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Irreversible commitment of resources 💸

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It feels like that even more when I have to go SEFCU and get that bank check made out to Ruth’s for $4,936 to pay the remaining balance off on the truck cap, which getting installed as I work today.

The bank opens up at 8:30 AM, 💵 and I’ll get the funds out to pay for the truck cap, and then drive over to Ruth’s. Hand them the check, hop on the bike, riding over to Central Avenue and catching the BusPlus downtown. I said I would be in to work by 10 AM, probably earlier, and would leave at 3:30 PM this afternoon to pick up the truck, the cap permanently installed.

People question the wisdom of getting a truck cap, 🚛 especially after getting an F-350 SuperDuty. You could carry a lot more weight on a 1-ton axle. Those fiber glass caps are limited to how much weight they can carry on their roofs, only 150-200 lbs, though that’s plenty for the solar and the kayak. But I didn’t want a truck that’s real top heavy, when navigating the highways, especially as with the MX Cap that kayak does ride high. The truck should be more stable then lifted Silverado, as on SuperDuties, especially with the “little” Minizilla 6.8L engine, it sits low in engine bay, making for low center of gravity, even if the SuperDuty on 33s rides nearly as high as the Silverado. I looked at the steel caps, the modular once you can get, but they tend to leak more in the rain, and lack bug screens, and don’t give you extra roof height for sitting in the back. I considered used slide-in, but they are expensive, have a high-center of gravity and worse clearance, and are much more frilly and comfortable then what I want for camping. So I made my decision, to stay with the status quo.

Maybe I have too much of a bias to the status quo, 🪹 refusing to change my mind or adapting new technologies and ways of doing things. But I wanted a big ol SuperDuty, and the half ton engines with all the fuel economy and emissions crap are such unreliable turds these days. 💩 I was actually continuing to study the route across Ohio into Michigan, and maybe I’m wrong about the Ohio Turnpike being a shit storm of truck traffic and a bazillion on-off-ramps like Interstate 81. The Midwest isn’t a fast growing part of country, and if you take I-280 from I-90 down to the Ohio Turnpike, you mostly stay out of the worse of Cleveland Traffic, and you’re actually south enough of Toledo. Still 8 hour drive seems a bit much. Maybe I can do a stop over on the way out in Ohio but skip that on the trip back. Let’s see what gas prices are like in 5 weeks. I am thinking of leaving on July 29th and returning home on August 9th, whether I go to the Finger Lakes or Michigan or Warren National Forest in Ohio. An alternative I’m exploring too is driving down to Allegheny National Forest, overnighting there and then driving down to Warren National Forest. I just got to figure out what’s interesting and fun to see in that part of hills of Southern Ohio. ⛰️ I am sure there are a lot of great things I’m unaware of. The Finger Lakes are easy but boring. 💤

Truth is I didn’t sleep well last night. 🛏️ Just thinking about all these things. 🧹 I washed the truck last night, and swept out the bed this morning, so it’s clean with the cap 🚛 being installed today. I was standing in the bed, looking at the truck, smiling a bit. ☺️ I tell you though, buying more wire conduit, twist ties, screws, and a few other components I needed and it was $33 bucks, I was like fuck. The aluminum bar I needed was only $25.31 so that wasn’t so bad, and I got 10 foot rather then 8 foot (splitting it with dad), but whatever. And then groceries were expensive, as I needed coffee ☕ and olive oil 🫒 among other supplies, so that was over $100. But I make good money, and it going to be a lot of good adventures. When I got to Lowe’s and started looking for M8 bolts 🔩 to tie into the tracks for the second solar panel mounting, I discovered that couldn’t be the right size bolt. Then when I got home, looking through my toolbox, I discovered I had appropriate sized bolts, and I have “A” base plates they attach to. I should have everything for my truck build now, except the second battery box, which I will be getting at Walmart this evening after picking up the truck this afternoon. The aluminum bar scratched the bed liner a bit, which I wasn’t happy about, that bedliner was certainly cheap and not good quality. But there isn’t a Line-X or BulletLiner dealer locally any more, and I wasn’t going to get to an even softer RhinoLiner or OnyxLiner which I hear is tough on the knees.

At any rate, to get going 🛻 I set the truck to remote start at 8:10 AM 🕗 to give it a few minutes to warm up before heading out on the highway, which should get me to SEFCU by 8:30 AM based on Waze. I am bit excited even if I am a bit nervous.

SVGZ Graphic: party-congress
SVGZ Graphic: avg-cloudiness-for-december
Map: Green Mnt NF Forest Road 74 Camping

Is China Funding Opposition to AI Data Centers?

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While China-based actors have engaged in online covert influence operations to stoke opposition, there is no credible evidence that the broader, grassroots opposition to AI data centers is funded or created by China.

  • The Tactics: The operatives pushed localized narratives claiming that massive AI data centers were driving up electricity bills for average American families.
  • The Impact: OpenAI noted that these specific campaigns were largely unsuccessful and gained almost no authentic engagement or widespread public traction.
  • State Media: Outlets like China’s Global Times have run English-language opinion pieces highlighting the environmental toll and electrical grid vulnerabilities of U.S. data centers. [1]

Recent investigations and tech-industry intelligence paint a highly nuanced picture of how foreign influence intersects with genuine domestic grievances.

Verified Chinese Influence Activities

In June 2026, OpenAI published a threat intelligence report detailing a cluster of ChatGPT accounts originating from China. These accounts were being used to generate social media comments and images aimed at shaping U.S. attitudes toward AI. [1, 2, 3]

Congressional Investigations & Industry Claims

A faction of Republican lawmakers, including the House Ways and Means Committee and House Energy and Commerce Committee, along with data center investors like Kevin O’Leary, have alleged that China is funneled “dark money” into U.S. non-profits to spark protests. [1, 2]

  • The Allegations: These claims heavily rely on a May 2026 report by the ⁠Bitcoin Policy Institute. The report argues that a web of funding ties U.S. anti-data-center efforts to networks aligned with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) narratives. [, 2, 3]
  • The Response: Intelligence and technology experts, as well as analytics firms like Graphika, have expressed strong skepticism regarding these funding claims. They state that evidence of a coordinated, Chinese-bankrolled campaign to stop data centers remains very thin. [1, 2]

The Root Cause: Localized Domestic Grievances

Independent experts emphasize that the backlash against data centers is primarily driven by authentic, domestic, and localized concerns. Public sentiment has cooled significantly in data-center heavy states like Virginia and Maine due to tangible community disruptions. [1, 2, 3]

Main Drivers of Grassroots Opposition [1, 2, 3, 4]

Grid Strain & Energy Costs – Data centers require immense electricity, sparking fears of rising residential utility rates.

Water Consumption – The heavy water usage required to cool high-performance AI chips raises alarms in drought-prone areas.

Environmental Impact – Concerns over localized pollution, increased reliance on fossil-fuel backup generators, and land use.

Ultimately, while Chinese state actors leverage social media to amplify existing American grievances to slow down U.S. technological growth, they did not create the opposition movement, nor is there proof that they fund the citizens and community groups protesting locally. [1, 2, 3]

Terrain Map: Glacial Lake Windham
Thematic Map: Vly Creek Reservior Watershed
Map: Tug Hill State Forest (Inman Gulf Area)

Good morning, short week on this Monday morning 🌅

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Friday is Juneteenth, and Tuesday I get the truck cap. Today I’m driving in so I can get the metal bar for mounting the truck cap, along with other hardware and supplies I need like M8 bolts, screws, heat-shrink, cable protection. Tuesday I’ll also need to get a battery box, figuring Wally World will have that after I pick up the truck from Ruth’s at the end of the day.

Cool but clear this morning after a heavy rain 🌧️ last night. We needed the rain. I skipped an after dinner hike after visiting Mom and Dad as I was sure the sky was going to open up, but that did not ultimately happen. Basically out of coffee so I put some caffeine pills chopped up in apple pancakes 🍏 and in the residual coffee ☕ grounds and called that my jolt for the morning, but now I’m jittery. At least I’ll be awake for driving to work.

Tomorrow it’s off to paying off and getting the truck cap installed. 🛻 It’s good I’m getting paid today, as while I transfered money out of savings to cover it after I had my credit card 💳 bill last week I wouldn’t have had sufficent funds. Maybe that’s what’s ultimately giving me pause 🫷 over the Michigan Trip. That and not having a enough time to prepare and that massive drive from Chautaqua County to the Nordhouse Dunes. America is really a big place. I should look more at campgrounds in Michigan, maybe on Free Campsites.net and explore alternatives more with Gemani AI. 🤖 Also, if I want to do something different then the Finger Lakes in a different state, how about Wayne National Forest in Ohio? That is more of a reasonable drive from Allegheny National Forest then  Nordhouse Dunes and Northern Michigan. I should explore options rather then defaulting to saying just do the Finger Lakes again. 🔌 Friday things get wired up, and I’m hoping that all goes fairly smoothly, and then I’ll start cleaning out my old truck and getting ready to put it up for sale. Looking forward to having the 200 watts of solar and remote start whenever the batteries go under voltage on the new truck.

Other then that, Gas Up this weekend, 🚜 and then hopefully the following weekend if it’s warm and sunny, kayaking 🛶 and floating on the tube – and camping 🥾 somewhere in the wilderness. Assuming all goes well with the rig build. Won’t have everything set up, but if the power delivery and solar all wired up, that’s a good start and can continue to build and evolve the system over the summer, adding things like a cellphone booster and diesel heater as time goes by. 🕰️ I realize so much of my freak out about the Michigan Trip is not just the distance – but the cost of fuel – I played it down but staring down my bank account 🏰 it gives me pause as I want to keep more money liquid but I also don’t want to slow down my savings.

But on the other hand, is keeping a minimum of $30k in cash at all times necessary thing, if I dip a thousand or so below that number for the summer? Especially with interest rates being so low compared to explosive growth in the stock market these days. How expensive are emergencies? 🚨 I do good work at my job, my career is relatively secure, and in an dire emergency I could sell stock or bonds. 🤷🏻‍♂️ That said, I probably can sell Big Red and/or old cap on the truck, and get a few thousand or at least hundred bucks from that, plus I have that set of wheels from the old truck. 🛻 That said, memories to matter and Michigan would be a pretty awesome trip. But on the hand, the Finger Lakes is so easy. Leave at 6:30 AM, get bacon 🥓 from For the Love of Bacon 🐷, be cracking open a beer 🍺 on Chicken Co-op Road by noon-time, laying back in the hammock smoking 🚬 dope. Warren National Forest in Southern Ohio is only about 5 1/2 hours from Allegheny National Forest, so that’s another option to consider. 💭 Though I don’t know, the Finger Lakes are such an easy and relaxed option, watching those cows graze and stars into the night. ✨ But kind of boring.

Thematic Map: Percentage of Green Cars
SVGZ Graphic: Median Vehicle Age