Thanks to my latest hacker, I have a new credit card. This one not only has a chip, of course, but the capacity to make purchases via tapping. Simply tap the card on the terminal. I haven’t had the opportunity to do that yet. I look forward to experiencing the thrill of crowding onto that cutting edge with the rest of the up-to-date buyers. The rate of technological innovation accelerates. We must keep up, even though the overall condition of the earth seems not to be improving.

I once saw a startlingly clear drone photo of a beach resort. The receding wave’s irregular lacework was frozen in one of its infinitely random macrame designs. The beach umbrellas had been arranged in straight, evenly-spaced rows of primary colors. The minds of nature and humankind are facing off, as usual. I suppose there will be a winner and a loser. In the meantime, I’ll share my new string of digits with all my pay pals.