they got to my aunt’s house and walked in something happened
When my aunt realized my dad was drunk, she lost it totally and flew into a rage
She started to slap my dad repeatedly across the face and she was screaming at him:

Nobody wants you here
We never wanted you
Nobody wants you
Go away!
Get out!
You don’t belong here!

When my aunt started hitting my dad my cousin said it was like a switch got thrown
My dad suddenly started to act far drunker than he’d been on the ride over
And he’s crying and sobbing and apologizing and begging her to let him stay
But my aunt keeps slapping him and shouting at him to get out
And he walks out into the cold winter night–alone

A lifelong smoker, my dad died of lung cancer–his dying process was brutal
It was horrific to see him coughing up blood as he wasted away–he lost 60 pounds
It tore my world apart to watch it unfold; I really had no idea how to handle it
Coping with it sent me down my own alcohol-drenched path in search of surcease
I was downing two six-packs a night just to be able to sleep, but it was worse for him
In his final weeks the nursing staff told me he was wrestling demons every night
He’d cry out in his sleep, yell, and sometimes sob before waking himself up

Now, I never felt unwanted growing up but there was a lot of abuse in my childhood
I always felt close with my oldest sister, but I devastated by an incredibly cruel act
On Christmas Day 1988 she invited me to come over to be with her and her kids
I assumed that meant for a few hours not for a few minutes
But after the kids had opened their presents, she told me it was time for me to leave
She told me that they wanted to have a “family Christmas dinner”
Driving home, wiping away tears, I recalled my cousin’s story about my dad
I felt a deep kinship with my father as I felt the bitter sting of being rejected by family

It was maybe two decades later that I made the connection across the generations
One day it occurred to me that my sister telling me to leave her house on Christmas
So that she could have a family Christmas dinner was a reenactment of the same
Dance that my dad and his sister took part in almost exactly 35 years earlier
Same family, different generation, same pattern, same devastating consequences
My dad was drunk I was sober–history wasn’t exactly repeating but is sure was rhyming
Somehow that realization eased the pain of both of those memories for me a little

The burden of darkness that infests the hearts of the men born into the paternal line of
My family was passed along to me without my consent and bearing it cost me dearly
There is something far bigger than one person with a drinking problem here
In generation after generation the hurt and blame are always assigned to the addict
Nobody ever looked at the family system that produced generations of alcoholics

There’s a trail of broken men with suffering wives and kids in my paternal line
All these wounded men have hurt and scarred those they loved and who loved them
A first cousin committed suicide as a result of her father’s abuse
Nobody wants to talk about that or the other things that discomfit them
Easier to stay in denial, easier to say “We don’t talk about that around here”

I’m the only one who faced the pain, got sober, and did the healing work required
But then I dared to speak up and name the hard truths that no one wanted to face
My reward was being exiled from my family rendering me powerless to intervene
I didn’t realize until long after my excommunication that that too, is a system response
So, the pattern continues unabated as my nephews discover that they are powerless
In the face of intergenerational trauma and addiction
Evolution has a dictate: learning is mandatory, survival is optional
I learned and survived my family’s illness, others were not so lucky

Ken Homer • Jan 2024

Fall 2003 - CPR

by Ken Homer

It was a dazzling Autumn afternoon
The sun warmed the air and bathed the
redwoods in a golden-hued light
I had to run some errands for my boss
who was leaving for Europe the next day
It was so lovely I took the long way round
I had the sunroof and windows open
Life During Wartime blasting on my stereo

As the chorus of “This ain’t no party
this ain’t no disco This ain’t no fooling
around” came on a woman appeared
in the road and flagged me to a stop

Do you know how to do CPR?
Yes, I do–This was soon to be tested
I had not had a CPR training since
Boot Camp over 25 years earlier—
Help! I think this woman needs CPR!
She gestured and I saw a woman
laying in the middle of the street

I turned off my engine ran to her side
I took her pulse and a line I had heard
so often on TV medical shows ran
through my mind: Pulse rapid and thready
I never knew what that meant until
my fingers transmitted the message to me

I looked more carefully at her
She was maybe mid-60s slightly
overweight with a boxy plain face
Her skin was pale and waxy
Her eyes were open but blank and
unseeing Her pupils hugely dilated
I didn’t need a medical degree
to know she was in bad shape

I asked the woman who flagged me over
What’s your name? Kathy, was her reply
Please call 911 and give them our location
I took the prone woman’s hand and I tried
to speak with as much reassurance and
confidence as I could muster: Stay with us
We’re going to see through this–hang on
Just then she stopped breathing

Kathy we’re going to have to perform CPR
I’ll do the breaths and you do the
compressions–can you do that?
She looked panicked–I don’t know how
Don’t worry I’ll show you–it’s simple
Kneel beside her–you will need to use
your body weight not your arms or you
will quickly become exhausted
She got into position–Good now put
your left hand right here where her ribs
meet her sternum then place your right
hand on top of your left and interlace
your fingers like this–I demonstrated
Now bending forward from your waist
with your arms straight press down 2 inches
to push air out of her lungs then release
You need to count each compression
When you get to 15, l’ll give her
three breaths while you rest—is that clear?
Kathy looked stricken but nodded
It’ll be okay Kathy, we’ll do this together!

Ready? Begin! Kathy counted to fifteen
I opened the unconscious woman's mouth
placed my mouth over hers and exhaled
Immediately I felt my breath flow not into
Her lungs but into my right ear–Damnit!
I had totally forgotten to check her mouth
For obstacles and to pinch her nose shut
I did those two things and tried again

Her chest rose–I gave her another breath
Okay Kathy, start the compressions again
There was a cracking noise–Kathy froze
It's okay you cracked a rib just keep going
She did 15 more and I did the breaths

About ten minutes into the process, I had
the distinct feeling that we were working
on a woman who was not going to live
I noticed that she had voided her bladder
I had the strangest feeling that she had left
her body and was watching us work
Some part of me could feel her nearby

Just then a car horn blared at us
looked up to see a man in a brand new
Mercedes Benz motioning for us to clear
the road so that he could drive by us
lignored him but he kept honking Then
he yelled at us: You're blocking the road!
I wanted to yell back that he was a
complete asshat but instead I shouted that
We’re trying to save a woman’s life
He turned sped off in the other direction
Laying rubber to express his displeasure
My judgments about people accustomed
to privilege (it’s an epidemic in Mill Valley)
nearly got the better of me but I returned
my focus to trying to save this woman

I checked the time it had been nearly
twenty minutes since Kathy called 911
Where the hell are the paramedics?
We didn’t have to wait much longer
I could hear the sirens approaching

When they arrived, they looked over at us
Then they took their time getting prepared
I suspect that they could see it was
a hopeless case and felt no urgency
One of them was smoking a cigarette
he took a final drag and approached

Okay we’re here–you can go now
Kathy and I stood down we were both
agitated by the adrenaline flooding us
I still had the feeling that the woman
had left her body but was hovering nearby
I looked up and whispered to her:
Go towards the light that’s where you’ll
find healing and your next adventure!

We watched them put the ambu bag
over her mouth and start the compressions
The cigarette smoker turned to us once
more: You can go now we’ve got it

I asked Kathy if she wanted to go
Her eyes said no as she shook her head
We had both devoted considerable
effort to saving this woman and
neither of us was ready to simply
walk away just because the paramedics
had taken over for us and told us to go

We told him that we wanted to stay
Suit yourself—he shrugged turned away
They worked on her for a few more
minutes before loading her into the
Ambulance and driving off with no sirens

Kathy hugged and thanked me
We said goodbye to each other
Two strangers who would never see each
other again united by a moment of crisis
determined to do all we could to help

I returned to work and was immediately
assailed by my boss with several demands
She was leaving the next day and there
was still a lot to do to get ready
There was no time for me to process what
I had just experienced, nor could I tell her
I got to work but was in an altered state
I have no idea what I did in the remaining
hours before heading home that night

My wife took one look at my face when I
got home and asked me what happened
I told her of the afternoon’s events
We both sat in a kind of stunned silence
Then she suggested that I call the hospital

I did call them and was told that policy
dictated that they couldn’t tell me
anything as it would violate confidentiality
I played on her sympathies–explained
I had spent 20 minutes doing CPR and just
wanted to know the result of my efforts
I wasn’t after any names or details
only if the woman who was admitted lived
I’m not supposed to say, she told me
But if it were me I’d want to know too
I’m sorry to tell you that she didn’t make it

Days later an obit appeared in the paper
she was Carolyn King—a retired teacher
She’d been diagnosed as bipolar and was
living in a group home near where Kathy
found her–somehow Carolyn had
managed to pull two people to her side
so that she didn’t die alone or uncared for
We were there–we witnessed her parting
We wished her well–RIP Carolyn King

Ken Homer • March 2024

Note: CPR has been revised to compressions only

Affirming Life

A beautiful afternoon in West Marin

by Ken Homer

Thank you for reading! The next and final edition will be published on 17 September 2025. Email Pete with suggested submissions.