The Pedestrian Level

Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.

G.K. CHESTERTON

I do not know where my love for all things basic began. I can identify some stepping stones. One of those stepping stones came after my accident. They gave me a list of games that were good for brain rehab and development. One of those games was chess. I thought I would play that game until I realized that I could never play the game before my accident. I have never won a chess game in my life except the one where I cheated against a friend I was playing through email. I let the chess computer pick my moves against him. I never told him I cheated. Otherwise, I am a total loser at chess.

Checkers was also on the list, and I have won some checkers games. I decided that was my game, but I also wondered why checkers was hidden in the shadow of chess. The answer is that checkers is considered a pedestrian game for children and beginners and old men down at the barbershop or the general store. Regardless, checkers is my game, and I play it often against the computer online. I find it way more fun than chess.

I wondered if there were pedestrian levels in other activities, and there are. With golf, you have disc golf and mini-golf. Both cost a fraction of the big game mainly because you don't need to buy a thousand dollars worth of golf clubs. With bowling, you just raise those gutter guards to keep the ball in the lane. With cycling, it is the beach cruiser instead of the high end mountain bike/road bike/triathlon bike. With surfing, it is the bodyboard or boogie board instead of the stand up surfboard.

The bottom line with the pedestrian level is that you can have fun with little money or skill. Who would be against this? This would be the gatekeeper. A gatekeeper is someone who tries to block your entry to an activity because you didn't pay the entry fee or membership fee which is usually expensive equipment. This would be the ham radio operator going on CB radio (illegally) and telling everyone that they are breaking the law. Why do they do this? Because it burns them up that someone can buy a cheap CB from Walmart or a truck stop and talk on a radio without a license. Yes, the gatekeeper is this petty.

The flip side of the gatekeeper is the fool who does pay that expensive membership fee for an activity he only pretends to enjoy. The rest of the time is spent parading around the equipment and pretending that he belongs to a tribe of elites. For them, the pleasure comes down to buying things and not owning things. Boat owners are notorious for this sort of thing as they haul around boats that never touch the water.

I am committed to keeping things at a pedestrian level in my life. I will keep playing checkers and playing the kazoo. I don't care to ride a bike anymore, but I will get a beach cruiser from Walmart if I do. I will stick with my CB radio and have no plans to get my ham "ticket." I will eat basic food from the grocery store and Taco Bell because I am not a "foodie." I watch action movies and westerns instead of art films. Ultimately, I enjoy life at this pedestrian level. That is the dirty secret of the gatekeepers. You can have fun without the deep commitment and the expensive toys. They know this, but they have to plunge their heads into the black hole of denial. You go have some fun, Gentle Reader. You don't need anyone's permission.

Burn Your Bucket List And Kill Your Fantasy Self

And when I turned myself to all the works which my hands had wrought, and to the labours wherein I had laboured in vain, I saw in all things vanity, and vexation of mind, and that nothing was lasting under the sun.

ECCLESIASTES 2:11 DOUAY-RHEIMS

A bucket list is usually a list of places and adventures a person wants to visit and do before kicking the bucket. When I was in my twenties, I was keen on the bucket list mentality. I decided that I wanted to do things like run a marathon, thru hike the Appalachian Trail, learn to surf, go skydiving, and see the Great Pyramids. Most of these bucket list ideas came from the pages of Outside magazine. The reality is that I spent more time reading the magazine than doing any adventures.

I did do one thing on my bucket list of adventures. I went to West Virginia to do some whitewater rafting. I would end up doing this twice. Two times was enough. I never went on that particular adventure again. I imagined it was going to be more fun than it turned out to be. The reality is that I enjoyed one of those fake white water rides at an amusement park like Dollywood more than the real thing.

Nobody ever considers amusement parks as bucket list items, but they should. Those parks are safer and cheaper and give you the same thrills minus the misery of traveling on foot and sleeping on the ground. At my present age, I don't care to even visit amusement parks. I burned my bucket list by the time I exited my twenties.

I replaced my bucket list with a reading list of armchair adventures. I have found that I would rather read about someone else's adventures than have my own. This is why I still liked reading Outside magazine even though I never went anywhere. You can go anywhere with a book, and I did. One of my favorite pleasures was reading Paul Theroux travel books. I discovered Theroux through the magazine.

Bucket lists are vanities. They are a way of fooling ourselves into thinking we are living authentic experiences. The reality is that life is 90% boredom punctuated by periods of intense crisis. This doesn't change on an adventure. Most adventures are just terribly boring. This is why people take books with them on vacation and read them on the beach or the back porch of their mountain cabins. What a waste of time and money.

The point of a bucket list adventure is to have fun. The problem is they sell you the surfboard when you would have more fun on a boogie board. Why would you buy the surfboard? This is where vanity creeps in. People brag about their golf games but not their mini-golf games. All bucket list adventures have this vanity aspect. They are not done for enjoyment but for bragging rights. If you tend to be humble and modest, you end up having more fun than the vain and serious.

This brings us to a similar topic which is the fantasy self. The fantasy self is what you would be with washboard abs, 3 Ph.D.'s, knowing 7 languages fluently, and being able to sword fight. We can go on and on here with the "achievements" that comprise the fantasy self, and I think we have all suffered from this fantasy self delusion at some point in our lives.

For me, I killed my fantasy self when I decluttered all my Spanish language books and learning materials. I took Spanish in high school and college and wanted to actually become fluent in the language. I still think it is a valuable skill to have living in the Western hemisphere. I was going to follow up with learning Portuguese and French which would cover my half of the globe. But I woke up one day deep into middle age and concluded that I was never going to get that done. This is because I didn't need to know Spanish along with algebra, trig, calculus, and physics. This is because I never needed to know those things one single time in my life. It has never come up. If it ever does, I will take up learning it then because somebody is going to pay me to know it and use it. Otherwise, I focus on learning to garden and do basic home repairs.

The vanity of the fantasy self comes from Aristotle and the concept of the Renaissance Man who knew many things to a high degree of excellence. The reality is that I know virtually no renaissance men at all. I just know specialists who indulge some weekend hobbies to a level of mediocrity. Right now, that weekend hobby is Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. But I digress. . .

I don't have a fantasy self. My role models are Jesus Christ our Lord and Saint Joseph. Neither one of them was a renaissance man. They were carpenters which means they were blue collar. I imagine their lives centered around prayer and work. This fact is why I don't care to live chasing the excellence of Aristotle. Holiness is hard enough.

Bucket lists and fantasy selves are vanities. Life is too short for such things. Go ahead and let yourself off the hook and embrace the reality that you aren't going to do these things that are not worth doing. Simplify your mind and life by disposing of this garbage. You will find relief when you do. I know I did.

***

My Hate Affair with Bucket Lists

https://freemattpodcast.wordpress.com/2025/06/10/my-hate-affair-with-bucket-lists/

Charlie's Blogging Tips

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

I have been blogging for about 20 years now. I don't think I am an expert on blogging, and I don't know how to make money with a blog which is the tip most people want to know. I just know what has worked for me for the last 20 years as the result of trial and error.

1. Write what you know.

Don't write what you think people want to read or what will sell. I think each person has something unique to offer to the public. Virtually every person I know has their one thing they know well. It could be fly fishing or kazoo playing or whatever. Whatever you know, someone else can benefit from it. Go ahead and write it down.

2. Write in simple sentences.

People have been complimenting me on my writing since middle school, but there is no secret to writing well. I write simple sentences. I don't pick the biggest words, and I seldom use adjectives. I just write those true sentences that Hemingway was talking about.

3. Don't write about people in your personal life.

Once upon a time many years ago, I had a post that included a picture of a co-worker in a state of inebriation and his full name. Sometime later, he begged me to remove it, and I did. That picture was giving him all sorts of grief in his work life. That was not my intention, but I learned to not do that anymore. Sometimes, I do write about people in my personal sphere, but they get a nickname instead of a real name. The only reputation I care to damage is my own.

4. Publish on a schedule.

This schedule could be daily, weekly, monthly, or whatever. Choose a schedule and stick to it. Since my accident, I have learned that publishing weekly is all that I can manage. Daily publishing is out of the question. Sometimes, it takes a whole week for me to write one of these posts.

5. Delete your combox.

I love comboxes, but they have to be managed. Otherwise, bad things can happen and will happen. I don't have the time or energy to police a combox or pre-approve comments. I took the cue from Leo Babauta to simplify my life and get rid of the combox. I miss the comments, but we can't always have nice things.

6. Have a simple blog title.

I have been watching Levi Hildebrand's issues over the copyrighted "Future Proof" brand he was building for his YouTube channel. If you have a brand dedicated to tearing down other brands, someone is going to tear down your brand. Levi finally settled on using his own name. I could have told him that from the beginning.

Our channel got shut down.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GOJjkM6A9k

For some reason, people think they have to have a clever title for their blog, podcast, YouTube channel, etc. Oftentimes, it isn't clever at all but just stupid. If it is clever, someone probably already owns it. I recommend using your own name or using a pseudonym if you want to be anonymous. This also allows you to write what you know as a titled blog is usually dedicated to a single topic.

7. Don't write clickbait titles for blog posts.

Punking your readers is not a good way to build a following. Tricks and gimmicks work for a bit, but you are left with those tricks and gimmicks. Focus on writing the best content you know which goes back to writing that one true sentence Hemingway recommended. That one true sentence isn't clickbait.

8. Don't self promote on social media.

I did this for a season on Facebook until I realized I was spending more time on Facebook than on my blog. I even considered deleting the blog and being entirely on social media. I am glad I didn't do that. Today, I have eschewed all social media. This blog is as social as I get. If someone likes the content, they can post the link on their social media. I just write the content and promptly forget about it.

9. Don't be professional.

I try to keep a homemade quality here at the C-Blog. I use pictures from my flip phone. I will hand draw memes. I will do my own artwork in MSPaint. People can find that professional content somewhere else.

10. Eschew AI.

I see an inhuman future coming where people don't write anymore but let ChatGPT do the work for them. That's why I added "100% human generated content" to my tagline at the top of the blog. I know how to write. I want to keep writing alive in the 21st century.

Gentle Reader, that is all I have for blogging tips. I hope you found them helpful and educational.

UPDATE: After you write a blog post, you may find you have additional thoughts on the topic. I took a cue from Columbo with his "one more thing" tagline which came from the clever way the scriptwriters would go back and add in something they missed. You can do the same thing with your blog posts by tacking on updates to published posts like this one here. The downside is that some people may miss the updates. I recommend checking back on your favorite posts for those updates. This also liberates me to hit publish on posts that are not quite perfect. If I waited for perfection, you would have nothing to read, Gentle Reader.

Black Pill Catholicism

Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice; and you shall be made sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.

JOHN 16:20 DOUAY-RHEIMS

I officially entered the Roman Catholic Church in 2013. This was the same year that Ratzinger called it quits, and the wolves put Bergoglio on the chair. Bergoglio is now deceased, and we have a new pope in Prevost. I have many thoughts on all of these things, so I will discuss them in a list of topics.

1. White Pill Versus Black Pill

I began as a white pill Catholic because this is natural for any convert entering the Church. It didn't take long for me to become black pilled as I dug into the scandals that don't get reported much on EWTN. This parable from our Lord is what gave me comfort and the knowledge that things have always been this way and will always be this way until the Lord returns. The result is a mix of doom and hope that is captured in John 16:20 as quoted above. We will be losing right up to the moment of victory.

The only thing I have to do as a Catholic is not quit the faith. You have to be in it to win it. The trials and temptations of this life are aimed at making us quit. Watching the last 12 years of Bergoglio, I am sad to say that many have quit.

2. Bergoglio

I strongly suspect that Bergoglio was an antipope. The final decision is above my pay grade, and I am open to being wrong in my suspicions. I think this matter was always going to fall to the next pope to clear up, and the next pope is here. Some people have wanted to take me to task for this position not realizing that our judgments on these things must be subordinate to that of the pope. This is why we are Roman Catholics and not Protestants. I don't care to gamble my soul on Ann Barnhardt's knowledge of Latin which is virtually nil. I pray for a resolution to this issue.

3. Leo XIV

I strongly believe that Leo XIV is a legitimate pope even if fiends engineered his election. This has happened before yielding legitimate popes. I will wait and see, but I will consider him legit until things go awry.

4. Clerical sodomy

I believe the unnamed sources who claim that 90% of Catholic priests and bishops are sodomites. I believe their agenda is to turn the Catholic Church into the Anglican Church of Rome where such perversion is openly tolerated and celebrated among clerics. The cure for this falls to the laity to uncover it through investigations and journalism. Some are doing this now like the folks over at Complicit Clergy. It is clear that the sodomites wanted Prevost. Why? What do they know that the rest of us don't know? This is where the black pill becomes necessary.

At the end of the day, what happens in Rome and with the pope has little to do with the daily lives of Roman Catholics. We live in an age of media saturation, and Bergoglio took full advantage of this to scandalize the faithful. Now, people want a quiet and boring pope for awhile. I know I want that. Regardless of how things go, I am on the black pill and will remain that way until the end. The quickest path to losing faith is disillusionment that comes from unrealistic expectations. I expect sinners to keep sinning. There is no surprise in that.

Advice On Giving Advice

The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.

HENRY WARD BEECHER

Recently, a friend of ours was in a jam. Instead of giving her advice, we just prayed for her and her situation. That turned out better than any advice we could have given her. God turned her situation around. May He be praised.

There is a certain arrogance that comes with giving advice. This is a key reason why people don't want to ask for advice or take it when given. I have learned to keep my advice to myself. I don't think I am smart enough to fix everyone's problems. I also make a mess of things for myself, and I have concluded that I am an idiot. How I have learned anything in life is a mystery to me.

You will find wisdom and advice in the Holy Bible, but the cornerstone is to put God first in your life and observe His commandments. When people have a problem, I tell them to pray. That should always be the first words out of your mouth. The second is that you will add your prayers to their prayers. The third is to ask them to pray for you. The first great blessing of this advice is it makes you humble. God is what makes the difference and not your clever tricks.

The second thing is to remind people of what God commands. So many of our problems come from living in the wrong way. As I say, you can't go wrong doing what is right.

The last thing is to recognize those areas that are just practical. What is the best way to wash a dish? How should you kill fire ants? How do you hem a pair of pants? I love practical tips like this because they don't carry the same heaviness as telling someone how to deal with an abusive spouse.

Most people don't listen to good advice. This is infuriating because these people don't recognize our wisdom, and this wounds the pride as it should. One of the things I have discovered in life is that people gladly follow my practical advice when I demonstrate it without commentary. People love tips, tricks, and hacks. I know I do. This phenomenon proves that people actually can observe and listen. This should settle your mind about "helping" people. People know better. They choose to not do better. No one is ignorant.

You have to get used to being overlooked and ignored in life. The humble person has no problem with this. If someone asks me for advice, I just tell them what I think with the caveat that I am an idiot. Most of the time, I tell them I don't know because I don't. I recommend going to Google for the things you don't know.

Humility is the path to true wisdom. Pride is the path to folly. Be humble before God, and He will set you straight. Tell that to everyone you know and tell it to yourself.

Charlie's TV Issues

When I was your age, television was called books.

WILLIAM GOLDMAN

One of the issues that plagues me with my traumatic brain injury is visual processing. I get sick and fatigued when I get overstimulated in this area. Big box stores are bad for me especially Lowe's and Home Depot. I can handle the grocery store because I let my wife do the shopping as I push the cart. If I had to hunt down what we eat, I would get that sick feeling there, too. It is not seeing that causes me issues but actively looking for things. Another issue is when there is an overload of visual stimuli. They have these kaleidoscopic videos on YouTube that take me to the edge of vomiting. When I went blind with the cataracts, life was hard, but the dimming of my vision provided relief from the visual processing issues. I have learned that wearing dark sunglasses helps, and I destimulate each day in a dark room.

I have never been a huge fan of movies or television shows. I spent the entirety of the 1990s without owning a television set. I preferred the radio and my CD player. I prefer listening to watching. The brain injury only added to a way of life I already had. I don't feel deprived of anything. The only thing missing from my life is binge watching which I don't need.

I have been adding visual entertainment back into my life in small bites. After six years, I can watch two hours of dramatic content without getting sick. Action movies and eye candy movies sometimes make me sick. An old black and white show like Perry Mason where talking is more prominent than action is the fare I can handle now.

My attention issues make it hard for me to listen to people talking. People will talk, and I will miss a sentence or two. It is like someone hit the mute button briefly and turned it back on. This is aggravating in a conversation, but I can tolerate it in a podcast because I sometimes listen to the same program twice. You can't hit repeat on a real world conversation. I carry a voice recorder for times when the conversation counts to play back later. I never had these issues before the TBI.

Physical Media and the End of OAB TV

I could live the rest of my life just reading books, but reading is not a shared experience. I could read aloud, but this becomes tedious. Passively listening to audiobooks is not the same as actively reading a page. So, I took to watching the free programming that was available on my dog ear antenna. I remember that we watched Andy Griffith on MeTV, Columbo on Cozi TV, and a bunch of western movies on Grit TV. We had a good time until our old second hand TV gave up the ghost. When I looked into buying a new TV, the market is dominated by smart TV sets that I can't stand. When people cut the cord on cable, they replaced it with the streaming cord and now pay more to watch movies and TV.

Instead of buying a new TV set, we bought a portable DVD player. This solved one problem for us. As for watching television, we have turned to watching free streaming channels like Tubi and Pluto. This leaves OAB TV that still exists for free and the temptation to buy a new dumb TV. This is where things get nasty.

TV broadcasters don't want to broadcast TV anymore. I learned this from the Antenna Man on YouTube. They make more money from rebroadcast fees on cable and streaming. Those stations are now lobbying the FCC to make it possible to turn broadcast TV into over-the-air cable TV where you pay for programming you now watch for free. Naturally, this will kill broadcast TV, but these stupid bastards don't care. The people that will feel this the most are folks living in rural areas that don't get cable or streaming. The broadcasters are hoping to shut it down by 2028.

Knowing that they want to put the screws to me, I don't see the point in buying a new dumb TV set to replace the old set. They don't want my business. It is sad to see things going this way. Some folks like the Antenna Man don't think it will come to this. I think he is wrong. I totally believe they can and will kill broadcast TV as we know it.

Like I said, I don't watch much visual content. I would be more upset with the loss of AM radio which is also endangered. At the end of the day, I like watching old movies and TV shows with my wife. I can get those on DVD, and those portable DVD players are big sellers right now as people reject streaming. I think this will become more of a thing going forward. Physical media will persist especially among people who live in rural areas who don't have high speed internet. I think these people are the ones keeping DVDs alive.

Failed Runner Syndrome Revisited

I'm not an athlete. I'm a ballplayer.

JOHN KRUK

John Kruk uttered this response to a woman who asked if he was an athlete. One look at Kruk's waistline would give you the answer. But that is the cool thing about baseball. You can be fat and still be a world class ballplayer. The same is true of golf with John Daly smoking cigarettes and sipping Diet Coke. The simple fact is that "athlete" is an abused term. The sad thing is that so many people want to be athletes. I consider this to be a ridiculous vanity.

The running boom of the 1970s fed into this vanity. No one was hitting the baseball diamond or the football field in middle age to recapture glory days or to fulfill unrealized fantasies. Road racing was something virtually anyone could get into, and they did. Nevermind that they were far slower than the actual winners. They could make the claim that they were "athletes." Naturally, they took this athlete thing way too seriously to the point that anything less than running for fitness didn't count. Everything got turned into a competition.

Now, not every outdoor activity suffers from this athletic mentality. For instance, surfers don't have this same competitive mindset. Most just enjoy being on the waves. There are surf competitions, but that requires judges and subjective measurements. Surfing is not racing, and it isn't a game. You can add other activities to this non-competitive world such as hiking, paddling a canoe, rock climbing, and on and on. These things are enjoyed for their own sake and not for the sake of finishing times and trophies.

Fitness walking falls between these competitive and non-competitive worlds. Many fitness walkers began as runners but discovered that walking for fitness was the better fit. The downside is that many of these walkers still retain that quantitative competitive mindset that I refer to as "failed runner syndrome." For instance, if you walk in a local 5K and hope to finish before they close the course, you suffer from FRS. If you wear running shoes for walking, you suffer from FRS.

The better mindset is to think of yourself as a daily hiker like John Muir or Henry David Thoreau. Those fellows hail from a time before the athletic mindset took over for so many people. Walking was about exercise but also about thinking and exploring. I am disappointed that this older and better mindset has been lost to FRS.

Walking should be an enjoyable outdoor activity like hiking, surfing, and canoeing not an athletic activity like running, ultrarunning, and the triathlon. This doesn't mean you shouldn't exercise and get in shape. But it does mean abandoning the training mindset of always preparing for some sort of competitive event.

You are either a runner or a fitness walker. There's no shame in running if you want to nurse your fantasy life of being an athlete. Fitness walkers need to learn to let this go. These are two different animals that share some similarities like a tiger and a zebra. But you would be a fool to think these two species coexist on the same plane. They don't.

I used to run, but it looked like jogging. I am not a failed runner because I had no business doing that nonsense. Like John Kruk, I am not an athlete. I am an old man who wants to keep moving in life.

I suggest channeling your inner Thoreau and turn your daily walk into a daily hike where you get in touch with God, His creation, and your own thoughts. This is much sweeter than the vanity of training for a marathon that you have no chance of winning. And wear some comfortable shoes.

Douchebags

Rhiannon's Law #22. You can't lie to yourself, so don't bother trying. Doing so only multiplies your douchebag level to the umpteenth power and confirms what others have been saying for years - that you are an idiot.

J.A. SAARE

I admit that "douchebag" is an impolite term, but I don't know of another word that fits. The douchebag is where vanity and stupidity meet. I find douchebags irritating and annoying, but I also admit that self-awareness will always elude them. Douchebags have a special type of narcissism where insults only feed their pride.

My neighbor is a douchebag. He plays Nickelback and bro country too loudly because it is not enough to listen to music. You have to listen to bad music and force others to listen to it, too. This music gets drowned out as the douchebag cranks his loud pickup truck with the douchebag rims 20 times per day. He doesn't go anywhere. He just cranks the truck and revs the motor. Otherwise, this douchebag has nothing to do and all day to do it.

Virtually everything this guy does is for the sake of vanity. He is always messing with some toy like a muscle car or a boat. He doesn't actually fix these things like a real mechanic but makes them louder with glasspack mufflers and changes out the rims. That's it. Then, he gets bored and switches to some new toy. It is a profound waste of a life, but this is what idiots do when they are bored.

I have never been a douchebag. I have dressed in some slobby outfits, but I am a decade removed from wearing cargo shorts and T-shirts. Douchebags actually dress a bit nicer than this but not by much. Their favorite thing to wear is a tank top shirt to show off their arms and chest paired with some sort of jewelry and a ear ring. Additionally, facial hair has to be a love brush under the bottom lip or a chin brush. Douchebags have to split the difference between being clean shaven and having a full beard. As for the hair, it has to have gel if the head is not shaved.

Douchebags exist because today's man has lost all role models for manliness. Instead, they emulate professional athletes, rappers, and characters from The Fast And The Furious film franchise. Then, there is the phenomenon known as Andrew Tate who has inspired thousands of men worldwide to go full douchebag with their lives.

Now, I am an old man in his fifth decade of life. You might expect me to look to Randolph Scott and John Wayne as proper role models for manliness, but I don't. These men were actors. Role models need to be real flesh and blood human beings. I also do not look to professional athletes as very few have the dignity of true manhood. For me, my role models came from old men that I knew in my youth who worked blue collar jobs and dressed the part. These men were about work and not much else.

If I had to pick a popular culture depiction of douchebags and classy old men, I would select The Karate Kid. In the movie, the Cobra Kai sensei, John Kreese, represents the douchebag while the handyman Mr. Miyagi represents the humble but classy old man. Kreese is toxic masculinity. Miyagi is non-toxic masculinity. The film is a great story about the clash of these two ways of manliness. Ultimately, Kreese is not manly at all. His lack of honor and decency cost him the respect of his own pupils.

The best path is wisdom and humility. Miyagi has both. Kreese has neither. Don't be a douchebag.

Stages Of Life

The days of our years in them are threescore and ten years. But if in the strong they be fourscore years: and what is more of them is labour and sorrow. For mildness is come upon us: and we shall be corrected.

PSALM 89:10 DOUAY-RHEIMS

I begin this post on a sad note because one of the YouTubers I have followed for years has contracted Stage 4 cancer in his bladder at age 72. I contrast this with the lady in our parish who died of a bacterial heart infection at age 38. Then, there is the young man who was 8 years old who died from liver cancer. Virtually everyone dies too young in the opinion of someone. I take issue with this.

One day, I sat down and mapped out what I refer to now as "stages of life." It is a handy guide to know where you fall on the age issue. It is based on 20 year increments.

1. YOUTH 0-20

Youth is from the time you were born to the time your parents can kick you out of the house. This is a time of innocence which turns into arrogance and ignorance by the teen years. The only valuable thing gained from these years is a basic academic understanding of the world.

2. YOUNG ADULTHOOD 20-40

The next stage is considered the prime of life when you are young and fit. This is the best time of life to start a career and start a family. The downside is that you don't know everything yet and learn bitter lessons along the way.

3. MIDDLE AGE 40-60

Middle age is when you gather wisdom and wealth. You are young enough to keep working and smart enough to not make the same mistakes you made in youth. But your body begins to slow down at this stage. This is why most professional athletes retire at 40 and move to something like coaching or on air analysis.

4. OLD AGE 60-80

Old age is when your body rapidly deteriorates, and you should be preparing to die. No one wants to hear this, but it is the truth. Life ends, and it usually ends sometime after 70 for most people. I am watching that now with many people I know. If you make it to 70, you can't say that you died young.

5. BONUS TIME 80-100+

There are some individuals who are outliers and live beyond the average life expectancy. This is not a blessing as these advanced years will be the most miserable that you ever endured. I think dying at 60 from a heart attack is better than dying from Alzheimer's at 80. The recent death of Gene Hackman showed to me how heartbreaking that disease can be.

I don't think this life has very much to offer. My life has been mostly misery with a few pleasures here and there. The only real joy I find in my life comes from my wife and from my Roman Catholic faith. I don't understand how people can expend so much time, money, and energy chasing after the vanities of this life. As for dying young, the only thing that matters is dying in a state of grace and going to Heaven one day. It is better to die at 8 as a saint than at 80 as some self indulgent boomer chasing an end of life vacation. As for me, I am 54 at the time of this writing, and I feel old. If I die, no one should ever claim that I died young.

Bodywork

DISCLAIMER: I am not a physician, physical therapist, personal trainer or anything remotely related to being a healthcare worker. As always, consult with professionals on your exercise program and do your own research. This is just my personal experience.

It is the pain that makes the pain go away.

ALEC BALDWIN

Alec Baldwin uttered this line in regard to getting a second hip replacement. It has stuck with me because we often endure short term pain for the sake of eliminating long term pain. I thought the line captures the essence of bodywork. It is the pain that makes the pain go away.

"Bodywork" is the catch all term I use for the battery of strengthening, stretching, and isometric exercises I have to do to keep myself moving without injury. Sad to say, I neglected those bodywork exercises and gave myself a bad case of IT band syndrome and peroneal tendinitis. It also didn't help walking on shoes that were past their mileage. That was dumb. The result was a bitter lesson, and bitter lessons are not soon forgotten.

I believe strength is the foundation of fitness. People pit strength vs. cardio, but the outcome of the contest is clear. Strength training is more important because it allows you to do the cardio training. I believe in both, but the most important element is strength training.

The goal of strength training is injury prevention and resistance. You want to build for yourself a bulletproof body. Those bodywork exercises can be tedious at times and not always pleasant. But as Mr. Baldwin put it, "it is the pain that makes the pain go away." I say that to myself before every bodywork session.

My bodywork hero is the ultrarunner Dean Karnazes who has run thousands of miles without a single overuse injury. Compare Karno to Anton Krupicka who has had his career wrecked by overuse injuries. I do not recommend ultrarunning, but these two are "lab rats" for comparing running with bodywork versus running without bodywork. Dean Karnazes proves the value of strength training for injury prevention.

I first learned this lesson from watching basketball in the nineties as NBA players started hitting the weight room. I could understand football players doing this but not basketball players. But those NBA players discovered that the strength training made them resilient to injury. Now, you see everyone from baseball players to tennis players to golfers doing strength training. That training is indispensable.

Believing in something is not the same as doing something. As the Good Book says, "Faith without works is dead." This IT band injury and peroneal tendinitis has made me get religion on bodywork, and I have vowed to not have this happen to me again. Consequently, bodywork is a daily part of my program, and I have no excuses for not doing them. I can do them rain or shine.

I post this piece on bodywork as a companion to all my posts on fitness walking. I have a book published by Prevention magazine on walking, but it is mostly chapters on these bodywork exercises. I think fitness walking is a great exercise, but it cannot be walking alone. Bodywork is a must. Let this be a warning to the Gentle Reader from someone who learned the hard way.

Annoying Things 2

Rap is just to me very annoying.

JAMES HETFIELD

Rap is very annoying to me, too. Here are some other things I find annoying.

1. Batman+

Batman is the only superhero I care about. I can't get into the other ones. This is why I hate when they put Batman in a movie with another superhero like Superman or the Justice League or SuperFriends or whatever. I want Gotham City, Batman, Alfred, Commisoner Gordon, and some classic supervillain like the Joker. I don't care for Robin or Batgirl and prefer their absence.

2. Boomers with smartphone holsters

I am a dumbphone enthusiast. so it irks me when older people walk around with a fat iPhone strapped to the hip. Boomers are worse than kids when it comes to smartphones and smartphone addiction. I figured that geriatric Boomers would be natural allies on this front, but Gen Z are the only ones who want dumbphones now.

3. Donald Trump's hair

The Donald likes to do the combover colored with that orange hair spray he uses. The result is a bird nest desperately trying to cover male pattern baldness. I believe that shaving your head is the better option. It is probably too late for Trump to go down this path, and that is a real shame.

4. Dumbphones that aren't dumb

I follow the dumbphone reddit, and it irks me when people ask for a dumbphone with all of the smartphone features. These people have no clue that this defeats the whole purpose of having a dumbphone. I really can't stand seeing a Nokia dumbphone with the Facebook app preloaded on the thing. For me, the whole point of rocking a dumbphone is to eliminate distractions especially from social media.

5. Treadmills

I am not a treadmill fan. I like walking for fitness, but the treadmill is a nightmare for me because I am clumsy and prone to falling. I prefer a stationary recumbent bike to a treadmill. You can't fall off of one of those things. I might buy one in the future.

6. Fake teeth that are perfect

This comes up repeatedly on the unpopular opinion reddit. When someone smiles with a row of perfect teeth, it creeps me out. They are obviously fake. I find comfort in imperfect teeth like you see on people in the UK. My teeth are very imperfect and resemble a picket fence. I am too old to care now. If I ever get dentures, I want them to be imperfect. I don't know if they make them that way, but I don't want that creepy smile on my face.

7. Boutique workwear

I have always been a fan of Dickies and Carhartt workwear, and I am not above buying used work uniforms and gear from Goodwill. I am not a fan of expensive workwear from brands like 1620 and Truewerk with their $200 work pants. I also don't care for $300 work boots. I don't know who wears this high dollar gear or who can afford it. I know that it isn't me.

8. Elon Musk's rebranding of Twitter into X

I escaped Twitter years ago, so this social media platform can go up in flames for all that I care. But as an observer of business, I think renaming it "X" was colossal stupidity on the part of Musk. The new name itself is ridiculous. As for Twitter, I guarantee that people still "tweet" on X the same way they still "google" stuff on Bing or DuckDuckGo. Podcasts are still called podcasts even though the iPod is history now. One of the things I have learned in life is to not make dramatic or drastic changes to what is already there. It took a lot of effort to build it in the first place. It makes no sense to be hasty in destroying it.

9. The overgearification of the outdoors

Going outside is essentially free, but this has not stopped companies from trying to make bank off of the outdoors. This has made the whole outdoors thing expensive and ridiculous. It also doesn't help when some overgeared outdoor gatekeeper narcissist makes fun of your dad shoes and Walmart camping equipment. It doesn't cost much to get outside, and it shouldn't. Keep it cheap and simple.

The DARK SIDE of the Outdoor Clothing Industry

https://youtu.be/oW8eKHOPriA?si=6RffLniDEBIpUTRb

10. Flannel

I am supposed to like flannel, and I want to like flannel. Unfortunately, my experience with flannel has been bad. The first problem is that flannel shirts shrink after you wash them. The second problem is that flannel is not durable. I learned this after busting the crotch in a pair of flannel pajamas. Now, some wise guy will say that I was not wearing "real" flannel. I have no clue what that is. I suspect that it is just expensive flannel. I am off the flannel train.

11. Political apparel

I am not a fan of wearing my politics on my clothing. I follow the Gray Man strategy of keeping a low profile when I am in public, and I don't see the point in causing unnecessary controversy. There is a time and a place for everything which is why I constrain my political opinions to this blog. When I go to the grocery store, I am there to buy food and not start a fight.

12. Receiving a phone call

I cringe whenever my phone rings. It is either a spam caller, a robo caller, or some needy extrovert who wants to chat. I have one contact who responds to my text with a phone call. I don't text him anymore. The sad truth is that I don't like talking to people especially people on the phone. Because I write, I like texting. People who can't write prefer talking. I can't talk.

13. People who turn everything into a game, sport, competition, or rivalry

I am not an athlete. When I walk for fitness, I just walk. I don't turn it into a race or post stats for comparison on the internet. I also never fell for the "competitions" at work that the company would do to make us work harder or faster. These schemes usually result in that other aspect of competition known as "cheating." I remember one worker who was incredibly fast in completing his route except everyone else had to go behind him and fix his mistakes. He ended up costing the company more money than he was making for them. This is dumb.

14. Chunky watches

I wear a G-Shock as a fitness watch, but I prefer to wear the slim F91W the rest of the time. The appeal of the F91W comes down to that low profile that fits well under long sleeves and coat sleeves. Chunky watches become annoying fairly quickly which is why I don't collect G-Shocks. One is enough.

15. People who think you are a dupe for being nice to them

I am nice and charitable to people because I am a Christian and generally agreeable. Naturally, people mistake my kindness for stupidity which leads me to becoming very unpleasant and unkind. I lead with the nice, but I can go to the nasty in a heartbeat. I am a nice guy, but I am not a fool. Be innocent as doves and wise as serpents.

16. Discounted rotten produce

When food goes to rot, a store shouldn't cut the price to try and sell it. They should throw it away.

17. Carnivore dieters in denial

A meat only diet sounds dangerous. This is because it is dangerous. Trust me, I would love it if bacon and beef were health foods because they taste delicious. But they are not good for you. I know because they weren't good for me. Yet, you get serious denial by the meatheads who insist that meat is good and bad health is caused by "seed oils." Whatever. These people are total idiots. Only flatearthers are dumber than carnivore dieters.

Dr Shawn Baker Ignores ANOTHER Carnivore Diet Heart Attack

https://youtu.be/GYEhsY9zE3g?si=_8U9sdkHmLO9qBI3

18. Head fakers

Head fakers are people who declare they are going to do something positive for their lives like convert to Catholicism, switch to a dumbphone, take up fitness walking, or quit meat except they don't. I know that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, so I don't believe anything anybody says they are going to do. I know better. I diminish my expectations on these things. I will believe it when I see it.

19. Roman numerals

I despise Roman numerals except when they come in a name like Henry IV. The Super Bowl people like using Roman numerals. The movie credits people love Roman numerals. Watchmakers love Roman numerals. Why? Why make it more difficult? Arabic numerals are the way to go.

20. Puffer jackets

These jackets are hideous to look at. I think a black trash bag might be better. These jackets are also not durable. The slightest abrasion will have them bleeding out down everywhere. And the repair amounts to patching the holes with duct tape. Get a duck canvas or wool coat instead.

21. The Internet of Things

For some reason, every company wants to connect every device to the internet. Once this is complete, they want you to pay subscription fees to keep those devices running until they brick them forcing you to buy a new internet connected device. These devices are called "smart devices." It is smart for them and dumb for you. This innovation is known as a scam, and I am not buying it. Unfortunately, they are going to force it by removing all other options.

22. My cellphone company's chronic pitches for me to upgrade to a smartphone

I get these pitches in my email and on my cellphone. I am a flip phone user who purchased his device back in 2019. I am supremely happy with this device. For some odd reason, Verizon thinks I am not happy and considers me a prime sales target. I just delete these offers. One day, I will delete Verizon.

23. Hard candy that turns into a razor blade that cuts your tongue and mouth.

My Google search says this happens when there are micro air bubbles in the candy. It has made me give up hard candy completely. I will stick with chewy candy like Sour Patch Kids.

24. Inflation.

Inflation is when the government orders up more printed money from the Federal Reserve and spends it. This debases the currency which drives up prices on goods and services. Essentially, inflation is taxation. This makes life suck for everyone else. Companies will resort to "shrinkflation" and "shitflation" in vain attempts to get money and still turn a profit. The result is smaller portions of products declining in quality. No one is fooled by any of this.

25. GMRS users throwing shade on CB radio.

I don't have enough information about GMRS radio to have an opinion for or against the service. What I do take issue with is the slam on CB radio that amounts to saying that no one uses CB radio because there are too many people talking on CB radio. (Yogi Berra would be proud of that one.) Apparently, certain GMRS users don't want the ham users to have all of the fun bagging on CB radio. At the end of the day, if you buy a GMRS radio, you will hear a lot of nothing. You can talk with someone if you decide on a channel and a privacy code beforehand which means probably calling them with your cellphone first. Or, you can just use your cellphone and skip all of that radio crap. As GMRS users are fond of pointing out, the service is designed for two-way communication. Why would I use the GMRS radio if my cellphone already does that?

This is the end of my second edition of annoying things. Will there be a third edition? You know it!

My One And Only Regret

For the sorrow that is according to God worketh penance, steadfast unto salvation; but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

2 CORINTHIANS 7:10 DOUAY-RHEIMS

I don't think it is possible to get through life without making mistakes. Our Lord made one "mistake" in choosing Judas Iscariot except God doesn't make mistakes. God chooses to use our mistakes for His end. That is a very important lesson to remember. It allows us to try and keep trying even if failure may be the result. The only real failure is quitting.

I have made many mistakes in my life. I expect the same is true for you, Gentle Reader. Mistakes are part of the learning process. We fail our way to success. We discover what doesn't work until we find what does work.

Sins are not mistakes. We know better. God even uses those for His end. This is why you shouldn't beat yourself up for the rest of your life over those sins. God forgives. Learn to forgive yourself.

When I assay my life with my sins and mistakes, I realize I have only one regret in my life. It was the decision to become an atheist. I hung up the phone on God. That one decision, sin, and mistake yielded virtually all of the other sins and mistakes in my life. In that decision, I turned from trying to quitting. I knew God was real, but I did not understand Him. I still don't understand Him, but I trust in Him now when I lost faith and trust in Him all those years ago.

There is nothing to gain in atheism. Without God, your life has no value or meaning. Guys like Sartre and Nietzsche see this as a grand opportunity to find meaning in a meaningless existence. It can't be done. I gave it a good decade before coming to that conclusion. You will always go nowhere as an atheist.

There is a certain type of person who deals with trauma and crisis by turning inward. They try to find the answers within themselves. When this fails, they try to find the answer in a liquor bottle or some other self-medicating vice. This is just plain pathetic. I can't stand these people.

You should always turn to God with your problems and despair. God cares for you, and He will get you through. The pathetic navel gazers don't want this answer. They know God is the answer, but they prefer to ruminate and immolate their sanity and their lives. At the root of this is a hatred for God. When you hate God, the only one you are destroying is yourself.

My story has a happy ending. I hung up the phone on God, but He called me back. I picked up the phone again, and I have resolved to never hang up on God again. I might scream into the receiver once in awhile, but this turns to relief. Temporary circumstances should not turn into permanent decisions. Life is hard, and God hears your prayers even if they are groans. Trials and sufferings produce good things when offered up to God. Never lose your connection to God. Everything else will fall into place.

Gear

The gear you can’t afford is not the barrier keeping you from success. Gear has very little to do with photography.

CHASE JARVIS

I make a distinction between tools and toys. A lawnmower is a tool. A motorcycle is a toy. Tools are for getting work done. Toys are for having fun until they get repossessed by the bank or finance company. Gear is the middle range between tools and toys.

Examples of gear would be a backpack, a bicycle, a headlamp, shoes, gloves, etc. Gear is simply the collection of things you use to do other things. These things could be utilitarian or recreational. There can be overlap. I have a love/hate relationship with gear. I need gear to do things, but I don't like spending money on gear. The people that manufacture and sell gear prefer that I spend money on gear.

I am not a cyclist, but I have come across blog posts and YouTube videos about bike snobbery. That issue captures what I see as a problem across many fields of endeavor. Many cyclists have gone to bike shops only to be insulted by the bike shop operators as ridiculous amateurs for not wanting to buy the expensive road and mountain bikes they sell. People who use bikes for utilitarian reasons want commuter bikes. People who want to ride bikes for fun want beach cruisers. The bike shops don't care to sell to these people even if selling to them is more lucrative than selling to the "professional" riders. The irony is that these so-called professionals aren't professionals at all but posers who like to pretend on the weekends. These bike snobs like to gate keep the cycling world because bicycle commuters and fat people on beach cruisers shatter the myth of cycling as a serious sport.

The reality is that you get judged by your gear. Cycling is not alone in this snobbery. I see the same thing in the radio world as ham radio snobs sneer at people who use CB and GMRS radios. Somehow, the "amateur" part of amateur radio gets forgotten as these radio snobs with their $1000+ radios look down their noses at the white trash with their $100 radios. The cost of your gear is a signal to the world of the seriousness of your commitment to the sport, hobby, or activity.

Gear snobbery diminishes people's interest in various activities. I see that most acutely now in the outdoor activity space where people think they can't go hiking or camping because they don't own or use Patagucci gear. Wearing and using gear from Walmart brands you as a rube. Even hunters are getting in on the snobbery train as sportsmen judge each other on the rifle, bow, crossbow, and camouflage they wear. Why would anyone want to join these comparison traps?

The sad reality is that so much of what we do today has been diminished to buying and collecting gear. Instead of doing things, we purchase things. The activities amount to showing off the things we've purchased. I reject this vanity. I mock this vanity.

One of the words that I have come to love is "pedestrian." A pedestrian is someone getting around on foot as opposed to a car or a bicycle, but the word can also mean "common" and "dull." People rarely use this second meaning of the word, but I find that it fits. For instance, my bird watching is pedestrian because I look at birds in my backyard and sometimes use my $20 monocular that I didn't buy for this specific purpose of watching birds. I am certain that if I joined up with the bird watching club that they would sneer at my cheap looking glass and indifference to logging what I saw. My bird watching was accidental, and I intend to keep it that way.

I try to keep everything I do at that pedestrian level. The key to this is to not spend a lot of money on gear especially branded gear. Now, I don't believe in buying junk. You don't save money buying junk. But you don't have to spend a lot of money to get decent gear. For example, skiers praise the Kinco work gloves for their durability and warmth and wear them on the slopes. This is why I look to workwear and hardware store options for much of my gear. The headlamp I wear for my night walks came from Harbor Freight and cost me $9. I have been very happy with that headlamp.

I have a strategy when it comes to gear. The first part of that strategy is to eschew those activities that require a lot of gear or expensive gear. This is why I am not a golfer or an Ironman Triathlete. This is why I don't do ham radio or go thru-hiking. My aim is to do as little as possible when it comes to these types of activities. The things I choose to do are done at a very pedestrian level. Part of the joy is knowing that it doesn't cost me a lot of money to do these things.

The second part of my strategy is to not buy gear that I don't need. For instance, I don't buy FitBits and fitness trackers for my walking. My Casio watch is all I need. I was going to buy myself some Merrell Moab hiking shoes for trail walking, but I talked myself out of it. You don't need those shoes to walk a trail.

The third part of my strategy is to buy gear at a low cost relative to its value. I have an Igloo cooler that I used at work for my lunch that cost a fraction of the price of a high dollar Yeti. That cooler survived a nasty truck crash, and I still use it today for keeping grocery store purchases cold for the trip home. It cost me $20 from Big Lots. Needless to say, I am an Igloo fan.

Ultimately, I care more about the activity than the gear. I find that basic, affordable, and durable gear does the trick for me. I eschew high dollar brands that are more for status than function. My top destinations for basic gear are Walmart, Harbor Freight, and Tractor Supply. I never go to REI or Cabela's. As for gear snobs, I let my cheap gear serve as a middle finger to their vanity.

The Workwear Option

We’re not in the business of making jackets. We’re in the business of making warm friends.

HAMILTON CARHARTT

Normcore is a label that generally applies to the way I have dressed since high school. Basically, I have dressed in a way that doesn't stand out from the normal. I was never into bell bottom jeans, skinny jeans, suit jackets, bow ties, biker wear, or anything else distinctive. What has made me distinctive is my tendency to choose workwear over more casual wear. For instance, I choose Dickies and Carhartt over Levi's. I choose steel toe workboots over Timberland hiking boots. This is known as the workwear option.

I have a casual set of clothes that I wear to church or the doctor's office. I call this my normcore uniform. It is a buttoned down shirt paired with a pair of Carhartt pants. This casual uniform is to be distinguished from my work uniform that I wear 90% of the time which would be a buttoned down work shirt paired with some Dickies work pants. The key difference is that my normcore uniform doesn't have dirt and grease on it or holes and patches. Because I wear the normcore uniform rarely, it stays clean and presentable.

With these two basic uniforms, I go with the workwear option. The reasons for this should be obvious. Workwear is durable, functional, economical, and basic. Whenever possible, I exercise the workwear option when buying clothing.

The variable in my wardrobe is the footwear. When I work in the yard, I wear boots. When I walk for fitness, I wear New Balance sneakers. When I wear the normcore uniform, I go with some brown Skechers. Function determines what goes on my feet.

I do not wear athletic gear in the style known as athleisure. This trend grew out of the gym rat and endurance athletic culture. If you spend a lot of time in the gym or running for exercise, it would be obvious that you might wear the same clothes to the grocery store or for other errands. It has even gotten to the point that some people wear this athletic wear as their primary uniform. Needless to say, I am not into this.

I do not wear shorts or even own shorts. I don't own any dedicated athletic gear. I wear a Carhartt hoodie around the house and a vintage Starter windbreaker if it gets wet outside. Those are the only things that come close to athletic apparel in my closet. Generally, I don't wear athletic apparel because I am not an athlete. Most people are not athletes, but the apparel makers have sold this vanity to the public to get them to buy things they don't need.

I got clued into this when it became fashionable for a season to wear work boots to the gym. I think this began accidentally as blue collar workers would hit the weights after work. Work boots provide a more stable platform than sneakers, and steel toes are great for protecting your feet from a dropped plate or weight. Yet, this is frowned on now by the gym cult. Some gyms will ban you from the premises for wearing workwear instead of gym wear.

I don't go to the gym, so the gym apparel is a moot point for me. I walk for fitness and do a modest regimen of strength exercises that I call "bodywork." I wear my work clothes for all of this. I only change my shoes and socks. I don't see the point in changing out of sweaty work clothes into sweaty athletic apparel. As for freedom of movement, work clothes are designed for this. Somewhere in our culture, we forgot that work is exercise.

I would never recommend workwear for a game of basketball or baseball or running a marathon. Athletes play sports, so they dress as athletes. As I said before, I am not an athlete. I am willing to gamble that you, Gentle Reader, are not an athlete either. I find that most people are pretenders fantasizing about being athletes. That fantasy is what sells all of that athletic apparel.

These athletic fantasies are a species of larping where people pretend to be something they are not. We laugh when a kid wears his cowboy outfit, but adults do much the same thing when they wear the apparel of their athletic heroes. This is people attempting to live up to their fantasy selves, so they buy the costume for the person they want to be instead of who they are in actuality.

When you get old and busted up like me, you aren't aiming to become an Ironman triathlete or Mr. Olympia. You're just trying to keep the parts moving. My physical fitness regimen is derived almost entirely from physical therapy and not the gym. My "heroes" are the old ladies that I used to see walking the mall. They wore normal clothes paired with comfortable shoes.

There is another trend that has emerged over the last few years known as gorpcore. This is when people wear outdoor gear in non-outdoor settings. I don't know what makes gear qualify as outdoor gear as virtually everything I wear is made for being outside. The key difference is this gorpcore outdoor gear uses Gore-Tex and costs a fortune. One jacket I researched for this blog post costs 900 bucks.

Now, the entire outdoor industry and culture is a gigantic exercise in larping. I see people each weekend with all sorts of outdoor gear on their vehicles including kayaks and mountain bikes. Yet, in all my time visiting outdoor places, I never saw people kayaking or mountain biking. They buy this stuff and transport this stuff, but they don't actually use this stuff. It is all pretentious fantasy. But I digress. . .

Do you need a $900 Gore-Tex jacket to brave the elements between your car and the front door of a store or an office building? Personally, I find an umbrella and a cheap windbreaker to be sufficient for the task. When I go for my walks in wet weather, I wear a cheap rain poncho I bought from Walmart and a windbreaker. My only concessions to the outdoor apparel industry are the cheap fleece jackets I bought from Walmart. Both were made by Starter. I have never owned anything from those big name apparel makers.

I find that the best apparel you can wear for the outdoors is workwear. When it gets freezing, I bust out the $80 Carhartt active jacket I bought from Tractor Supply sometime back in 2008. I don't care for those puffer jackets from Patagonia or The North Face.

It's not hard or expensive to buy a warm coat. Just buy the coats the farmers, ranchers, and workers wear. If those jackets can survive the rigors of heavy and demanding physical labor, they will certainly suffice for your hike in the woods. But that is where things get nasty.

Somewhere, gate keeping has crept into outdoor activities. You can't ride a cheap beach cruiser from the bike section at Walmart. It has to be a $3000+ name brand mountain bike. Similarly, you can't walk the trails without a Patagucci outfit. People forget that these activities existed before these companies did.

I think it is perfectly acceptable to wear a pair of thrift store Red Kap work pants on the trail paired with some New Balance sneakers. I wouldn't wear this to climb Everest, but I'm not climbing Everest. I'm just walking.

The final thing I can say about the workwear option is that it saves you money because you don't need separate outfits for your activities. You don't need one outfit for the gym and another outfit for the trail and another outfit to mow the lawn. The workwear option is like the play clothes you wore as a kid for everything from climbing trees to building forts to digging in the dirt. Ultimately, you want clothes that can take some dirt and abuse. Workwear is made for this.

What I Want To Do And Not Do With The Rest Of My Life

In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life; it goes on.

ROBERT FROST

I recently came across a video on YouTube from a fellow who had a life altering event. He witnessed his neighbor die from a heart attack next door. It brought home to him the crushing reality of memento mori. We all must die, and we can go at anytime. This made the fellow decide what he wanted to do and not do with the rest of his life. I don't agree with everything on his list, but his life is not my life. What I did agree with was the idea of deciding what to do with the time you have remaining. Here is my own list of what I want to do and not do with the rest of my life.

DO

1. Live the devout life.

The great project in life is to become a saint. It always bugs me when people decide to be more intentional with their mortal lives and blah blah blah, but they never mention their faith or religion. Most of their goals, intentions, and regrets are focused entirely on enjoying what remains of their lives. Fools!

I am not a fool. I know that the best life is a tragedy if it ends in Hell. The goal is Heaven. Anything short of that is a failure. For me, I intend to spend the rest of my days growing deeper in my life of prayer and devotion to the Lord. My faith is where I find the greatest comfort and purpose as I contemplate what is ahead.

2. Spend as much time as I can with my wife.

I already spend time with my wife, and she almost lost me in 2018. She is the person that matters most in my life. I am old and busted up, but I am still alive. I pray that God takes me first. Life without her is a cross that I do not wish to bear. Until we part, I want to make every day count.

3. Work.

I love working. Somewhere in the path of my life, I learned to turn work into something more than what you do for a paycheck. My TBI has dramatically diminished my capacity for work. The time I used to spend on the day job is now spent in a dark room with my eyes closed. I call this the "down payment on death." It is not what I wanted for my life, but it is what it is. I work for brief periods of the day on chores and errands around the house. That list of chores is my barometer for recovery, and my recovery is barely noticeable. I tell people that I am building a sand castle one grain of sand at a time. I pray daily for God to remove this thorn from my flesh. Until then, I do what I can within the limits of my injury.

4. Write.

The only thing God spared in the accident is my ability to write. Writing is the only thing that I consider to be a natural gift. I have no clue why God gave me this gift or spared this gift. I have given up trying to understand God's mysterious ways. What I know is that I have to continue writing. I have settled into writing a weekly post for this blog and a monthly post for my wife's blog. I have no ambitious plans for writing books or any of that. Since I expect Google to end this platform at some point, my Plan B is to write longhand entries in notebooks and journals that no one will read. Writing is good therapy for the brain, so I will continue with it even if it earns me no pay or prestige.

5. Walk.

Walking was the gift I received from my accident. I had to learn to walk again, so I do not take that for granted. I enjoy walking, and it pairs well with my writing life. I regret that it took an accident and half a century of my life to discover the wonderful benefits of walking. Walking is the one thing that brings me some relief from the torture of my brain injury. For 15 minutes or so post-walk, I am a pleasant person with a small boost of energy. It is the old me paying a visit. I just wish it was permanent.

NOT DO

1. Collect toys.

I live in a place where buying boats, fancy cars, Jeeps, RVs, ATVs, and motorcycles on credit equates to life achievements. I have never been into this idiocy. I never will be.

2. Go on frivolous trips and vacations.

Some people decide that they should spend money on experiences instead of possessions. This is also idiocy. Basically, these people blow a year's worth of disposable income on a cruise or a trip to Vegas. I have never been into this idiocy either. I never will be.

3. Blow money on expensive pleasures and entertainment.

Some people dial it down to just eating weekly at expensive restaurants or going to concerts and shows. I wish I could say I have never been into this idiocy, but I was young and single. Now, I eat simple fare at home and get my entertainment from the radio as an old and married man. Nothing I have ever done in my life has brought me as much joy as those simple pleasures at home.

4. Pursue bucket list adventures.

Climbing Everest, thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail, completing a marathon/ultramarathon/Ironman, or jumping out of a perfectly good airplane are things I do not care to do. Obviously, brain damage has torched those vanities, but I certainly would not do them if I was miraculously healed. Life is short enough and miserable enough without making it shorter and more miserable.

5. Get rich or die trying.

Getting rich is the ultimate vanity. For some reason, people think they have failed in life if they don't become millionaires. I already have everything I want and need in life. Once your material needs are met, you should realize that you can't take it with you. I will live a modest lifestyle and save for future needs, but I don't care beyond that. Money is a poor substitute for happiness.

Conclusion

The bottom line is that I am going to spend the rest of my life pursuing the quiet life. This is the opposite of all those people who want to go out in a blaze of glory. I think the real adventure comes after death. In this life, I am a nobody, and I think being a nobody is the best way to live. If my time remaining is long or short, the program remains the same. I know what I am about, and I am not changing a thing.

Typewriters Versus Computers

There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY

I am guessing that the last time that I used a typewriter to write a paper was sometime in the 1980s. I would write a draft in long hand. Then, I would painstakingly hunt and peck until I had a typewritten paper. I took my time, but I would end up making a mistake. Typewriters are unforgiving on mistakes. Once typed, it can't be untyped. There is white out and the correction ribbon, but the scars remain. You messed up, and perfection is lost. Needless to say, I was not a fan of typing.

Eventually, I got a computer. It was one of those desktop models you got from RadioShack. That changed my writing life. For the first time, I could type up a paper and experience forgiveness for my mistakes. It was so liberating that I gave up writing in longhand and went straight to the keyboard. Things were fine until I encountered instant damnation. Whenever we lost power, all of my work would be lost. That old computer didn't have auto save. That's when the old typewriter would have a laugh at me. The typewriter saves everything automatically. The manual typewriter doesn't even need electricity to work.

I have used electric typewriters before, but I really hate those things. If I went back to typing, I would use a manual machine. My preference would be a Smith-Corona. That was the typewriter I used at the beginning. My aunt gifted it to me when she switched to the electric typewriter. I miss that minty green contraption. If I had been smart, I would have kept it.

Today, I use a computer to write these blog posts. I write straight into the blogger software. There is no first draft or final draft. My work is automatically saved. I am constantly reading and revising the posts even after I have published them. I am always catching typos and adding updates. Those mistakes have increased dramatically since the accident and my TBI. I lean on the spell check now. Typewriters don't have spell check.

When it comes to software, I despise Microsoft's Word or any program that offers to do radical surgery to my prose. I like spell check, but that's it. At the end of the day, I know how to write, and I don't need the crutches offered to functional illiterates faking their way through their careers. The rise of AI is certain to exacerbate this tragedy of idiots with keyboards. AI will reduce the entire world to plagiarism except for me. I refuse to use it.

Typewriters are experiencing a minor resurgence. Van Neistat might have something do with that. The guy uses all the cameras and tech he can get his hands on but prefers to write on a typewriter. I think the typewriter is more of a visual prop for his videos than an actual tool for writing. I think many of the people using typewriters have a fetish for the machine. One YouTube writer admitted that he takes his typewritten pages and keys them again into his Macbook. Why would anyone do this?

This brings us to the issue of process. Every writer has a process for getting words to the page or screen. Hemingway would begin with a pencil and write the first draft in longhand. Then, he would type the second draft. Then, he would retype the second draft into a third draft. That process of writing and rewriting acted as a refinery for his spartan prose. I do a similar refining process for my own writing except I don't leave a paper trail.

There is something to be said for writing in longhand. Fight Club author Chuck Palahniuk writes his first drafts in longhand. Part of me would like to make longhand part of my own process. Longhand is to the computer what acoustic is to electric on the guitar. A good song written on an acoustic guitar will still sound great on an electric guitar. That process rarely works in the opposite direction. Technology kills that raw element in the human spirit.

Writers who use the typewriter are trying to recapture that raw element, but I think they are using the wrong machine. The right machine is an old fashioned pencil. A mechanical pencil will also do. The pencil allows you to make mistakes. The eraser corrects small mistakes. Larger mistakes require more violence as you draw lines through entire paragraphs or draw arrows to where they will be moved in the final draft.

There is more freedom in the pencil than the typewriter. Typewriters don't make the writing better. They just make the writing permanent. When you add up the paper and used typewriter ribbons, this becomes an expensive and aggravating waste for words that will end up on a computer screen.

Most of what I write begins as notes on pieces of paper. I prefer to use the scraps of junk paper I recycle from the junk mail that comes into my mailbox. Junk paper kills all urges to perfectionism. I could never use one of those fancy Moleskine notebooks because I would hate to mess them up with my scratches. Creativity is a messy affair. Perfectionism is the enemy of true genius. Junk paper is the antidote to perfectionism.

I am a fan of wring longhand and using the computer. I am not a fan of the typewriter. I would go back to the notebook before going back to the typewriter. The typewriter does have one supreme virtue. It is free from the distractions that plague writers on the computer. I keep my tech dumb, so this has never been a problem for me. I receive zero notifications on my computer. Apparently, other writers don't know about this trick. The other thing is that I do not use a smartphone which is a distraction even for people using typewriters.

There is a middle ground for people who like the convenience of the computer paired with the zero distractions of a typewriter. The Freewrite is one such device. These things need a name, and I prefer "electronic typewriters." They are nothing new. I remember Brother making things like this where you could type a draft electronically before it put it to paper. I think these devices are essential for those writers who need to kill the temptations and create a distraction free place to create. Personally, I think you are better off with a quiet room, a notebook, and a pencil. Whatever you create will not suffer from being keyed into a computer. In fact, that process will improve what you write.

I am a mid-tech type of guy. so I am not going back to using a manual typewriter. For me, it is the notebook and the computer. This process does not have the sex appeal of banging on typewriter keys with a bottle of scotch and a smoldering cigarette on hand. I truly think the typewriter geeks are pretending to be writers and want the props to complete the performance. I think George RR Martin gets it exactly right as he uses an old MS-DOS machine unconnected to the internet and running Wordstar. That is the epitome of mid-tech. That was me on the RadioShack computer using WordPerfect and a dot matrix printer. Today, I would use that same setup as long as I could transfer the files to my internet connected computer. But I am doing fine with my current tools.

The Pipe Dream Of Content Creation

A fantastic but vain hope (from fantasies induced by the opium pipe).

AMERICAN HERITAGE DICTIONARY DEFINITION FOR "PIPE DREAM"

Content creators are having a tougher time making money online as a bigger slice of the revenue pie goes to those at the top of the creator economy.

The percentage of Bank of America customers earning income as content creators has continued to decline and is now 0.20%, the bank said in a note Thursday.

In fact, the share has now fallen three years in a row after peaking in 2021, when it was 0.25%. Back then, the pandemic had helped fuel a surge in content creators as lockdowns kept people at home looking for recommendations on what stuff to buy. In 2019, the share of people making money as content creators was just a tick above 0.10%.

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At the same time, the average monthly income for content creators, excluding possible paid partnerships, is just 20% of the average monthly income for a typical, full-time US employee, the note added.

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“And only once in the past five years has the average monthly income of a content creator been higher than the average weekly income of a typical full-time worker, suggesting that very few people earn a living from content creation, let alone get rich from it,” BofA said.

More people are dropping out of the creator economy as those at the top get a bigger share of brand deals

https://archive.is/51Bdt#selection-867.0-876.0

The internet has followed book publishing, movie making, the music business, and television in becoming a lottery where the very few earn the big money while everyone else wastes their lives chasing a dream that will never become reality. The dream is that you can give up your day job and make a living from home making content for the internet and even become rich in the process. The people who actually pursue the dream are deluded fools. My hope is that this is a wake up call for them.

There is no harm in making podcasts, YouTube videos, and blog posts. Just don't give up your day job. This includes the unlikely event you "make it" as a content creator. Even those who make it earn less than what they would do on a real job. You can read those statistics for yourself in the cited article above.

I have never been successful as a blogger, and I know that I never will. This is why I don't waste my time with search engine optimization, clickbait titles, and trying to promote my content on social media. This amounts to trying to increase your luck with the lottery.

The fundamental dream of being a successful content creator is finding an escape from working for a living. The irony is that the successful content creators work pretty hard at it. Writing blog posts is relatively easy compared to editing audio and video. Most content creators film themselves doing real work.

I think content creation is great as a side gig and supplement to your real work. It amounts to free advertising for what you do. Many of the YouTubers I follow run real world businesses, and their videos help to promote those businesses. Those folks are the models for how to approach content creation. Content should be the catalyst for real work.

Most people are never going to win the lottery. Likewise, most people are never going to win the lottery of the content creation game. Treat it like most blue collar workers treat playing the lottery. Buy your ticket, dream a bit, and keep on working. Luck takes care of itself. Let that luck find you working.