It’s been a while since we published a Satur-deja Vu or a Happy Monday post. It’s been a slow couple of days at work, those happen sometimes but not often. Will there be a Monday post? Should you expect another Saturday post next week? Who can say? I’m not going to stress over getting them out on time every week but truth be told, I miss it. I still squirrel things away into folders just in case there is someone that might view them someday. So here it is, a little weekend jaunt that we used to call Satur-deja Vu.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup, number 23 if anyone is counting, began June 11, 2026 and will end with the championship match tomorrow evening. This evening at 5 PM EDT France and England will play to see who finishes in third place. Tomorrow Argentina and Spain will play for the World Cup title.

Hopefully no one missed out on all the high praise the United States received from those visiting for the first time. Europeans taking home all of the bottles of ranch dressing they can carry is amusing; but did you hear about the man who stood at the Grand Canyon and just cried? Or the South Afircan man who discovered it is safe for men and women, even squirrels, to walk though a park? He said he could not safely do that back home by himself, even in the daytime. He was amazed to see park benches that had not been vandalized or broken down, and women walking alone talking on their cell phones. I heard the story of one couple that arrived at a hotel near the stadium they planned to visit but had no idea how they were going to get there. One thing the US lags behind Europe in is public transportation. The hotel concierge put them into her car, drove them to the stadium, gave them her cell phone number, and told them to call her when they were ready to come back. A lot of people from many different nations were pleasantly surprised to find out how great America really is, whether it’s hospitality, big open spaces, ranch dressing or fried food at Waffle House. Well done host countries, Mexico and Canada included.

We have long been concerned that Artificial Intelligence would learn at a geometric rate and become dangerous once it was smarter than us. I often reference iRobot, The Matrix and the Terminator franchise as examples. We’re not there yet. The current systems are never going to get there because they do not learn; they look at examples of human behavior and use algorithms to make predictions. In the example above, there is a certain logic in that process. It copied exactly what it had been shown. Rote memorization and repitition is not a good examples of intelligence. That isn’t “learning.” We may someday be able to build machines that are capable of learning for real, in which case it will not be Artificial Inelligence, just… intelligence. But as it stands, we are not smart enough to do that yet.

Most Americans want the twice-a-year clock changes to stop and they don’t really care where we land. Of those that do care, a slight majority would prefer permanent DST to standard time, as would I. Lots of people seem to rember the last time the US tried it in 1974. I was born in 1975 and until the debate over this bill came up I didn’t even know it had been done before. It proved unpopular and ended after only a few months. Would it surprised anyone to learn that a lot of things in our culture have changed in the last 50 years? Others cite scientists and what they say is healthier; most Americans don’t really care what is healthier for us, let’s be honest. For what it’s worth, I would prefer that extra hour of sunlight in the evening so that it doesn’t get dark at 5:30 pm. Sunlight in the morning, when people are sleeping in as late as they can and then have to go work, isn’t useful for anything. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, in the comment section you are welcome to share yours. (Before you come at me with kids waiting for the school bus in the morning before sunrise, that happens already. What schools could do is start later, little kids should be getting on a bus at 7 a.m. regardless.) The House has passed this bill already and the Senate passed a similar measure in 2022, if they haven’t changed their minds since then. Trump has already voiced his support so if it makes it to his desk he will sign it.

Some people want to talk about standard time in terms of the way God intended. I think I will save my comments on that for another post. Enjoy the weekend, make time for family, worship with other believers. Peace and God bless.