Personal Motivation, Pressure and the Latest PlebWare Development.
2026-09-13
What Keeps Me Building When Life Gets Heavy.
A Project Older Than PlebWare.
It is hard working on your own project when that project was first conceptualised as far back as 2003, and formulated into the concept that became PlebWare in 2006.
That is a long time to carry an idea.
Over the years, PlebWare has changed, grown, been put aside, been reconsidered, and eventually developed into something much larger than the original idea.
Today it includes the PlebWare website, the PlebWare knowledge ecosystem, PlebVox, and the developing PlebMachine project.
But carrying a large project forward is not always exciting.
Sometimes it is simply hard work.
The Sword Hanging Overhead.
There are still major financial challenges hanging over my head like the Sword of Damocles.
For examination purposes, the phrase comes from an ancient Greek moral story associated with Damocles and Dionysius I of Syracuse, also known as Dionysius the Elder.
Dionysius I was the powerful ruler of Syracuse in Sicily from approximately 405 to 367 BC. Syracuse was a Greek city founded by Corinth, and under Dionysius it became one of the most powerful Greek states in the western Mediterranean.
According to the famous story, Damocles was a courtier who continually praised Dionysius for his wealth, power and apparently fortunate life.
Dionysius decided to demonstrate what such a life was really like.
He allowed Damocles to take his place temporarily and sit upon the ruler’s luxurious seat, surrounded by the food, servants and splendour that accompanied great power.
There was, however, one important detail.
A sharp sword was suspended directly above Damocles’ head, hanging by a single strand.
Suddenly, the luxury did not seem quite so attractive.
Damocles realised that the position of the ruler came with a constant awareness of danger. He could no longer enjoy the feast because his attention was fixed upon the sword hanging above him.
The story became famous as a warning that apparent wealth, privilege and power can exist alongside constant danger and responsibility.
The story was later made particularly famous in Roman literature through Cicero, who used the example in his philosophical writings to illustrate the insecurity that can accompany great power.
It is important to distinguish Dionysius I from his son, Dionysius II. Dionysius II became ruler of Syracuse after his father’s death in 367 BC and later became involved in the famous political and philosophical relationship with Plato.
So when we speak of the Sword of Damocles, the traditional story belongs to the time of Dionysius I, not Dionysius II.
Today, the expression “Sword of Damocles” describes an imminent or ever-present threat hanging over someone.
That is a reasonable description of what it feels like when you are trying to pursue larger-than-life dreams such as PlebWare and PlebMachine, while still having to deal with the ordinary pressures of making ends meet.
Yet there is an interesting side to that pressure.
Even though this weekend may consist of nothing more glamorous than scrapping together bits and pieces, fixing things, researching things, writing things and trying to make ends meet, that pressure also becomes a powerful force driving me to work harder.
There Is Research to Be Done.
The work does not stop with writing articles.
There is research to be done.
🔬 Research Mode.
- Christian Research.
- Linux Research.
- PlebMachine Research.
- Web Browser Research.
- Gemini Notebook Research.
- Tech Research.
- Researching Wellbeing.
- Researching Sustainability.
These are not merely subjects on a list.
They represent different parts of the knowledge ecosystem I am trying to build.
PlebWare is becoming a place where practical experience, research, experimentation and reflection can all meet.
PlebMachine Still Has Work to Do.
There is also a considerable amount of work still needed to make PlebMachine worthy of being promoted as a complete system.
The foundations are there.
The ideas are there.
The development is moving forward.
But I do not want to promote something simply because I am excited about it.
It needs to become something that deserves to be promoted.
That means testing.
Research.
Refinement.
Documentation.
Integration.
And eventually, integration between PlebMachine and the plebware.github.io website.
That integration is becoming increasingly important because PlebMachine is not simply another piece of software.
It is becoming part of the way PlebWare itself is organised.
Teaching the Website to Understand Itself.
Speaking of the website, one of the latest improvements to PlebWare was not another article, another button, or another cosmetic change.
It was a change in how the site understands itself.
PlebWare has grown into a substantial collection of practical knowledge, organised around the twelve PlebMachine knowledge modes.
As the number of articles increased, simply knowing that the articles existed was no longer enough.
We needed a better way to see where the material lived.
We needed to know how much had accumulated in each mode.
We needed to know what had been published most recently.
That led to the PlebWare Subcategory Dashboard.
The dashboard is a small example of a much larger principle.
As a project grows, the project itself needs tools for understanding its own growth.
PlebWare is no longer small enough to manage entirely by memory.
It needs structure.
It needs visibility.
And increasingly, it needs instruments that allow the person building it to see what has actually been created.
The Other Side of PlebWare.
Then there is another part of this whole journey.
The calling.
I believe that I am supposed to be an instrument in God’s hand, working as God’s Journalist.
I am not satisfied with serving people through only one aspect of my life.
I want to collect the rosebuds for Jesus in my old age.
Immediate fruit may come.
It may not.
But I must keep sowing until my hand is paralysed.
That is how I understand obedience.
I am compelled to teach others what I have learned and what I have experienced of God for myself.
Not because I have everything figured out.
I don’t.
Quite the opposite.
Much of what I write comes from having walked through difficult circumstances myself and discovering something along the way that may help someone else.
The Big Catch-22.
I have gone around the same mountain so many times already that I am beginning to think I have undercut it so much that I am surprised it has not fallen on top of me yet.
Take my work situation.
I am stuck.
Stuck on R150.
Stuck dealing with exploitation.
And perhaps, in some respects, stuck because of choices I have made myself.
But perhaps not.
No man has complete control over circumstances beyond his immediate control.
Sometimes we simply cannot understand why we are where we are, no matter how much we meditate upon the situation.
And perhaps that is part of the lesson.
Learning to Be a Better Slinger.
I believe that God wants us to become better slingers.
So perhaps He sometimes allows us to face things that are beyond our immediate grasp because we have to learn how to become effective slingers.
David had a sling.
But having a sling was not enough.
He had to learn how to use it.
He had to develop accuracy.
He had to understand distance.
He had to choose his target.
And then he had to let the stone fly.
Perhaps some of us are carrying slings that we have not yet learned to use properly.
We have words.
We have experiences.
We have knowledge.
We have love.
We have truth.
But these things must eventually be placed into motion.
Once we learn to sling God’s Word effectively, once we learn to sling genuine love, once we learn to sling truth with accuracy, perhaps we begin to move toward the success God intended for us.
The challenge is not merely having ammunition.
The challenge is learning how to aim.
Why the Comics Matter.
There is another reason I have taken on the task of creating illustrations and comics for the PlebWare ecosystem.
Sometimes an explanation of an illustration expands the meaning of a statement and brings it to life.
Words can explain something.
An illustration can sometimes make us see it.
That distinction matters.
There are deeper meanings that words alone cannot always expose.
A good illustration gives the mind another way into an idea.
That is why some illustrations and comics will appear here and there throughout the PlebWare website.
They are not merely decoration.
They are another method of communication.
Another way of teaching.
Another way of helping our readers see the deeper meaning behind an idea.
And perhaps, occasionally, another way of making somebody stop and think.
Still Building.
So this is where I find myself.
Still writing.
Still researching.
Still developing.
Still fixing.
Still experimenting.
Still trying to make PlebMachine worthy of being released properly.
Still improving the PlebWare website.
Still creating illustrations.
Still learning.
Still trying to make ends meet.
And still trying to serve God with whatever tools are available to me.
The circumstances may not always be ideal.
The Sword may still be hanging overhead.
The mountain may still be standing.
The sling may still require practice.
But the work continues.
Perhaps that is the most important thing I can say about PlebWare right now.
It continues.
One More Stone.
Every article is another stone.
Every experiment is another stone.
Every piece of research is another stone.
Every line of code is another stone.
Every illustration is another stone.
Every lesson learned is another stone.
And perhaps we do not always know which stone will eventually hit the target.
Our responsibility is to keep learning how to sling.
So I will keep building.
I will keep writing.
I will keep sowing.
And I will keep putting the stones into the sling.
Because there is still work to be done.
A Final Thought.
Perhaps the greatest motivation is not the hope that everything will suddenly become easy.
It is the knowledge that the work itself has meaning.
PlebWare is still unfinished.
PlebMachine is still unfinished.
My understanding is still unfinished.
And perhaps I am still unfinished too.
But unfinished does not mean useless.
Sometimes it simply means still being built.
And that is exactly where PlebWare stands today.
Still being built.
God’s Journalist.
🗡️ Cody — God’s Journalist
“Sanguine et Igne Veritas Revelata.”
Truth Revealed by Blood and Fire.
ChatGPT.
The Holy Spirit.