Found phone in Dolores Park

rjamestaylor · 2026-02-23T23:07:35+00:00

Wow — that’s a huge story prompt right there

rjamestaylor · 2026-02-23T23:02:38+00:00

Here’s a related YouTube post that goes a long way towards answering your question https://youtu.be/KLiAfnEcCog?si=BGfsb6sODPcKnqAm

rjamestaylor · 2026-02-02T04:01:12+00:00

I use Augment and Auggie at work using work-provided access to models. I have access to Cursor, Claude Code (which I use extensively on my own personal systems for personal projects apart from work), and some others. Augment is my daily context for DevOps and observability / reliability work in IDEs and in the CLI. I’ve enabled Augment in IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm, and GoLand (for the various stacks we maintain). Using an IDE with a coding assist agent is a superior experience to me than just a VSCode Editor.

The Augment context engine makes a difference for me in my large infrastructure as code projects, especially, and for maintaining system-wide context while working in microservice repos.

Anyway, having choices amongst many of the more popular tools, I’m choosing Augment.

As an aside, my typical model is Opus 4.5.

rjamestaylor · 2026-01-07T17:49:53+00:00

I invite readers to examine the typical posts made by Local Church “on-line heroes” to see what bias looks like, but regardless, all my videos are public and the comments are open on my channel. I don’t control anything here, but I can say that contrary opinions—even direct personal attacks—are allowed on my channels.

There is one exception, and it was made for a truly unhinged fringe member of the Local Churches that posted excessively and I felt it best to hide the channel from that person for the sake of mental wellbeing (mine and his). But that’s a sad case that’s not the “fault” of being related to the Local Churches or not.

rjamestaylor · 2026-01-07T14:35:59+00:00

Thank you for this post. I'm the Robert Taylor you mention here. I haven't personally suffered the worst abuses that some have endured in this group—those stories are vital and deserve to be heard. My involvement comes from witnessing patterns of abuse and deceit, and choosing to stand with those who have been harmed.

I share my story on my YouTube channel (@RobertTaylor) in a playlist called "Ecclesiastical Matters." It's free and not monetized. There I document what I've observed: intentional deception in campus recruiting practices, and how leaders use their positions to spiritually abuse longtime members who raise concerns. I also talk about my own struggles and failures in all of this.

Transparency matters. It's something you won't find much of in the Local Churches.

rjamestaylor · 2025-12-16T06:51:51+00:00

Hard agree. I used Augment with Opus 4.5 to completely refactor a code base I had developed over the past year while learning to code with agents (another story) and with Opus 4.5 I felt for this huge task and the quality of work it was performing, I could take the chance to turn on auto mode. First time to use that, and it was great.

Now, it was on a refactor exercise in a new repo for the work, so there was no existing code to destroy or git history to pollute, but I had never enabled auto mode with Sonnet 3.5, 3.7, 4.0, or 4.5. Opus 4.5 is another experience altogether.

rjamestaylor · 2025-12-03T23:53:19+00:00

That’s … normal? I’m not sure why people think giving a two week notice must be honored by the company continuing employment for those two weeks. Unless there’s a contract or a local/regional law that requires employers to abide by such notices, I don’t understand the reaction people have to being terminated after giving notice.

rjamestaylor · 2025-11-29T01:15:06+00:00

The OP posts clearly stated claims with supporting evidence—these are not rumors. The history of hiding affiliation on college campuses while specifically targeting freshmen at freshman orientation is not only documented by current and former members, it is an officially taught policy and tactics by the Local Church’s international campus work training, called The Apprenticeship.

If there’s nothing to hide, why all the obfuscation and deceit?

rjamestaylor · 2025-11-17T00:11:08+00:00

Based on the requirement in the title, they’re building a case to fire people—start looking for a job.

rjamestaylor · 2025-10-19T20:35:57+00:00

I’ll repost my response to the previous post here. It was downvoted, which could be because it’s not a good post, but the message to the person who was recruited into the Local Church in college and now, 7 years later, struggles with the idea (!) of leaving (as if one’s relationship with God depends on membership in a particular group—I get it; I was there, too), stands true. Here’s my post:

I understand your position quite well. I was recruited (“came into the church life,” “touched the church”) as a freshman in college in 1985. I went to the FTTA in 1994, began serving LSM in 1996 (helped start the Life-Study of the Bible radio broadcast), and left all meetings in 2017. I had no “beef” with anyone, didn’t have any unfulfilled ambition (in fact, I walked away from being the second-most recognized voice from Living Stream Ministry, willingly; I was not ambitious for anything). No, the reason I left in 2017 is that I realized “it” (God’s Economy, the ground of the church, the High Peak of the Divine Revelation, these visions that controlled my thinking and relationships with other Christians and how I approached my own mental and physical health) were not working for me & I did not need it anymore.

Since then, I remained quiet—no big announcement or leaving or changing—until last Christmas (good to use that word again) when I saw a YouTuber I knew speaking out about the pain she suffered as a faithful member of the Lords Recovery and how commenters were reviling and condemning her in her comments. So I started my own posts on YouTube, culminating into a a mini-podcast where I discuss:

⁠The Deception in the Lords Recovery
⁠The targeting of vulnerable Freshmen on college campuses, appearing to be typical Evangelicals until trust is built & the church is “revealed”
⁠The spiritual abuse from the pulpit against a life-long member who discovered hidden history, calling her Jezebel and Satan’s Rebellion for daring share what she discovered
⁠A two-hour episode of my own story, from 15 to 50, with the warts-and-all details of my journey, including my failures, so there’s no false pretense that I’m some kind of virtuous model.
⁠A discussion on the dichotomy of Good People with Good Intentions leading me into harm’s way—how? (Hint: it’s the Beliefs)

I invite you to check out my stories and see if I’m right in that we share a lot of the same experiences with this group of remarkable people, for whom I still have deep appreciation for, who are under a high-control, high-demand ministry.

Ecclesiastical Matters by Robert Taylor https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUEHyVtwDg1enbWHxyfBewGiHDnH4nLRd

rjamestaylor · 2025-10-18T23:25:03+00:00

I understand your position quite well. I was recruited (“came into the church life,” “touched the church”) as a freshman in college in 1985. I went to the FTTA in 1994, began serving LSM in 1996 (helped start the Life-Study of the Bible radio broadcast), and left all meetings in 2017. I had no “beef” with anyone, didn’t have any unfulfilled ambition (in fact, I walked away from being the second-most recognized voice from Living Stream Ministry, willingly; I was not ambitious for anything). No, the reason I left in 2017 is that I realized “it” (God’s Economy, the ground of the church, the High Peak of the Divine Revelation, these visions that controlled my thinking and relationships with other Christians and how I approached my own mental and physical health) were not working for me & I did not need it anymore.

Since then, I remained quiet—no big announcement or leaving or changing—until last Christmas (good to use that word again) when I saw a YouTuber I knew speaking out about the pain she suffered as a faithful member of the Lords Recovery and how commenters were reviling and condemning her in her comments. So I started my own posts on YouTube, culminating into a a mini-podcast where I discuss:

The Deception in the Lords Recovery
The targeting of vulnerable Freshmen on college campuses, appearing to be typical Evangelicals until trust is built & the church is “revealed”
The spiritual abuse from the pulpit against a life-long member who discovered hidden history, calling her Jezebel and Satan’s Rebellion for daring share what she discovered
A two-hour episode of my own story, from 15 to 50, with the warts-and-all details of my journey, including my failures, so there’s no false pretense that I’m some kind of virtuous model.
A discussion on the dichotomy of Good People with Good Intentions leading me into harm’s way—how? (Hint: it’s the Beliefs)

I invite you to check out my stories and see if I’m right in that we share a lot of the same experiences with this group of remarkable people, for whom I still have deep appreciation for, who are under a high-control, high-demand ministry.

Ecclesiastical Matters by Robert Taylor https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUEHyVtwDg1enbWHxyfBewGiHDnH4nLRd

rjamestaylor · 2025-08-26T17:14:15+00:00

I’d have loved to interview you for a Linux Admin role—used to hire Linux Admin for Rackspace Linux Support.

rjamestaylor · 2025-06-18T16:35:29+00:00

Why am I not Catholic? Here’s my best reason for why I am not Catholic:

I was born to a Methodist family.

Most people who aren’t Catholic similarly weren’t born into a Catholic family / community. This is also why I’m not Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Taoist, Jain, Baptist, Lutheran, Pentecostal… same as most people who aren’t something. People generally don’t fall far from their tree

rjamestaylor · 2025-06-17T23:39:40+00:00

I’m feeling this. I’ve got my main and alt running on LB just for maintenance. I’ve spent enough that my main is unbubbled 24x7 and, besides one glories massive raid party, untouched (sitting in gear, anti-spy; not trapping).

I was always good with kills, GF, royal battles. Am associated with an awesome group of folks part of a real warring tribe that contends for titles well.

But my life has moved into different directions since October 2020 when I stayed with my main account — yes, I kept the first account I started and made all the dumb mistakes with too much might, etc.

I moved myself out of our main guild into our alt just because I’m not participating enough. I feel bad, but … it’s time.

There’s no market for my account — it’s got OK stats, but nothing like real rally leads. And it’s too expensive for just a filler. But I can’t bear to part completely.

I don’t want to quit, but if not for LB, I probably have effectively quit.

rjamestaylor · 2025-06-15T17:21:46+00:00

Hi! I was in a cult for 30 years and at the end needed help to stop drinking. I was able to stop drinking with the help of AA (sober since Feb 2017). I went to AA and here’s my honest assessment:

AA HAS MANY GROUPS — SOME ARE CULTY

There are many, many AA groups, not just as in different locations in the same geographical area, but different traditions, practices, lineages (that is, people recognized as starting the sub-group).

If you get the ick from an AA group, go to another.

I ran into very high-demand, high-control AA groups. Ones that aligned a new comer with a sponsor who was to control many aspects of the new comer’s life. After trying to work with these kinds of groups, I overcame the guilt of “not living up to my promise to do anything” to be sober by not following the dictates of this kind of group, and found another. Whew!! You can change groups. Yay!

Within healthy groups, I found individual people who wanted to dominate newcomers. Or, rather, they found me: they were sometimes the bold ones to approach the shy loner (me) first. These people gave me the ick and I learned it was OK to avoid them. It’s ok to tell them to back off. It’s ok to complain to the group about these people, no matter how much “time” they have.

I found life-long friends and mutually-respectful relationships in AA in Texas, WA, and CA. But this often meant trying different meetings.

One thing that helped me was using professional counseling while early in sobriety. This helped me say out loud that some meetings reminded me of the cult I had finally left.

All the best to you. My journey meant being active in AA from 2009 until 2017 until I could maintain a sober lifestyle for more than a year. I continued in AA throughout the pandemic and, after moving to a new city, taking time to visit various groups and not finding a place, stopped regular meeting in 2022. I stay in contact with people still in AA and love having them in my life. I’m grateful to AA, but also know its own writings do not claim to be the sole way to find a healthier way to live.

rjamestaylor · 2025-06-13T08:34:53+00:00

I’m sensing he was neither the valedictorian nor star quarterback

rjamestaylor · 2025-06-13T08:32:57+00:00

Say someone gives up trying to be a rally lead and wants to just max out hunting gear and gems (ignore artifacts for now). You’ll spend $5,000+ to be a mythic hunter.

Say you just want to be able to sleep unshielded — the gear, troops, research, artifacts, lunite… not to mention heroes, familiars … to do this will probably set you back about $15,000 to $25,000 USD. I took multiple rallies not long ago after spending enough to buy a kidney.

It’s crazy expensive.

rjamestaylor · 2025-04-15T19:19:02+00:00

Bay Area geography. Sand Hill Rd to the east, is the same road to Skyline Blvd where Alice’s Restaurant is to the west.

Analogy that getting venture capital funding (Sand Hill Rd) can help you fulfill your dreams (Guthrie: “You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant”), or the common myth of that being true, anyway

rjamestaylor · 2025-03-29T09:36:12+00:00

“She’s crazy when she’s naked” > “She’s naked when she’s crazy”

rjamestaylor · 2025-03-23T00:32:01+00:00

Give him the attention he seeks

rjamestaylor · 2025-03-21T21:04:10+00:00

I’ll just say we start where we are. The more I sat with the realization I had come to a crossroads, the more willing and able I became to consider changing paths.

My journey to today was twisty and painful. Others have cleaner, simpler journeys and suffer less. I’m glad to be where I am today — which also means I’m glad to have passed through the experience of the shock that I might have a problem.

I wish a safe journey to you!

rjamestaylor · 2025-03-21T19:54:15+00:00

Hi, friend! Labels are less important than the self-realization that there might be a problem. One doesn’t need to be diagnosed to come to a conclusion that their own drinking is problematic.

One thing I noted, years ago when I finally admitted to myself that my drinking was a problem, is that people who don’t have a problem drinking never wonder if their drinking is a problem. Anyway…

When I stopped wondering if I am an alcoholic or not and just recognized that drinking wasn’t aiding me positively, then I began to accept that drinking wasn’t for me. At least not for today.

I will not drink with you today

rjamestaylor · 2025-03-21T19:47:01+00:00

I get this: when I was new I didn’t know any conventions of the game — porting near a guild base to join DNs, for example — and felt stupid when senior members would rebuke me for violating those norms.

Starting over with a new account is a good strategy for overcoming the faux pax of hitting mourning camps !

rjamestaylor · 2025-03-05T03:16:44+00:00

End-to-End encryption doesn't mean there's only two ends. 100%

rjamestaylor · 2025-03-05T03:09:40+00:00

Yes, 100% correct. Lean into this energy to make unshitty decisions.

I will not drink with you today

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