The Midrange

That’s when the midrange and distortion began to fill out the sound of the band. I’ve always been a fan of that.

ADAM CLAYTON

The genesis of this post came from a YouTube video from U2's Adam Clayton and a custom amp he was promoting. In the process of that promotion, Adam Clayton gave his philosophy about playing bass. For Clayton, he didn't want the quiet almost silent bass playing you hear on many records, but he also isn't Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. With U2, the bass fills the role that a rhythm guitar plays in other bands. This sound and foundation is what Adam Clayton calls the "midrange." I think it is a genius strategy, and the midrange concept has spilled over into my thinking on other areas of life. I will now elaborate for the Gentle Reader.

Little Caesar's is a cheap pizza but on the low range. Mellow Mushroom is on the high range with its gourmet offerings and high price tag. Pizza Hut is the midrange. This pizza analogy captures the midrange concept.

Now, I am not a midrange type of guy. I don't eat pizza, but I used to eat pizza. When I was paying, it was Little Caesar's all the way. But I appreciate the midrange.

I find that the midrange captures the sweet spot of what people want. This would be Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Nike, and Levi's. The midrange is where people return again and again. Some people despise the midrange, but I don't. I rarely choose the midrange option, but I am not going to throw shade on it either.

The secret of hitting the midrange is Goldilocks and the Three Bears. If you give people three options, they tend to choose the one in the middle. The general public doesn't want the extremes of things. You see this in music, cars, movies, and on and on.

The problem with the midrange is the boredom thing which leads to a crisis of confidence. This is how Coca-Cola becomes new Coke. This is why U2 strives to not sound like U2 except they end up sounding like U2. This is why McDonald's will branch out into new restaurant concepts only to come back to being McDonald's.

I value consistency over novelty, so I never appreciate it when a midrange whatever tries to change the formula. At the end of the day, people want their Coke to be Coke. They don't want Pepsi with a red label.

As I said, I am not a midrange guy. I don't drink soda pop but water from the tap. I buy store brands and generic brands most of the time. I listen to AC/DC instead of U2. I find that all of my choices on things tend towards the cheap, the gritty, and the blue collar. I find that the midrange appeals to people from the middle class not the working class.

I encourage people to embrace the midrange and not apologize for liking it. You might be derided as a "normie" because haters gotta hate. Whatever. It is said that Kurt Cobain utterly despised Phil Collins. Cobain also painted a ceiling with his own brains. Phil Collins is still awesome. There is no shame in the midrange. Stop apologizing for it.

The Boring And Addictive Internet

The tycoons of social media have to stop pretending that they’re friendly nerd gods building a better world and admit they’re just tobacco farmers in T-shirts selling an addictive product to children. Because, let’s face it, checking your “likes” is the new smoking.

CAL NEWPORT

The inspiration for this post comes from my wife who has recently been focused on living a life that she calls "analog." Essentially, this means spending the daytime hours away from the internet and getting things done while enjoying old school pleasures like the radio or a physical book. Neither of us possesses a smartphone, so we live a relatively distraction free lifestyle. It is not an internet free lifestyle.

The dumbphone guru Jose Briones admitted that ditching his smartphone did not end his addictive attachment to the internet, but it certainly lessened it. He replaced time on his smartphone with time on his computer. It may surprise some Gentle Readers, but you can still access the internet with a desktop PC or laptop computer. These devices are how I use the internet while I use my flip phone to call and text.

Other people on the dumbphone reddit choose to dumb down their smartphones because they still want to access email, Google Maps, and other apps they find necessary to function in life. They mostly choose to delete social media apps.

I do not believe the device is the cause of the problems of the internet so much as what is on the internet. I had a Twitter addiction while using a desktop PC. Having a smartphone on me 24/7 would have been catastrophic. Regardless, Twitter was the problem and not the device.

Social media is part of what I refer to as the "addictive" internet. This is opposed to the "boring" internet that I use which would be my Gmail account, Google News, and my Inoreader feed reader. I read mostly news content. Beyond these three services, I use YouTube and Spotify to find new content like podcasts or gardening videos. This audio/visual content would bore most everyone else to tears.

I got on the internet sometime in the late 1990s. I never regretted it. By 2007, that changed. Facebook was becoming a thing. Before that time, I was into the boring internet. I did not realize that I was becoming hooked to the addictive internet. At some point, this frog jumped out of the boiling pot. I had been scalded and vowed to never let it happen again.

I stick with the boring internet now. I have found that the addicting part of the addictive internet is the social interaction. We post things and then recheck to see if it was liked. People crave this feedback. Likes are small doses of validation. Dislikes are hits of adrenaline. Realizing this, I practice anti-social media with this blog. I have no clue if the Gentle Reader likes or dislikes the content here. If I go down that road, this blog will be nothing more than memes and cat videos.

Because I use the boring internet, I tend to not go on it much except to read email, check the weather, and catch up on the news. This usually happens in the morning for a brief bit and after 8 p.m. each evening. The rest of my day is internet free with my wife's radio filling my mental space. I am not intentional on this whatsoever. I just don't find the internet that interesting to waste my whole day on it. That is the power of the boring internet.

I think it is a great idea to trade in your smartphone for a dumbphone. An even better idea is to delete all of your social media accounts. That kills the addictive internet. This is what happened to me when I kicked the Twitter habit. I have not had a problem with wasted time on the internet since then. I don't have pangs of remorse and guilt over countless hours wasted on the internet.

I also don't have FOMO because I am not missing out on anything. I read the news daily. I do not have a reddit account which some consider to be social media. I just read the reddits I find interesting on my Inoreader. Without the account, I post nothing, so I have no compulsion to visit the site. I just consume the content the reddit community produces for free. Unlike Twitter or Facebook, this content is useful. Reddit reminds me of the old school messageboards I used to read back in the day.

I encourage the Gentle Reader to reject the addictive internet and embrace the boring internet. The first step is to quit social media. The next step is to get a dumbphone or dumb down your smartphone to essential tools and apps. The third step is to push time on the internet to the margins of your day. For me, this is first thing in the morning for an email, news, and weather check then deeper reading after 8 p.m. each evening. Finally, if you find yourself doomscrolling on YouTube, this is essentially the same as channel surfing on television. Turn it off and go to bed.

When you embrace the boring internet, you will become calmer in your mood. You will have more quality time in your day. You won't worry about missing anything because it will be waiting for you when you get back like a book with a bookmark. And, it will be boring stuff. It won't be the FOMO of what your friends are doing on social media. It may take some time to kick the habit, but it will be worth it.

Libraries

Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.

ANNE HERBERT

I am into books. I am into decluttering. Saying those two things together is like saying you are into eating steak and promoting animal rights. This is because books clutter your life. The same can be said for other forms of physical media and even digital media. These collections of media are libraries. I am making my peace with libraries.

Minimalists are notorious for not having libraries of physical media. They hide their media digitally on their Apple products and the iCloud. This seems wonderful until a hurricane knocks out your grid, or you forget your password. For myself, my personal libraries are both physical and digital. I have physical books, an ancient Kindle, and a hard drive with PDF files. On top of this, I have CDs, DVDs, and hoarded links to various articles, podcasts, and videos. My supply of content is diverse, redundant, and limitless. I doubt that there will ever come a time in my life when I will run out of this content even in adverse circumstances.

I don't own much stuff. I have an eclectic collection of tools, clothes, and supplies. I don't pursue hobbies which generates most clutter for men. The closest thing I have to a hobby is this blog which is a digital creation occupying no space in my life. My life is very spartan except for books. I have a decent supply of books on hand. My wife also has books.

I am not a book collector. I don't go chasing rare first editions or any of that. I am also not an audiophile or a cinephile. I don't have a collection so much as a supply. My library of content amounts to a pantry for the mind. That is my best definition of a library.

Libraries are storehouses for supplies for the mind. I do not declutter food unless it has gone to rot. Similarly, why should I feel shame for not decluttering books? If I were a minimalist, I could pare down to just food, water, shelter, and clothing. This is known as existing. This is not the same as living.

Libraries are for living. The life of the mind is second only to the life of the soul, and the two are intertwined. As a Roman Catholic, much of my reading material pertains to my faith. When I read these things, I am loving God with my mind. Consequently, books are indispensable to working out my salvation.

I do declutter books that I have read. I donate these books to the Friends of the Library or the Habitat for Humanity thrift store. I hang on to those volumes that I may need for future reference, but I tend to declutter the fiction once I reach the end.

I feel stress over my reading list as if it were a To Do list, but this is not accurate. I listened to a podcast recently that advised thinking of your reading list not as a bucket but as a river. You dip out what you need for the moment, but you don't try and drink the river. It should reassure us that our reading options will never be exhausted. There will always be more to read.

The best way to limit content consumption is not by supply but time. I tend to do my reading at night during the hours the TV networks call "prime time" which is 8 to 11 p.m. I watch very little television, so I read a chapter from a book and the news from the internet. 10 o'clock is my cutoff. It's not a hard cutoff, but I am tired by then. I cannot do the binge consumption of anything now. My damaged brain won't allow it.

The main point for me is to make peace with my libraries of content and to see them as a supply for the mind instead of clutter in my space. I am selective and restrictive in what I choose to consume, but the supply remains limitless and always will. I will now accept this and embrace this. I will leave decluttering for actual clutter and not for my supplies.

The Entrepreneurship Problem

 There is no accounting for taste.

AGE OLD MAXIM

This one is another item from the "ideas in storage" which are things I contemplated years ago and left unfinished. This is the most vexing of them all which I call "the entrepreneurship problem." De gustibus non est disputandum is a Latin phrase that says, "In matters of taste, there can be no disputes." The simpler version is that there is no accounting for taste. That is the kernel of the entrepreneurship problem. You will go broke trying to account for the taste of the public.

95% of all businesses go bust in the first five years of operation. I heard that stat decades ago, and I believe it to be true. There are some things an entrepreneur can do to push the odds in his favor such as not loading up on debt, but there is no way to make the public buy your widgets. And you will pull your hair out trying to guess what widgets they want to buy. This problem is why so many businesses fail and why so many people are unable to beat the stock market. Entrepreneurship is gambling. There is no other way to view it.

Playing blackjack has better odds than entrepreneurship. The simple fact is that capitalism destroys a lot of capital. If you have ever seen a dead shopping mall or a defunct Blockbuster, you know this to be true. Gambling your money on a business venture makes no sense. Yet, many create businesses to watch them fail in misery. You will go broke trying to guess and serve the fickle interests of the public.

As a blogger, I know this firsthand. I would love to have a high traffic blog. People recommend all sorts of self-promotion gimmicks and search engine optimization strategies, but they are no substitute for content. To get readers, you have to write things they want to read. I have no clue what the public wants to read. I only know what I want to read, and I write that content. At the end of the day, I write because it helps me think. This is why I will abandon this blog one day and just write in some notebooks. That day is not today.

One of the strategies that I have for dealing with the entrepreneurship problem is to invest in low cost index funds. I am agnostic when it comes to businesses, so I buy the basket of stocks instead of trying to pick the winners. I wish there was a similar strategy for blogging, but there isn't. The closest I have to a strategy is to write what you like and know and to be eclectic. I am always surprised by what gets traffic and what doesn't. It is never what I would have picked.

Another strategy I have is to lower costs. Thrift is always a winning strategy. Steve Jobs may have started Apple, but Tim Cook made it massively profitable by cutting costs with outsourcing production to China. Saving money is not as sexy as creating innovative products, but it is the most reliable way to make a profit. Thrift is the cornerstone of good management.

The problem with thrift is that you have to make money in order to save it. This is why Apple is more profitable than Dell. Without that customer demand, the best you can do is managed decline. This is what happened to Apple when they fired Steve Jobs, and this is why their decline was reversed when they brought him back. Talent matters even if you can't explain it.

Another strategy I have is consistency. I don't know what the public wants, but they don't want to be punked. When they buy a rock album, they don't want to hear a disco album on the turntable. Coke discovered this with New Coke.

Entrepreneurial success boils down to pure dumb luck. Content creators on the internet discover this when something they produce goes viral. They are rarely able to duplicate that success and end up becoming what we know as one hit wonders.

Is there something that the public wants and always wants without having to play the entrepreneurial guessing game? Yes! That something is money. People always want money. You don't even have to consider the color or the flavor. The problem with money comes down to supply. This is why the financial industry is the most reliable way to make money. The demand for money will always exceed the supply. As a wise man once put it, "If you want to make money, work in money." This is why the doctor's stockbroker drives a nicer car than the doctor.

I find financial services to be morally repulsive. I knew a girl once who made a hefty paycheck working in the payday lending industry. I can't do that sort of thing. People who work in these predatory financial industries justify it all by claiming they are helping their victims. They are merely exploiting their victim's desperation and stupidity.

There is something the entrepreneur wants, and that is labor. Somebody has to put the soda in the bottle and get it to the grocery store. This is why you can reliably earn a wage of some kind in our capitalist economy even if you are clueless when it comes to entrepreneurship. If you can work, people will pay you. This is why the mass of people work for the lucky few.

Eventually, the good luck of the entrepreneur runs out. This is why the exit strategy has become so popular over the last few decades. People start a business now in the hope of selling it to a larger corporation. Imagine Steve Jobs selling out to IBM. That is essentially what we have happening today.

The most reliable way to make money is with labor. You can sell your labor to an employer, or you can sell it directly to the public with a service type business. I am a big fan of service based businesses like lawn care, oil changing places, housecleaning businesses, and on and on. I am not a fan of serving the public taste like a convenience store or a restaurant. Offering products instead of services is how you gamble and go broke.

My formula for success is simple. Work for an employer. Start a service based business with your own labor. Be thrifty. Invest in index funds. This is grinding. You won't become a billionaire, but you will have a decent living. Don't fall for thinking you will be the next Jeff Bezos with a business selling books out of your garage. Bezos gambled and won. Everyone else lost. I recommend winning by not losing.

This blog is the only gambling that I do today. Each post I write and publish represents a pull on the lever of the internet slot machine. Once in a blue moon, I will write something that goes semi-viral. Otherwise, I might get 20 views for a post like this. I know that half of those come from bots trolling the ocean floor of the internet. The upside is that this blog reminds me again and again that entrepreneurship is gambling. The only reason I keep playing is that I am a writer who is compelled to put his thoughts into words. I will write for the rest of my days even if no one reads what I have written. Ultimately, I am writing for myself. If I was publishing for the world, I would repost memes and cat videos. Facebook has this covered.

In conclusion, the only antidote I have for the entrepreneurship problem is to not play the game. Focus on thrift, labor, index funds, and service based businesses. Don't open a restaurant or gamble on some app or widget you have developed. You can't make people like anything or pay money for it. And if you see some lucky entrepreneur that made it big, consider the unseen folks who gambled and lost. People always forget the losers, but the losers tell us the truth about things. Luck is not skill. In entrepreneurship, you want to be lucky.

Breakfast Of Champions

Breakfast is everything. The beginning, the first thing. It is the mouthful that is the commitment to a new day, a continuing life.

A.A. GILL

I don't always eat breakfast. I always suffer when this happens. The reason I skip breakfast these days is that I don't always have the energy to make it. This lack of energy gets compounded by the fact that I am undercarbed and uncaffeinated because of the skipped breakfast.

Before I went plant based, a typical breakfast for me would be 2 bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits from a fast food place like McDonald's or Bojangles coupled with 2 orders of hash browns and the biggest Mountain Dew they served. Yes, this breakfast is excessive and would give me chest pains after eating it. My only defense is that I ate little to no lunch because of my driven workaholic nature back then. Today, the thought of eating that crap makes me feel sick inside. It was fun when I was young and stupid.

When I gave up the crap and started eating a plant based diet, I would eat cold cereal with almond milk or soy milk. This meal didn't cut it for me because it was expensive and left me with no energy. I switched to eating oatmeal, and that changed my life. Most plant based eaters have a bowl of oatmeal each morning. I prefer the old fashioned oats which I nuke in the microwave. This brings me to my "Breakfast of Champions" as listed below:

2 cups of black coffee with 1 teaspoon of sugar in each cup

1 glass of ice water with a good splash of 100% cranberry juice

1 glass of plain ice water

1 bowl of oatmeal with black strap molasses, honey, cinnamon, and a spoonful of natural peanut butter. (Chopped up banana is optional depending upon supply.)

I used to drink 6 cups of coffee each day, but caffeine has no effect on me anymore since my traumatic brain injury. I can drink coffee and still fall asleep. The reason I still drink coffee is for regularity. 2 cups usually does the trick for me. I also recommend drinking water along with the coffee as dehydration is the main culprit in constipation. (Some brain experts recommend not consuming caffeine, but I don't listen to them.)

I drink the cranberry juice to help prevent urinary tract infections. I don't get UTIs often, but it takes more to cure one than to prevent one. I also like the taste of cranberry juice diluted in a glass of water.

The oatmeal is almost total carbohydrate. The peanut butter adds a bit of fat and protein to the carb heavy breakfast. Ignore the low carb idiots. Carbs are king.

I have been eating this breakfast for over a decade. I eat grits and pancakes on Sunday when my wife and I have the time to make them. They are not as good as the oatmeal, but they are tasty. When I eat oatmeal, I have better days. When I don't eat oatmeal, the days are not so good.

I am not a doctor or a dietitian, so do not take any of this as health advice. This is simply the breakfast that has worked for me for the last decade. It is quick to make and fuels the day. I can also attest that my coworkers found me with improved productivity and energy for the job when I made the switch from eating crap. I really miss those productive days before the damage to my brain.

Unpopular Opinions 8 (Super Size Edition)

When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch.

BETTE DAVIS

I must be a man because I have been giving my opinion for years. To have unpopular opinions must be especially manly. Or, it might be bitchiness. I will leave that to the Gentle Reader to decide. Here is an extra large dose of unpopular opinions.

1. Science fiction and fantasy are terrible genres.

I grew up with Star Wars and Star Trek. I read Dune and Lord of the Rings. Those works are the top of their respective genres, and I do not care for them. I prefer reading and watching mysteries, westerns, and action stories.

My issue with science fiction and fantasy is that they transport you to alternate worlds. The bulk of the story is spent showing and explaining that alternate world. Over the long haul, the story is lost in the process of details and even made up languages. You ask too much from the reader to maintain this huge edifice of imagination.

I like basic stories set in the real world whether past or present. Simple is better.

2. People spend their time thinking of what they are going to say instead of actually listening to the other person.

When people talk, I know they are not actually listening to me. Sometimes, I find that I am not listening to them either. I am thinking of what I am going to say at the next break. Until that break, you are talking to the wall. When my turn comes, I am talking to the wall.

I try to keep my mouth shut. I save most of what I want to say for this blog. If people care, they will read the blog. If not, I said what I wanted to say. Everyone should have a blog. Most just have social media accounts.

3. Alpha/Beta/Sigma/Gamma is all nonsense.

This typology for males amounts to astrology for men. Women love to know if you are a sagittarius or a pisces or whatever because they want to know your personality. Others use temperaments like melancholy or phlegmatic. Then, there is that Myers-Briggs garbage. I place no stock or belief in any of these taxonomies of personality types. The farthest I will go is to classify people as either extroverts or introverts. This helps in selecting between salesmen and auto mechanics.

4. Joe Rogan is not funny.

I listen to clips of Joe Rogan's podcast. I never listen to his stand up comedy. I did it once, and I don't think the guy is funny at all. I scratch my head and wonder how he ever got famous and rich.

5. Wired earbuds are superior to wireless earbuds.

I suspect that I have discussed this one before in another edition of Unpopular Opinions, but this time I am trying to be more positive for the wired earbuds and headphones. I recently replaced my JVC headphones for my desktop PC. The original pair must have been a decade old when one side finally quit on me. I bought another set just like the original. On my Walkman, I have a cheap pair of blue earbuds that I bought almost six years ago from a Harris Teeter grocery store. Those are still awesome.

I like being able to plug something in, and they work for YEARS at a cheap price. Because wired earbuds are cheap and reliable, Big Tech decided they needed to change this with something unreliable, expensive, and easy to lose. They also have to be charged daily. The removal of the headphone jack from phones and devices is pure evil.

6. The fedora is a ridiculous hat for the vast majority of men today.

I know some fellows who are able to wear a fedora and not look ridiculous. Indiana Jones is one of them. The Blues Brothers are the other two. I know of one guy in real life who wears a fedora and would look weird without it. When I try on a fedora or any other brimmed hat, I look like a clown. When I watch old movies and TV shows, those guys with fedoras look like clowns. I don't know why some guys can pull off wearing a fedora and others can't. I know I can't.

7. I totally believe in ghosting people.

Ghosting someone is when you cease all contact with someone who is incapable of listening. The ghosted party will claim all sorts of hurt, surprise, and confusion about the matter. They have no idea why they were ghosted. They know. They were told. They were told repeatedly. They never bothered to listen.

I say this all the time. The only time people listen to me is when I stop talking to them. They are all ears then. But, by then, it is too late. As soon as you open your mouth, their ears close right up again.

I can truly say that ghosting people and ceasing contact is the only remedy for people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder. From what I have gleaned from Dr. Phil and others, there is no way to reach someone with NPD. They are lost. The only thing you can do is get them out of your life.

8. Vacation homes are ridiculous.

There is this story of Warren Buffett living in the same home he bought back in 1950something. People tell this story to show Mr. Buffett's modesty, folksiness, humility, and thriftiness. What they neglect to mention is Warren Buffett's second home in California that is not so modest or thrifty. It was a beach home for vacations. He recently sold the property for $7.5 million. He owned it since 1971.

For almost 2 years, no one wanted to buy Warren Buffett's Southern California vacation home, but it finally sold for $7.5 million

https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-of-warren-buffetts-house-in-california-2017-2?op=1

I am opposed to vacation homes. I don't care if it is a shack by the beach, a house on the lake, or a cabin in the mountains. I find vacation real estate to be the grossest form of lifestyle inflation short of a Jeff Bezos superyacht. Yet, it is very common. I have lost count of the people I know who own a second home purely for recreation.

When it comes to vacation accomodations, I believe you are always better off renting. Owning is for show offs who like to blow money on seldom used things. That was certainly the case with Mr. Buffett.

9. Solar watches are a waste of money.

I was into solar watches until someone told me that the batteries don't last any longer than regular watch batteries. You can charge the batteries on a solar watch, but they will have to be replaced at the same intervals as standard watch batteries. I just get the regular watches now because they are cheaper, and I don't have to bake them in the sunlight to get them recharged.

10. Beach cruisers are the best bicycles.

I am not a bicycle person. I have tried to be a bicycle person, but bicycles don't work for me. But, if I did buy a bicycle, it would be a beach cruiser. I would also have to live at the beach to go with the bike. I don't live at the beach, so that is a moot point.

I find beach cruisers appealling because they are cheap and comfortable. I can't say the same for road bikes or moutain bikes. As for Dutch style commuter bikes, those are great for city biking. But I'd rather walk on the sidewalk than take my chances on two wheels in the street.

11. Schools should ban smartphones.

There is a move by many public school educators, schools, and school boards to ban smartphones from the classroom. This move is long overdue. Teachers cannot compete with these distraction devices. Smartphones make kids stupid just like they do with adults. The dumbest adults are parents who buy smartphones for their children. But I digress. . .

Dumbphones could be suitable, but they were starting to become problems a decade ago. I think kids could have these as long as they turned them off like I do when I am in church.

12. Schools should ban tackle football.

A kid died recently from a brain injury he sustained playing high school football. There are lesser injuries that are still life altering that come from playing tackle football. This is certainly an unpopular opinion, but I think it will become more popular as tackle football takes its toll on young brains.

13. Replace the batteries in your Casio watch.

When people buy a cheap Casio watch, they assume they will dump the watch when the battery dies. This is a huge mistake. It is worth the time and money to replace that battery and keep the watch. The replacement battery for my G-Shock was $1, and I was able to get the job done in less than an hour watching a YouTube video. The battery is the same as the one that goes in the F-91W. These watches are super durable, so you will save money by replacing the batteries.

14. Dumb down your smartphone.

I still use a flip phone and will continue to do so as long as I can. I know a forced upgrade to a smartphone may be inevitable. When it comes, I am going to dumb that phone down to the basics I need. I recommend this to those people who have to use smartphones because of their jobs or whatever. The key thing is to remove social media apps. Make your phone as undistracting as possible.

15. Negative displays on digital watches are stupid.

The negative display is the easiest and most popular mod for digital watches. It is also the dumbest. You find this out when you try to tell time on the thing in sunlight. The positive display is the hands down winner.

People like the negative display because it looks cool and badass. This is a dumb reason to have a negative display. Utility matters more than looks.

Casio G-Shock GWM5610 Negative vs Positive Display

https://youtu.be/ntRdQeC6t7E?si=J--bY_nXYMpioWYz

16. Women can't be minimalists.

My wife watches minimalist and decluttering videos by various women YouTubers and remarks that they have more stuff in their homes than we have. Where is the minimalism? Are we just watching hypocrites posing as influencers?

I don't think women can be minimalists. It is not in their nature. Men can be minimalists because they tend to be Spartan in their various fields of endeavor preferring the less is more approach. On the other hand, women accumulate crap. They buy each other crap.

Minimalism appeals to these women because they conclude correctly that their lives would be better without all of the accumulated crap. The problem is that they cannot follow through with the commitment to minimalism. Their videos on YouTube amount to dreams of wish fulfillment. They are not reality.

I am not a minimalist. I am a declutterer who aims to discard one item each day from my life in a practice called the "daily declutter." I think this is a more realistic and successful strategy for both men and women.

17. Fanny packs and slings are purses for men.

I think how convenient it would be to carry a small bag around for some of my gear. I can't get over the feeling that these small bags are purses. My preferred bag remains a backpack.

18. I like ankle socks and crew socks.

Gen Z has come out against ankle socks in favor of crew socks. I wear ankle socks with my walking shoes. I wear crew socks with my work boots. I always wear long pants, so I doubt anyone would notice my sock length. This is just stupid fashion nonsense.

19. TRT is the same as steroids.

Older men like Joe Rogan and RFK, Jr. take testosterone replacement therapy. The result is that each have physiques that don't match their ages. I'd like to see what an old guy could do full natty.

20. The dangers of sitting are overblown.

I think a sedentary lifestyle is bad for your health, but I disagree with all those researchers who claim that sitting is the new smoking. I think that makes for great clickbait headlines, but it isn't reality. Daniel Lieberman does a great job debullshitting those claims:

Is Sitting the New Smoking? A Harvard Professor Debunks the Myth, With 1 Catch

https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/is-sitting-new-smoking-a-harvard-professor-debunks-myth-with-one-catch.html

Why Sitting Isn’t the Problem Debunking the Myths

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsY5CM6d8Fc

Sitting is the default when you don't exercise or move at all. Naturally, sitting takes the rap for the sedentary lifestyle. But if you go out and walk five miles a day and do manual labor, you can take a chair without feeling bad about it and relax for a bit. This is called common sense which many researchers lack. The reality is that the human body requires both exercise and rest.

21. People want buttons and ports on their tech products.

Apple is the king of minimalist design for tech which is why their products suck. People don't want minimalism in their tech. They want sensibility. This means physical buttons, ports, and earphone jacks. Simple is better but only when it has common sense.

8 years after declaring it took 'courage' to remove the iPhone's headphone jack, Apple has finally decided buttons and ports are cool again

https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/7-years-after-declaring-it-took-courage-to-remove-the-iphones-headphone-jack-apple-has-finally-decided-buttons-and-ports-are-cool-again/

22. Common sense will always be in the minority.

If you read a headline that says that teens are becoming more conservative and traditional or that the general public is taking a turn towards thrift and frugality, don't believe it. These are clickbait headlines crafted by journalists on deadline in a vain attempt to attract eyeballs during a slow news cycle. Common sense prevails over the long term, but this is mostly the result of attrition as fools meet their foolish ends. The general trend will always be on the side of the stupid. Stupid replaces stupid. The wise are a stubborn minority fighting the trend and the herd.

23. In capitalism, supply always meets demand.

Every so often, you see there is a shortage of something--toilet paper, tech workers, tradesmen, etc. Prices go up in times of scarcity which prompts more production as companies and workers go chasing those profits. This is why the high paying job of today turns into the low paying job of tomorrow. Right now, the trades are paying well, but this wasn't the case when I was in high school back in the 1980s. They told us all to go to college, and everyone did. Today, we have a glut of college grads and a shortage of welders. This will reverse itself and repeat itself.

24. Playing physical media in your car is a bad idea.

I had a deck chew up a cassette in the nineties. My wife has a CD still stuck in her car's CD player. These things can't handle bumps which is why you should only listen to the radio in the car. I can't speak to plugging in a smartphone since I don't own one, but I suspect a device like that would not be a problem. As a corollary, I never bought Walkmans that played cassettes or discs because of similar problems. Physical media is meant for times of leisure and not on the go. This is why I only listen to this stuff at home.

25. Remote work is a scam.

I have watched the productivity war between employers and employees for decades. It began with computers in the office. Employers discovered that their employees were goofing off on the internet, so they threw in firewalls and trackers. Then, the employers decided to start filching from their employees by making them work 24/7 with the Blackberry phones aka as the "Crackberry." Not to be outdone, employees struck back with their iPhones where they brought goofing off back to the office place. Then, Covid came which brought remote work to the game of make believe work. Now, office workers consider remote work to be a natural right. The reality is that they do just enough work to not get fired while freeing up way more time for personal chores and goofing off at home. It is a total scam now.

I consider 90% of office work to be a scam. You don't see plumbers and factory workers playing these make believe work games. The next move in this war will be remote unemployment as companies realize they can fire the remote workforce that isn't working.

That's it for my super sized dose of bitchiness. You probably didn't ask for it, but you got it anyway. Until next time, stay bitchy.

Putting A Dent In The Universe (A Meditation On The Vanity Of Life)

We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?

STEVE JOBS

This is a famous quotation from Steve Jobs. Like many famous quotations, it gets taken out of context. The "dent in the universe" is deliberate hyperbole on Jobs's part, and the "here" was Apple Computers. Without a doubt, Steve Jobs put a dent in the universe of tech. I can debate if that dent was a good thing or a bad thing, but that is the subject for some other post. (I despise Apple and its products.)

For many more people, the Steve Jobs quotation is deeper and more philosophical. It amounts to a mission statement for life and a call to do great and glorious things. I felt that call when I turned 18 and graduated from high school. I read some Nietzche and decided that I needed to put my own dent in the universe. But God had other plans for me. He torpedoed my ambitions with the Book of Ecclesiastes from the Bible and the declaration that all is vanity:

Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. What hath a man more of all his labour, that he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh: but the earth standeth for ever. The sun riseth, and goeth down, and returneth to his place: and there rising again,

Maketh his round by the south, and turneth again to the north: the spirit goeth forward surveying all places round about, and returneth to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea doth not overflow: unto the place from whence the rivers come, they return, to flow again. All things are hard: man cannot explain them by word. The eye is not filled with seeing, neither is the ear filled with hearing. What is it that hath been? the same thing that shall be. What is it that hath been done? the same that shall be done. Nothing under the sun is new, neither is any man able to say: Behold this is new: for it hath already gone before in the ages that were before us.

There is no remembrance of former things: nor indeed of those things which hereafter are to come, shall there be any remembrance with them that shall be in the latter end.

 

 ECCLESIASTES 1:2-11 DOUAY-RHEIMS

When I read that book, I knew the words to be true. They deflated me with my dreams and ambitions. Taken out of the context of the Bible, Ecclesiastes will drive you to despair. You didn't need to be a Christian to agree with the Holy Bible on this matter. Even an atheist like Shelley knew it to be true:

Ozymandias 

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

 

I met a traveller from an antique land 

Who said: “Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

That poem shows what Ecclesiastes was preaching. Ozymandias put his dent in the universe, and the universe laughed at him. The simple fact is that your life and your projects amount to nothing in the whole scheme of things.

The proper goal and purpose of life is to become a saint. Your greatness is relative to the greatness of Almighty God. Knowing and accepting this requires humility. This was a trait lacking in both Ozymandias and Steve Jobs.

People with humility and a love for God tend to live quiet lives. People filled with pride and vanity live loud lives. That is how you can always tell the proud. They are loud. They want to be noticed, respected, and remembered by the world. The proud want to be somebodies in a world of nobodies.

The best path to take in this life is the devout life. This is the final admonition from Ecclesiastes 12:13 to "fear God and keep His commandments." The devout life is simply following the dictum of Saint Benedict to pray and work. Be humble. Do penance. Say your prayers. Do your work. The world will forget you. God will never forget you.

An Unpopular Opinion About The Trades

Supply will meet demand.

C.

I hate quoting myself, but I have to do it when I can't find anyone else who said it. I came across this unpopular opinion on reddit concerning the trades, and I found myself agreeing with the original poster. I share it here in full because it will probably get deleted which is a common thing on reddit.

DO NOT go into trades because it pays "well"

https://www.reddit.com/r/unpopularopinion/comments/1fl013k/do_not_go_into_trades_because_it_pays_well/

Before we move forward, get two things in your head. Think reoccurring patterns and think LONG term Present performance is not indicative of future returns. If you're unable to think longer than 20 years in the future, you can leave this thread.

I would like to point everyone back to the 2010s. Everyone is telling everyone to go into IT, learn to code. Computer Science became one of the most sought after degrees.

Now come 2024. Everyone and their dog knows how to code. Everyone's cousin is in compsci, there's a massive layoff in tech and everything is getting outsourced to India to South America where code is code, it doesn't care what country it's from.

Today, the same thing that happened to IT in the 2010s is happening to trades. Everyone and their aunt is telling youngster to go into trades because "it pays a lot of money". Because "there's a shortage". Once again we see the same long waitlist in school, in apprenticeships and the shortage for competent workmen.

What that means is in 10-15 years, we are once again going to see the same thing that happened to IT happen to trades. We are gonna have way too many tradesmen and not enough jobs.

When that happens the trades apocalypse will come.

To go even further, the rise of mechatronics and large scale prefab will reduce the labour requirement for a lot of work in the future. They don't need to create a robot that can build it in the field when they can create a robot that can build most of the components in a factory and have a few installers just assemble it like legoes. Big slash in labour cost.

Yes we will always still need tradesmen but the 6 figure tradesman is an anomaly, not the norm. Ask any tradesmen over 50 if being in the trade has always been glamorous.

This post simply highlights a truth that I have known for most of my adult life. In a capitalist economy, supply will meet demand. This includes the demand for particular job skills. It doesn't matter if it is medicine, management, computer science, chemical engineering, petroleum engineering, plumbing, or carpentry. When there is demand for those skills, people will train to meet that demand to earn that higher pay. This brings down the pay and the opportunities over the long term.

I have watched this happen in many fields. It is so common that I think going to college for any specialized degree is a waste of time, money, and energy for most people. Many people have turned to the trades now because they are in high demand. People have heard Mike Rowe's message and gone chasing those dollar bills. Inevitably, the supply will meet demand, and the pay and opportunities will revert to the mean. Then, Mike Rowe will tell you to go to school for something else.

I don't have an answer for this problem. My other regular quotation on this is that every boom goes bust. What I recommend to people is to accept a concept known as the median income. This is what most people earn and what you are likely to earn in your profession. Most people can't beat the stock market, but they can accept the average return by buying index funds. Likewise, most people are going to earn the median income, and they can guarantee that income with flexibility and a basket of skills that don't require four years of study and a mountain of debt to acquire.

I've come to the conclusion that employers love it when you pay for your own job training. The compensation for that training will almost never cover the cost of that training. That is a sad and sick truth, but it is what it is.

The Omnivore Option (Choosing Not To Choose)

When you give people too many choices it makes them hesitate and not buy stuff.

GUY KAWASAKI

I have a list that I made recently called "ideas in storage." These were ideas that I was contemplating years ago and simply stopped thinking about them. Life happens, and you leave certain projects unfinished like an old car in the barn of your mind. I have decided to drag them out of that barn and get them done. I will begin with the easiest idea on the list--the Omnivore Option.

There is a channel on YouTube called Ham Radio 2.0, and the guy on that channel has a lot of "versus" videos. One of those videos was about ham radio vs. CB radio. The ham radio guy has a diplomatic and perhaps ingenious answer to the debate on radios. Why can't it be both? Why not use ham radios and CB radios? He applies the same answer to ham radio vs. GMRS. Just get both. Why choose when you don't have to? This strategy is the Omnivore Option.

I like the Ham Radio 2.0 guy, but I am opposed to the Omnivore Option. It is an easy option for a YouTuber who is probably given radios for free to review for his channel. The rest of the world lives on a budget. For other people, time is also a factor in addition to money. Fundamentally, you have to make choices in life and live with the consequences of those choices.

The Omnivore Option promises to help you escape the consequences of those choices. You can't make the wrong choice if it is ALL OF THE ABOVE. What the Omnivore Option fails to grasp is that choosing everything paralyzes you instead of liberating you. It's like sitting down at a restaurant and spending thirty minutes being hungry because there are too many choices on the menu. You could order everything, but you have merely postponed making your decision while accumulating a lot of food that will be wasted.

The Omnivore Option is a stupid strategy. This hit me as I began studying martial arts in my thirties. Not knowing anything, I decided the best option was to learn all of the styles that I could from Western boxing to tae kwon do to jiu jitsu. I was doing mixed martial arts which is the Omnivore Option applied to fighting. The result was that I would freeze up in a sparring match because I had too many options at my disposal. When I asked my teacher if he had ever been in a real fight in the street, he said he had. A drunk guy shoved him outside of a restaurant. I asked him what kung fu move he used to take the guy out. He told me that he hauled back and punched the guy out dropping him like a sack of cement. My teacher didn't realize it at that moment, but I had fired him. This is because I already knew how to punch somebody out. I didn't need instruction on that. This is when I decided that Krav Maga with its simplicity and brutality was what I needed instead of a triple black belt Ph.D. in mixed martial arts.

That episode from my past was transformative because I was running on the Omnivore Option in many areas of my life. Instead of making a To Do list, I was making procrastination lists. I wanted to do it all. Instead, I was doing nothing. I was choosing not to choose.

My antidote to the paralysis of the Omnivore Option was my Grand Unifying Theory or blue collar strategy of choosing simple and effective options. Some of these strategies are borrowed while others are created. I make the choices and accept the consequences of those choices.

Like it or not, I still have Omnivore Option tendencies. As I said, this was an idea in storage. Necessity made me move on, but I can now return to the Omnivore Option in order to pull it from the barn and haul it to the scrapyard. Where is the Omnivore Option in my life now?

I am a digital hoarder. I err on the side of excess. Nevermind the fact that there are not enough hours in a day to read, watch, or hear everything that is available on the interner. So, I accumulate this stuff. That accumulation is the Omnivore Option. I have not discovered or established a simple and effective strategy for dealing with this problem. Until then, I accumulate before declaring something like email bankruptcy where I batch delete and start over.

I have made some progress by limiting myself to the 150 feed limit on my Inoreader. I have had no problems living within that limit. That limitation forces me to choose. And that, Gentle Reader, is how you escape the Omnivore Option. You choose to choose.

With Krav Maga, I knew I needed a mixed martial arts option. Krav Maga is a mixed martial art, but it is a simplified mixed martial art. Now that I am old and damaged, Krav is my only hope of handling and escaping a violent encounter. I made the choice to choose.

Whenever you find yourself with the Omnivore Option in operation, find some way to make cuts and enforce limits. Do thought experiments. What if I only had one option instead of infinite options? That is how I settled on Krav Maga. The same strategy applies to how I cut cable TV. I limit myself to the channels available on over-the-air broadcasting and my dog ear antenna. I watch very little television, but I do it for free now.

If I had to give a name to this antidote to the Omnivore Option, I choose to call it the "Scarcity Option." This is what the minimalists and declutterers have discovered. Limited options gives you freedom. That limit could be a time limit or a money limit or an arbitrary number like 100 things. The answer is to find limits even if that scarcity is artificial.

It takes some effort and energy to implement the Scarcity Option, but it pays you back later. You realize how much you were wasting on indecision. Find your limits even if you have to create them. You will thank yourself when you do this.

Pray, Write, and Vote

If you do not take an interest in the affairs of your government, then you are doomed to live under the rule of fools.

PLATO

There is a certain type of person that disengages completely from the world of politics and current events. Wanting to be left alone and be blissfully ignorant, they bury their heads in the sand. This works for a season until some jackboot pulls your head out of the sand and marches you away in handcuffs and leg irons for whatever fate awaits you in the tyranny you did nothing to stop. Some will say that doing something is futile. It is possibly futile. Doing nothing is absolutely futile. There are three things that I choose to do--pray, write, and vote.

1. Pray

Prayer is the most potent weapon in a person's arsenal. Consistent and persistent prayer changes things. Without prayer, you are wasting your time with everything else. With prayer, your efforts have great effect. Now, some will say that prayer is worthless. It can only be worthless if God doesn't exist. If God doesn't exist, then nothing else matters at all. Without God, you have nothing.

I believe God is in control of everything. Yes, bad things happen but only with God's permission. Personally, I think God tests our faith in hard times to teach us to rely upon Him in our struggles and trials. Hard times make good people because good people pray themselves out of hard times.

2. Write

I have zero interest in running for political office. We live under the illusion that power rests with the political leaders when it actually rests with the people. If this were not so, politicians wouldn't waste so much time, money, and energy trying to convince people to vote for them or at least not bring out the pitchforks and torches.

In my lifetime, the person who has had the most influence over the people has not been a president like Ronald Reagan but Rush Limbaugh. Everyone else is following in that man's footsteps. Rush never held elective office but simply spoke to the people through a radio microphone. His words and thoughts had a profound impact on the mind of the public. Others after him like Andrew Breitbart said that politics was downstream from culture. Those who change hearts and minds are the ones with the real power.

I am not a radio pundit but a writer with a blog. I don't have the reach of someone like Rush Limbaugh, but I can and do add my small voice to the chorus of other conservative voices. Others with lesser talents create and share memes. If these didn't matter, the powers that be wouldn't go after them so hard. Free speech matters, but it has to be used regularly to make a difference.

3. Vote

The last option is the most controversial because it makes the least difference. This is voting. Your single vote has virtually no weight in comparison to all of the other votes out there. So, why bother? The answer to that is simple. If all the good people stayed home from the polls, evil would love that immensely. The reality is that your single vote is never alone. It is added to the weight of all those other good people letting their voices be heard. Even in a rigged election, those votes matter because the tyrants are told what they are facing.

I was disinclined to vote until 2012. This is because I was a libertarian at the time. I voted for Ron Paul in the GOP primary and Bob Barr in the general election. Neither man had a chance of winning. Mitt Romney had a chance of winning, but I couldn't bring myself to vote for the lesser of the two evils. This left the greater of the two evils to win. I could have done without those four extra years of Obama.

I doubt my voting for Romney would have changed the outcome. But it taught me that the lesser of two evils is the way to vote. You can vote your principles in the primary as I did with Ron Paul, but you always pull the lever for Republicans in the general election. Yes, Republicans let you down. So, what? Why is letting the Democrat win a better strategy?

I hold my nose when I vote. No candidate is good enough for my tastes. But I have my chance in the primary to put real conservatives in office. At the end of the day, I vote straight ticket Republican not because I support RINOs so much as oppose Marxist Democrats.

Voting third party is just throwing away your vote. When a third party candidate has any measure of success, it is enough to throw it to the Democrats. This is letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. I recommend that true conservatives try and take over the Republican Party rather than opposing it in the general election.

Working for change in the Roman Catholic Church

The Church is just like the government. The only difference is that you don't get to vote for your bishops, cardinals, and Pope. What the laity have is something even better than a vote. We get to vote with our dollars. I choose to give only to my parish and those apostolates that reflect and promote Catholic orthodoxy. On top of this, I also pray and write towards the end of restoration and renewal of the Roman Catholic Church. Because the Church has run off the rails, this has had a corrosive effect on our culture and our governments. Working for political change while ignoring ecclessiastical change makes no sense. Before there was Rush Limbaugh, there was Archbishop Fulton Sheen who had as much or more influence than Rush Limbaugh. We need to support our good bishops with our prayers.

The Benedict Option Idiots

The people most inclined to stick their heads in the sand are the ones influenced by Rod Dreher and his Benedict Option idea of hiding in a hole until it all blows over. This is the same idiot who was scandalized into schism by leaving the Roman Catholic Church and joining the Eastern Orthodox. His wife also divorced him for whatever reasons she had. Schism and divorce always go together. Rod Dreher is an effeminate with no ounce of fortitude whatsoever. Why would anyone take advice or find an example in him?

The world remains civilized and safe because good people don't quit but stay and fight. Don't think The Benedict Option. Think Lord of the Rings. The goal is not to make a heaven on earth like the Marxists and libertarians wish but to prevent hell on earth. God is on our side in this fight, but we need to be on His side.

Conclusion

I can't do much, but I can do all I can. That is the bottom line. I leave the winning up to God, but the fighting is on me. Even if I lose, at least I did something which is more than I can say for those who chose to do nothing. I despise the do-nothings.

Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER

UPDATE: In this recent election, those who were too pure to cast a vote for Donald Trump woke up grateful that the rest of us didn't have any qualms about voting for the lesser of two evils. All I can say is that you're welcome. You are also despicable cowards. You were AWOL in this battle.

As for Trump, I am not a fan. His positions on things like sodomy and abortion are disgraceful. As I said, I voted for him while holding my nose. I will continue to pray, write, and vote in opposition of these grave sins. I hope the next election gives us better candidates.

Cardinal Burke tells Raymond Arroyo Catholics have ‘duty’ to vote for candidate who will prevent more evil

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-burke-tells-raymond-arroyo-catholics-have-duty-to-vote-for-candidate-who-will-prevent-more-evil/

Debates among social conservatives as to whether they should vote for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as “the lesser of two evils” have intensified this election season in comparison to previous ones. Those who argue for withholding their support primarily point to Trump’s left-ward drift on social issues, including abortion and in-vitro fertilization. Those who are more right-wing argue Trump will not secure the border and that he has not surrounded himself with his most longtime, loyal supporters.  

But Burke told Arroyo that to not vote is against the Fourth Commandment – honor your mother and father – which includes procuring the common good of your country or “fatherland.”  

If there is “some good reason to think we can advance the cause of life, and the family, and religious freedom, that’s the kind of candidate we need to support,” he said.

Annoying Things

I don't have pet peeves like some people. I have whole kennels of irritation.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG

This is one of those curmudgeonly posts where I do a fair bit of complaining about things. That alone is an annoying thing. Yet, irritation provides the motivation for improvement. Here are things that I find annoying along with solutions for those things.

1. Watches without numbers

I prefer a digital watch. This began for me in the 1990s when I began wearing a Timex Ironman Triathlon watch before switching to the arsenal of Casio watches I wear now. I forget the year I switched, but I will guess it was 2016.

I do not wear analog watches. I considered getting a Casio Duro except that the watch doesn't have numbers on the dial. It just has those numberless notches. I hate this. What is worse is those watches that get rid of the notches altogether presenting a minimalist guessing game on the time with two hands on a bare face. I don't need this level of sophistication. I like watches that tell the time without me needing to think about it.

2. Decaf coffee

A Nazi invented decaf coffee. I can't understand why he did that, but he did. What I also can't understand is why people drink this crap. Would you smoke a cigarette that didn't have nicotine? Would you drink whiskey that didn't have alcohol? If you don't want caffeine, drink water or orange juice. Leave my coffee alone.

3. Self-checkouts

A self-checkout is where you do the work, and they pay people to keep you from stealing stuff. They could actually check you out, but somehow, the company makes more money paying these people to watch you check yourself out. Meanwhile, there will be one or two real checkouts with massively long lines. This insanity is why I refuse to shop at Walmart now except in extreme circumstances.

4. Buttons on the tops of baseball caps

When I buy a ballcap, the first thing I do is whip out a screwdriver and pair of pliers and remove the dreadful button on the top of the thing. These buttons serve no function except for aesthetics except no one notices that my button is missing. The reason I find these things annoying is they hurt when you bump your head into the roof of a vehicle or when you wear protective ear muffs with the connecting part sitting on top of the button. I am bald, so that button does not feel good being pushed into my bare skull.

5. Wireless earbuds

Apple has to be making bank on these expensive earbuds especially when you lose one of them. I have never used them because I know I would lose them. Plus, they have to be charged first. I will stick with the wired earbuds. The wire is a bit aggravating, but it is cheap and doesn't get lost or need charging.

6. Touchscreen devices

I use a flip phone and a computer with a keyboard. The primary thing I like about my devices are the physical buttons. I despise smartphones, tablets, and touchscreens in vehicles. Somehow, Steve Jobs thought the world would be a better place if it was filled with screens covered in greasy fingerprints. The number one accessory for the iPad is a physical keyboard. Why not get a Chromebook or a real laptop?

7. Vinyl records

Audiophiles love vinyl records. I am not an audiophile. I had vinyl records as a kid. I took my boombox and recorded those albums to cassette tapes. I never played those records again. Since then, my preferred formats are tapes and CDs. My wife has a boombox in the kitchen that plays tapes and CDs. It gets heavy usage. We own no vinyl. Records scratch and break.

8. Sweatbands

I could use a sweatband because I sweat a great deal which rolls into my eyeballs causing stinging and irritation. The problem is that tight band around my skull gives me a splitting headache. My solution is to wear a bandanna under my boonie hat which solves the sweat in the eyes problem. I call it my "blue collar sweatband."

9. Wirebound notebooks

I stopped using wirebound notebooks in high school. The wire had the tendency of snagging on things. The wire would also get crushed making the pages impossible to turn. Then, there is the dreaded notebook dandruff you get if you tear out a page. My preference is loose notebook paper in a binder notebook. I would use a clipboard for taking notes and store the notes in the binders. As for pocket memo pads, I can recommend Rite in the Rain notebooks because their wired ends are uncrushable. Those memo pads beat other notebooks by staying open when you take notes. As for the cheap pads, they just get crushed in my pocket.

10. Stick shifts

I am a Gen Xer which means that I can drive a stick shift. I even drove a stick shift for the entirety of the 1990s. I thought my left knee was going to wear out pressing the clutch pedal. Today, I choose automatic transmissions. My left knee has been very happy since then.

11. LED headlights

These LED headlights must help drivers see because they blind everyone else on the road. My wife really hates these things. I think they are a nuisance and should be banned.

12. Winter vests

A winter vest is a coat with the sleeves cut off. I never understood why people buy them and wear them. I have never owned a winter vest. I need a real coat when I get cold.

13. Convertibles and open top vehicles

I have never owned a convertible. I would never buy one. I have known people who have owned convertibles, and they always ended up with a leak. I can say the same for sunroofs, Jeeps, and the rest. It's sad when the interior gets ruined and reeks of mildew after a rain. Convertibles are dumb.

14. Granite countertops

Imagine buying a surface that is ridiculously expensive, weighs a ton, and is fragile as glass. Yet, housewives love those granite countertops. It's a fair guess to say they don't expect to spend much time cooking. The kitchen is just for looks for these women. 

15. Glass tumblers

I used to drink out of cheap plastic cups I saved from the convenience store and fast food restaurants. These things were tacky and probably killing me with BPA chemicals or something. Anyway, I ditched those cups and went with some heavy glass tumblers from Walmart. These things work great until you drop one. Then, they become a bomb of broken glass. We now use higher quality plastic cups like they use in the cafeterias and family restaurants and Pizza Hut.

16. Pens with caps

I like pens that are one piece with the clicky button at the end. I don't like pens with the caps because those caps are going to get lost. I will use whatever is handy for writing, but my preference is for a clicky pen.

17. Expensive footwear

I have a pair of sandals that I call "Fakenstocks." They resemble Birkenstocks except they only cost me $20. Birkenstock hates this and decries it as theft. What they leave out is that they charge $150 for their sandals. Who is getting ripped off here? If you want to get more money, why not charge less for your sandals and make more sales? Yes, the cheap ones probably don't last as long, but I can still buy 5 of them for one pair of Birkenstocks.

When it comes to other shoes, I refuse to spend more than $100 for a pair of shoes. I will spend more for a pair of boots because they have more material, but I keep that below $150. I believe in quality footwear but not expensive footwear.

18. Expensive sunglasses

I wear tinted safety glasses from Harbor Freight. The pair I have now cost me $5, and I have been wearing them for at least 8 years now. Harbor Freight doesn't even sell that style anymore. I also wear a pair of cheap sunglasses I got after my eyes surgery. I call them my "geriatric terminator shades." They fit over a pair of eyeglasses.

I had a coworker who bought a pair of expensive Ray-Bans. I think they were close to $200. They looked real nice until he dropped them and scratched them up. I thought he was going to cry when that happened. This is why I don't buy expensive sunglasses.

19. HP printers

HP runs this scam where they sell you a thing that looks like a printer except it doesn't print. You get a few prints before you have to buy a new ink cartridge for the thing that costs more than a new printer. I wised up and bought a Brother printer. I will never buy another HP printer again.

20. Cartridge razors

This is the same scam that HP does with their printers except Gillette does it with their ridiculously expensive cartridge razors. This is just another way to rape you in the wallet. This is why I use an old school safety razor.

21. Candybar phones

I am a dumbphone user, but that dumbphone has to be a flip phone for me. I have been flipping for almost 20 years, and this is one of the reasons I don't want a smartphone. Candybar phones share one trait with smartphones--butt dialing. I like the fact that when I close my flip phone it is hung up and stays that way.

22. Hair

I have been shaving my head since I was 30. Before that, I buzzed my head with a pair of electric clippers and cut it as close as I could to the scalp. That is the long way of saying that I don't understand why men wear their hair long. When I had a mop of hair, I struggled with dandruff and keeping a hat on my head. Even if I didn't have male pattern baldness, I would still shave my head.

23. The sports report

I listen to the morning news on the talk radio station, and I love it until they get to the sports coverage. I have given up sports entirely now, so I consider it a waste of time to hear the scores each morning. My local newspaper publishes once a week and half of it is devoted to local sports. Finally, I hate when some sports story ends up in the hard news feed because of something political in the world of sports. Sports are a distraction from what really matters in the world.

24. Chicken littles on YouTube

To get clicks on YouTube, there are folks who come up with the most sensational doomsday headlines and stories that turn out to be nothing. I believe that things can and will get worse, and I prepare accordingly. But they almost never get as bad as these chicken littles claim. I unsubscribe from these false prophets of doom when I catch on to their grift.

25. Boycotts

I don't believe boycotts work. Folks will point to the Bud Light story as a success until you realize that most Bud Light drinkers switched to another brand sold by the same company. I don't drink beer, but I do drink coffee. People want to do to Dunkin' Donuts what they did to Bud Light. I wish my town had a Dunkin' Donuts, so I could boycott it. This is my smart aleck way of saying that I wish we had a Dunk. If I boycotted every company that ran afoul of my politics, I couldn't function in life. This would include blogging on this platform. When it comes to protesting, I stick with the old standby known as preaching.

That's enough complaining about annoying things. Hopefully, it was more entertaining than annoying for you, Gentle Reader. There is no end to annoyances, so you can expect a second edition of annoying things.

The Crisis of Confidence

Calm your nerves and regain your confidence by replacing fiction with fact.

JULIE SMITH

There is this strange phenomenon where someone who knows his thing will contradict that thing later even though no facts have changed. There is no shame in admitting that you're wrong on something. This would be humility. There is shame in contradicting yourself when you're right. I have never understood why people do this. I think these folks have what I call the "crisis of confidence."

I do not believe in confidence. This is because confidence rests on the foundation of feelings. I believe in unintimidation. Unintimidation rests on the foundation of facts. This is why I have learned in my life to ignore feelings and focus on facts. I don't ever experience the crisis of confidence. Facts are what make or break the case for me.

The way to resist the crisis of confidence is to always focus on the facts. Ignore the noise of your feelings and go with what you actually know. This is unintimidation. Unintimidation is when you do not buy the bluff at the poker table because your are holding a royal flush in your hand. Only a fool would fold on such an unbeatable hand, but that is exactly what fools do. Somehow, they have been beguiled into believing they are holding a handful of nothing.

When does this crisis of confidence happen? It usually happens when there is a sales pitch for something, or someone falls into the comparison trap. The antidote is a familiar one. Don't believe the hype. Only believe the facts. Don't look at the chips in the pot but at the cards you are holding in your hand.

Forget confidence. Embrace unintimidation. It will change your life.

Syzygy and Sensibility

Be moderate in order to taste the joys of life in abundance.

EPICURUS

There are various definitions for the word "syzygy." For this blog post, I use the definition of syzygy that means a pair of opposites. I first discovered the word in an article by Scott Douglas discussing a picture from a Nike ad showing one person running at night outside in the rain while the other person was inside a cozy restaurant enjoying what I imagine was a nice steak paired with a whiskey and a cigar. The picture was a syzygy because the two people were opposites paired together for the photograph.

Douglas and his friends debated who had it better in the photograph. Then, Douglas had an epiphany. Why can't it be both? Why does it have to be all one thing and not the other? I asked myself the same question.

That article and the picture were from the 1990s if I remember correctly. I can't find that article online anywhere, but I never forgot the idea. I would end up living the idea in my 20s as I would run, work a physically demanding job, and eat garbage from Burger King and drink a few beers on the weekend. Needless to say, that is not my lifestyle now. But it was fun for a few years when I was too young and stupid to know any better.

I never lost the syzygy idea in my head. What I did was apply sensibility to the idea. I replaced running with fitness walking. I replaced burgers and beer with oatmeal and black coffee. There is still the swing of the pendulum, but its arc is not so wide or extreme for me now.

If we apply sensibility to the picture in the Nike ad, the person running in the rain would be walking instead. It would be a brisk walk but with the same attire. The person eating at the table would be having ice water and a plant based meal probably with pasta and a salad. That modified picture captures my life and thinking today. That is syzygy and sensibility.