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Pleasure knows no increase only variety.

EPICURUS

I love cheap beer and cheap cigars. I do not drink alcohol or smoke tobacco. I just like how these cheap pleasures piss off the rich guys with their 12 year old scotch and $50 cigars. The rich desperately want to believe that their wealth buys them more in life. Having a lot of money should get you something more in life, but it doesn't. The blue collar guy drinking PBR and smoking a White Owl proves that truth.

People with a hedonistic streak want more out of life. You can't get more out of life. You can vary your pleasures, but you can never increase them. This doesn't keep them from trying. The pursuit for more comes down to chasing quantity or quality or a combination of the two things. I call the ones that excessively pursue these pleasures the "Hogs of Human Experience." The concept of enough does not exist in their minds.

Pleasure comes down to the elimination of pain. When you are hungry, food tastes better than when you are not hungry. This is why they say that hunger is the best sauce. Likewise, entertainment comes down to the alleviation of boredom. Sleep is the remedy for exhaustion. Epicurus taught that we should seek a state where all pain and disturbance was eliminated from life in a state known as "ataraxia." I don't think it is possible to eliminate all pain and disturbance from this life. I think it is possible to have moments of relief from pain and disturbance. For me, all pleasure comes down to finding temporary relief from momentary pain. You can't count on always getting that relief, but you can always count on the pain. I think Epicurus discovered this when he was dying from that kidney stone.

When people discover the relief from their pain and suffering, they naturally want to maximize it which is how you get the desire for more. These people do not realize or acknowledge that there is a finite limit to the pleasures of life. Ultimately, these people are godless and want relief for their souls which can never be found in worldly pleasures.

I believe God gives relief to the poor but denies it to the rich. I believe that being poor puts you in a better position to experience this relief as complex pleasures bring more pain than they are worth. I appreciate the engineering and craftsmanship of a fine Rolex watch, but I am sticking with my cheap Casio beater watch that tells better time and makes me unafraid to lose it or damage it.

I remember my old man going to watch NASCAR races with his friends from work. Then, he stopped doing that around the time he got cable TV and ESPN. He candidly admitted that it was more pleasurable and less hassle to watch the race on the tube than to physically be there with the heat, the noise, the drunks, and trying to listen to the coverage on his radio headphones. Why go to an event that you can watch more easily on TV for a fraction of the price while enjoying the convenience of your own kitchen and bathroom? This comes down to bragging rights. For some reason, we believe or want to believe that people get more from the actual live event than following it on the television or the radio. This is also why people desperately take selfies to post on Facebook and Instagram of them doing fabulous things in life. But are they fabulous? We know better.

I remember my old man drinking Black Label beer, smoking Marlboros, and eating popcorn and peanut brittle while watching stock car races, football games, and Gunsmoke from the comfort of his ratty recliner with the cigarette burns in the seat. I think he lived like a king. He had a lot of pain and suffering in his life, but he wasn't too poor or busy to enjoy a few hours in that chair. He had enough.

Today, I witness the Hogs of Human Experience blow money they don't have chasing pleasures and vanities they can't afford. I am not into going on cruises to the Bahamas or Alaska or pretending to be a kid again at Disneyworld. I have done things like this, and they are overrated. I know that I am missing out on nothing that this life offers. This is because this life has nothing to offer.

My life comes down to God, enduring my suffering as a penance, and finding momentary relief from it all in the simplest of pleasures. The biggest pain in my life are those Hogs of Human Experience. I must be candid and say that I don't like these people or care to hang out with them in their pursuit of more. They have a real knack for ruining a good thing.

If the guys sipping cheap beer and smoking cheap cigars are missing out on anything, they don't know it. The Hogs of Human Experience want them to know it which is why they post endlessly on social media. These fools want to deceive others and themselves with their social media posts and "influencing." The real key to enjoying life is the ability to not care what others think about you. I know my old man didn't care. The reality of simple pleasures beats the fantasies of people who always want more and find no satisfaction.

Dedicated Devices

An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator... these are NOT three separate devices! And we are calling it iPhone! Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is.

STEVE JOBS

I asked myself a question. What cellphone did Steve Jobs use before the iPhone? I did some googling, and the best answer I got was a Motorola Razr V3 which was a sleek flip phone. Later, Apple would collaborate on the Motorola Rokr E1 device which left Jobs very dissatisfied and spurred the creation of the iPhone. Jobs's primary frustration was carrying around two devices in his pocket--a cellphone and an iPod. He wanted a single device that did both things. Was that a genius move? I don't think so because people now drop over a grand every couple of years for what amounts to a convenience. Ironically, few if any of those devices fit in your pocket at all now. All I see are people walking around with slabs of glass and metal in side holsters like some geeky version of Billy the Kid. An old school Razr and an iPod would be easier to carry around than these gigantic smartphones.

My flip phone rides in my front shirt pocket. I like shirts with two pockets when I can get them. This allows me the room to carry my folding reading glasses, my rosary beads, and other items. I don't own an iPod or carry around any personal music or gaming devices. I have an old Sony Walkman for listening to the radio that never leaves my nightstand. My gaming amounts to playing Freecell on the Chromebook. When I am in the world without distraction, I just look, listen, and observe what is around me. I realize that the prospect of enduring that kind of boredom fills the Gentle Reader with dread.

One of the trends you see online is the adoption of what is called an "analog bag." Women do this mostly as they carry around things like books, notebooks, knitting, puzzle books, and whatnot as items of distraction in the absence of a smartphone. I had to laugh at the smart aleck on the digital minimalism reddit who quipped that using a Gameboy in lieu of a smartphone isn't living without distractions. This is correct. A paperback book you carry around in your pocket takes you out of the world just as much as doom scrolling social media on your iPhone. I lived in a time when people regularly filled their waiting time reading newspapers and magazines. I even witnessed a guy in the 1990s reading the newspaper behind the steering wheel of his car while driving to work.

Distracted living didn't begin with the smartphone, but it definitely got a boost. Much of the addiction of these devices comes from the social media. I doubt people are driving distracted while reading the Google News page. Most people's smartphone addictions can be remedied by deleting the social media accounts and apps. People like me who use flip phones have an easier time with this. The problem with a dumbphone is that you are missing some useful tools that even the original iPhone didn't have.

If you look at EDCs of people on the digital minimalism and dumbphone reddits, you will see their dumbphone along with a collection of dedicated devices that fill those missing gaps. One of the most prominent ones will be an old school point-and-shoot digital camera like a Sony Cyber Shot or a Panasonic Lumix. The next device will be some sort of mp3 music player like an original iPod. Sometimes, you see a handheld gaming device like a paleolithic Nintendo Gameboy. Finally, everyone has some form of paper notebook for writing down things, but you see that in the EDCs of people who have smartphones. You can't beat paper.

For myself, I just carry a flip phone when I am out and about. I don't listen to music on a device. Sometimes, I carry a homemade notebook for writing down ideas, but I also use the notes tool on my flip phone to capture an idea or reminder. This is very helpful at night when an idea comes to me, and I don't want to turn on the bedside lamp. The flip phone has its own illumination, and I just type in a personal memo.

When I am traveling, I carry dedicated devices along with books in my analog bag which is a backpack. I travel rarely now, but I make sure to have my Kindle and my Walkman. I can download and play mp3 files on my flip phone, but I don't. The wife will bring her Chromebook for the trip which is our internet connected device. Finally, we navigate with a Garmin GPS. We are in suspended animation from the year 2007 when the iPhone came out. Recently, I broke down and bought her a Kodak Pixpro FZ45 digital camera which is the closest thing I could find to the point-and-shoot digital cameras from the 2000s era. The alternative was to gamble on some used equipment from fleaBay.

The argument from smartphone users is that carrying around all of these dedicated devices is a pain in the ass. I have already pointed out that the modern smartphone no longer fits in a standard pocket. I have seen some people jam it in the back pocket of a pair of jeans which lends itself to popping out or getting sat upon and broken. When the smartphone gets busted, you lose not just one device but also your camera, music player, GPS, and gaming device. This amounts to putting all of your tech eggs in one basket.

Another argument that smartphones users make is that having a single device is cheaper than owning multiple dedicated devices. Is this really the case? I broke down the math:

SMARTPHONE

Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max (Verizon): $1199.99

DEDICATED DEVICES

Kyocera DuraXV Extreme+ (Verizon): $250

Acer Chromebook (Walmart): $159

Kodak Pixpro FZ45 (Amazon): $120

C.Crane CC Pocket Radio (Amazon): $75

Garmin GPS Drive 53 Navigator (Amazon): $110

TOTAL: $714

Right out of the gate, you can see that the basket of dedicated devices is the cheaper way to go. Now, I picked the devices relative to my situation. Yours may differ. You may pick an mp3 player which can be had for less than a C.Crane Pocket Radio. I don't own a C.Crane, but it is the radio I selected to replace my Sony Walkman radio should that time ever come. Additionally, these dedicated devices last a long time. They don't get bricked in the forced obsolescence that Apple does when you update the software on your iPhone. People are hanging on to their iPhones for longer for obvious reasons, but the average time of replacement is 2 to 3 years. I also don't include the cost of insurance for the device, an iPhone case like the Otter Box for $30, and the Apple Airpods for $100.

If you amortize the cost of an iPhone over the expected course of 2 years, the device will cost you $600 annually. If you squeeze it for three years, it will be $400 per year. The dedicated devices have various lifespans, but I think it is reasonable to expect 10 years of service out of those devices on average collectively. This amounts to $71.40 annually. Dedicated devices are overwhelmingly the cheaper option.

What about Android smartphones? Flagship phones like the Google Pixel and the Samsung Galaxy have a similar price tag to the iPhone. Now, you can buy cheaper smartphones, and the Android universe has phones at more price points than Apple. But like the iPhone, the average lifespan for Android phones is 2-3 years because of the battery. The cool thing about my flip phone is that I can replace the battery when needed with little trouble. Smartphones require professional assistance on the battery replacement. The one thing I can say is that an Android smartphone is the cheaper option to the Apple iPhone but not by much.

Apple's Insidious Strategy

The genesis of this post came from watching Van Neistat wish that Apple still made the iPod. The iPod was an awesome device that brought back Apple from the dead. People still use them today along with various other models from competitors like SanDisk and Sony. Why did Apple stop making the iPod? The answer is obvious. They wanted to force their cult members to buy expensive iPhones, and it worked and still works today.

The great secret to Apple's success is they eliminate options. This began with deleting disc drives from their computers. It continued with getting rid of ports on their Macbooks for various peripherals. They got rid of the headphone jack to force people to buy Airpods. And this is why the iPod had to die. Meanwhile, Apple now offers new dedicated devices like the iPad and the Apple Watch. People have correctly pointed out that these devices are redundant because of the iPhone. If I was an Apple cult member, I would only have an iPhone and a Macbook. Instead, I use a flip phone and a Chromebook at a fraction of the price. I despise smartwatches and tablets.

The smartphone is a convenience, but 7-11 stores and fast food are also conveniences. The problem with convenience is that it is expensive. Eventually, it isn't even convenient anymore as brown bagging your lunch takes less time and hassle than waiting in line at these places to order and receive your food. Somewhere, people figure this out and make the adjustment back to common sense.

This adjustment is beginning to happen with the smartphone. The reason a dumbphone is so good at breaking smartphone addiction is because of the friction of using the dumb device. I could access the same social media stuff on my Chromebook or PC, but I have to let that go when I step away from my desk. That separation is liberation from a bad habit. The smartphone eliminates that separation as the internet becomes always available at your fingertips.

My advice to people is to dial it back to 2007 when people used flip phones and dedicated devices. Get yourself an analog bag with some physical books and a notebook. Escape from the smartphone prison and the Apple cult. Trust me, you will always have your distractions when you want them, but you will access them more intentionally and with greater deliberation. The rest of the time amounts to situational awareness and greater focus on the tasks at hand. This is very important when driving a car but is also great when you are sitting down with friends for coffee and a conversation. Sometimes, you need to come up for air.

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My 5 Favorite Computers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9F01466fFE 

The Peril Of Rural America

Indeed, the natural gas fired power plant is real; its location to be less than 1/2 mile from my place, may be 1/4 mile. It hasn't been approved by the County Council yet, but I am sure it will be an uphill fight to oppose it. What I am finding in SC is that what is best for families is always trumped by the promise of revenue. (What do I expect? I am sure it is the same everywhere.)

BETHUNE CATHOLIC

John Tesh came on the radio with an interesting bit of intelligence for your life. He discussed the plant based lifestyle of the Blue Zones which would be a mostly vegan/vegetarian diet combined with gardening. The combination of healthy eating and exercise was touted as chief reasons for the health and longevity of Blue Zoners. I realized that I was accidentally living this lifestyle. The vegan diet came first, but the backyard garden came when I abandoned my homestead fantasies and settled into a conventional home in a working class neighborhood. That pivot was a consequence of my traumatic brain injury which makes the idea of working a large piece of land a nightmare now. I am no longer up to that task, and I don't think I ever will be.

The accidental genius of my pivot from wanting to be a homesteader to becoming a backyard gardener comes from the reality that I no longer see homesteading as a viable option for myself or anyone else. This comes from the threat to rural land from real estate developers, power companies, and AI data centers. They never wanted this land before. Now, they do. When Big Money wants it, Big Money gets it. You can cry and holler about zoning and "there ought to be a law" and all of that. The simple fact is that the law and the lawmakers can be bought. This leaves families, farmers, and working people to figure out how to live in a world subject to the threat of eminent domain and development. The little guy is just a bug that can be stepped on.

I can recreate my backyard garden anywhere that has a backyard and no HOA. I recommend finding a working class neighborhood of people with like-minded aims as yourself. This is a viable option because I think anyone can do this and achieve similar results. The large homestead with animals of the four legged variety will always be under constant threat from development.

Some will make the argument that you can simply sell the property for the market price and move somewhere else when this occurs. The problem with this argument is that it doesn't account for the sweat equity that a homesteader puts into developing his property. How do you put a price tag on amended soil, fencing, and fruit trees that took years to grow? Additionally, when they use eminent domain, they don't use the same accounting as they do when calculating your property tax. When it comes to taxes, they go high. When it comes to taking your property, they go low.

The bottom line is that acquiring and retaining any large piece of property for the purpose of homesteading and farming will be akin to winning the lottery for the foreseeable future. It can be done, but it will be difficult and precarious. Things shouldn't be like this, but I always point out that reality has the last word on these things. I am on the side of anyone wanting to live an alternative agrarian lifestyle. Unfortunately, that alternative is now in a precarious position. It is sad and sick that things have come to this. The moral victory belongs to the homesteaders, but Big Money will be the final winner.

UPDATE: A great example of why I advise against homesteading came to me as I thought about folks who buy oceanfront property. I don't recommend buying that type of property because of the threat from storms and hurricanes. Likewise, I can't recommend homesteading because of the economic hurricanes that strike from developers, power companies, and data centers.

Another example is the student loan crisis. There is no school or major I can recommend now to justify assuming that lifetime of indebtedness. Once upon a time, I would have recommended college to a young person. I can't do that now. That's how I feel about homesteading today. The only glimmer of hope I see would be the AI bubble popping. Until then, you are going to see a lot of malinvestment and economic destruction.

For me, homesteading was always tied to prepping. A homestead was a vehicle for storing one's labor in preparation for the uncertainties and calamities of life. You might lose your job, but you could always plant corn and raise chickens with a homestead. Now, you are as likely to lose the homestead as you are to be unemployed. The security you think you have with a homestead is an illusion. It is open season on rural America.

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Data Centers and the growing concern! Get Ready!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR8vBeEUSME

Power Plant news

https://bethunecatholic.blogspot.com/2026/06/power-plant-news.html

Update on the gas plant

https://bethunecatholic.blogspot.com/2026/06/update-on-gas-plant.html

https://bethunecatholic.blogspot.com/2026/06/several-years-ago-we-got-fixd-engine.html

How To Build a DataCenter? Secretly!!

https://dad29.blogspot.com/2026/06/how-to-build-datacenter-secretly.html

$900M natural gas power plant one step closer to moving forward in Kershaw County

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI5McIr-GWk

Why Building AI Data Centres Isn’t Working Anymore

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

Save Bethune

https://www.facebook.com/groups/977991995077658

‘We’re very concerned’: Residents oppose potential power plant in Kershaw County

https://www.wistv.com/2026/07/03/were-very-concerned-residents-oppose-proposed-power-plant-kershaw-county/

Grand Ambitions

For which of you having a mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down, and reckon the charges that are necessary, whether he have wherewithal to finish it: Lest, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that see it begin to mock him, Saying: This man began to build, and was not able to finish.

LUKE 14:28-30 DOUAY-RHEIMS

I believe the worst rock album of all time was the Sgt. Pepper album from the Beatles. The Beatles recorded the album as a response to Pet Sounds from the Beach Boys. The music isn't bad, but the long form had a deleterious effect on what would come after it. The Stones responded with their own ripoff epic album. Then, you had Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and the Who's rock opera, Tommy. Rock and roll went from making pop singles on the radio to something approaching a symphony. Rock started taking itself seriously. This would lead to progressive rock and other indulgences like Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" which makes me change the station when it comes on because the song is too long and indulgent for me.

These epic rock creations are potent examples of grand ambitions. Nothing is equal to it in country music which has remained true to the 3 minute radio friendly song. I tell everyone that the best country album of all time has a single name, Greatest Hits. It doesn't matter if it is Waylon, Willie, or Merle. You can't go wrong with a greatest hits album from a country star especially if it comes on a cassette from a convenience store. I will also point out that one of the biggest selling albums of all time was the greatest hits album from the Eagles which is essentially a country music album. Ultimately, these albums are just collections of the short but wonderful songs that got played on the radio and still get played to the present day.

Now, I am not against ambitious creative endeavors. I love a symphony, and I purchase classical music on CDs because that serious music lends itself to extended and deliberate listening. I don't buy rock or country CDs because I listen to the individual songs. The streaming era has returned music to the way it was before Sgt. Pepper. This is a cause for rejoicing.

The problem with grand ambitions is that people don't know their place in the scheme of things. I appreciate that the Ramones didn't consider themselves to be equal to Mozart or Beethoven. Their music was a rejection of the prog rock pretension, and it was glorious. The Ramones knew their place in the musical universe, and I appreciate that. Conversely, I am glad that Beethoven wasn't trying to make pop songs for the radio. He made serious music, and he was equal to the task.

I think about this when it comes to my own ambitions as a writer. I am not a fiction writer. I am not a novelist. I am certainly not a poet. I have done some stuff along these lines, and they were epic in their failure. Writing the great American novel is not my place. I will leave that to Hemingway and Fitzgerald.

For me, the greatest example I can give of tempered ambitions is Norman Rockwell. Rockwell was a talented and gifted artist in the photo realistic vein of art. But he was never held up as a serious artist because his work amounted to illustrations for the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. This is in contrast to "serious" artists like Jackson Pollock with his drip paintings or Andy Warhol with his soup cans. Even Rockwell poked fun at the art world and himself with his famous art connossieur painting where he reproduced a Pollock work for his illustration.

https://www.wikiart.org/en/norman-rockwell/the-connoiseur-1962

The difference between an artist and an illustrator is that an illustrator paints what people actually want to look at. People like illustrations. The same can't be said for "art." Art takes itself seriously which is fine if the art is good. It is laughable when it isn't.

The difference between an artist and an illustrator is the same as the difference between an actor and a movie star. It is the difference between a composer and a songwriter. It is the difference between a musician and a rock star. People need to know this difference.

The key thing is that some people don't know their place in the scheme of things. They aspire to be more than what they are. A great example of this is Sir Paul McCartney. McCartney is arguably the greatest songwriter of our time. He is also a composer of classical music, but I find this laughable because the man can't read music. Whatever he composed, he had some assistance on it. He ain't Beethoven. I know of no one who finds his orchestral works to be of great value. If it didn't have Paul's name on it, no one would listen to it.

I am a huge fan of tempered ambitions. This is because I have had to temper my own ambitions. For some reason, there is shame attached to this show of humility. We can't all be the greatest at everything because God does not distribute His gifts equally. What we need to be is great relative to what He has given each of us. For me, this is being a humble blogger. For others, it would be playing bass guitar in a weekend cover band. There is no shame in that.

What I would caution people about is the irrational fear that your "great" thing will go to waste because you did not pursue your grand ambitions. The blunt truth is that you probably aren't that great. The real waste is when someone wastes what God has given them because they are merely good at what they do. This would be a Beatrix Potter deciding to not draw because she wasn't a Monet. This would be an Alfred Hitchcock deciding not to direct because he never won a competitive Oscar in his awesome career as a filmmaker.

The bottom line is that the critics like to sneer at the hoi polloi and their tastes. These are the same people who praise a banana duct taped to the wall. The real measure of creative success is that many people found something awesome in what you created. The sensus populum is a reliable guide for what is good. Granted, crap can be the flavor of a season, but crap does not endure for the long haul. Beatrix Potter was beloved yesterday and today. All that other snooty crap seems designed to nauseate the public and appeal to a small cadre of misanthropes that have convinced a few idiots that the naked emperor is dressed in fine apparel that the rest of us are too stupid to see.

With that said, I now finish what I have begun to build. The people like what they like, and there should be no apology for that. Likewise, the creative person needs to find their own inner sense and place on these things. What I find is that there are two main errors on these matters. The first is the creator that takes himself too seriously and is not equal to the task. The other is the creator who doesn't take himself seriously enough because he got talked out of it by these pompous jerks. Just do what you're good at doing and make the things that appeal to you. You will find that these things appeal to others as well. Don't create for the critics. Create for your audience. They are the only people that matter. Thank you for being my audience. 

Some Recent Reflections On Thrive/Survive Mode

The seven beautiful kine, and the seven full ears, are seven years of plenty: and both contain the same meaning of the dream. And the seven lean and thin kine that came up after them, and the seven thin ears that were blasted with the burning wind, are seven years of famine to come: Which shall be fulfilled in this order: Behold, there shall come seven years of great plenty in the whole land of Egypt: After which shall follow other seven years of so great scarcity, that all the abundance before shall be forgotten: for the famine shall consume all the land,

GENESIS 41:26-30 DOUAY-RHEIMS

My thoughts have turned once again to things of an economic nature. My wife and I have read and watched various bits of content of people complaining about the affordability crisis, the respective fortunes of the various generations, and examples of people doing incredibly stupid things with their money. My perspective on these things comes from my evolution in my thinking about thrive and survive mode. I will now try to capture these thoughts and collect them into something coherent.

Thrive/Survive Mode

I have written about thrive mode and survive mode before. I no longer believe in thrive mode. Thrive mode is a fantasy and a fiction. Thrive mode is believing that the seven fat years will continue indefinitely into the future, and the lean years will never come. Yet, those who know the lean years are coming prepare for that inevitability by storing up from the fat years of plenty. That preparation is survive mode.

The smart strategy is to always live in survive mode. You should never be a grasshopper and always be an ant. You can't go wrong with this strategy. The people who claim otherwise will discuss opportunity costs. By being frugal, you might miss out on winning the lottery of life. To make it sting worse is that there are people who win the lottery of life. Their example represents the cheese in the mousetrap luring in the suckers who follow the example but end up with the mistake. The Roaring Twenties is a prime example of this folly as suckers piled in until the Crash of 1929. This yielded the Great Depression when the whole country found itself in survive mode. The smart ones never left survive mode.

Boomers

Survive mode ended with the Baby Boom generation. Post-World War II America was a time of prosperity and plenty when the generation forgot survival. The 1960s were a boom time which gave us the 1970s which were a bust time. We can point to Nixon taking us off the gold standard and the Vietnam War as catalysts for the hard times of the 1970s. Those ended with the Reagan/Volcker era of the 1980s. That was when the Boomers killed it financially. It was a good time to be alive, buy a house, and start a family. Because of those good times that ended sometime during the term of George W. Bush, subsequent generations have envy and spite for those prosperous Boomers. Today, many wealthy Boomers are enjoying lavish end of life vacations in Florida on pensions, retirement, and stock market returns goosed along with a fresh round of debt on new homes that they will never pay off in what is left of their lifetimes.

I don't share this resentment of these Boomers because I know that much of your good fortune depends on circumstances beyond your control. They were lucky and got to live in thrive mode for most of their lives. This is how you get the phenomenon of rich people who are stupid. I used to hear people say, "If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?" Today, I turn that around and ask the obvious question. If you're so rich, why aren't you smart?

The fastest route to poverty today is to take the advice of out of touch Boomers. They believe the fantasy that they made their prosperous lives by some act of will or genius on their part. The reality is they were lucky fools in the right place at the right time. Their run of luck is unrepeatable. This is why you should not listen to these people.

Gen X

Gen Xers like myself know the truth about Boomer prosperity. Ours was the first generation to know they were not going to be better off than their parents. I don't know of any Gen Xers that whine about this fact of life. My generation just accepted that life was going to be a bit tougher and grittier than our parents had it. This was also goosed along by the utter neglect of our parents who let their kids free range their way through life beginning in elementary school. I will say that I thought those years of neglect and freedom were awesome. People don't realize the blessings that come from having free range parents.

When life is tough, you learn to survive. I didn't have it as bad as my Great Depression surviving grandparents, but I am grateful to have lived in the time that I did which was a sort of halfway house between prosperity and adversity.

Millennials

The Millennials were the first generation to audibly begin whining. This whining resulted in "economic outpatient assistance" from their Boomer parents. Where Gen X suffered neglect, Millennials suffered from too much help. I call them "Generation Whine."

It feels weird to be sandwiched between Boomers and Millennials. As a Gen Xer, I don't lay the guilt trip on the Boomers. I just don't take their "wisdom" and advice. At the end of the day, those who aren't lucky have to be smart. That is Generation X.

Gen Z

Generation Z are the children of the Xers. All I can say is that Generation X has utterly failed at parenting. Where Boomers left their X children to roam the streets until the streetlights came on, Xers left their Z children to the world of tech and social media with the disastrous results you see today. The next time you see a gender confused Zillennial with a nose ring at the grocery store, know that X and Millennials had a hand in birthing that madness.

Gen Z is the first generation to be utterly detached from reality. They aspire to become "influencers" on social media and to be paid wages and salaries that are insane. They are a damned and doomed generation. If you doubt this, just look up from your smartphone and witness the other idiots glued to their smartphones. Generation Z lives entirely online and has done so for their entire lives. They see thrive mode as their birthright and cannot comprehend why no one wants to pay them big money.

The Thing That Cuts Across All The Generations

What all the generations after the Great Depression have in common is an over reliance on credit. The Depressioners learned that credit and debt was what got them into trouble in the first place. Consequently, they eschewed accumulating debt and learned to live within their means. They were fortunate in this regard while their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren were unfortunate. But within these foolish generations are those who did get a clue and imitate those folks who survived the Great Depression. These are the ants.

My old man was the first one to clue me in on the grasshoppers and ants as he derided his peers for buying new cars and trucks on credit while he drove used vehicles he paid for in cash. That was in the 1980s. Fast forward to the 2000s, and I found myself deriding my peers for the same foolishness. I have always been mocked for driving the oldest and rattiest vehicle in the company parking lot, but that ride was never in danger of repossession.

The Great Depression survivors were smart. The Baby Boomers were lucky. Generations X-Z are neither smart nor lucky. The result is three generations without prosperity and saddled with debts. Yet, this is a fate that was and remains entirely avoidable with some common sense. This common sense means eschewing consumerism.

Credit means never having to say no to your desires. It means living in a perpetual state of thrive mode. This thrive mode has been the state of things since the 1950s. We have had recessions, but those downturns were papered over with more credit. When a bubble popped, the Fed printed up another bubble. The government spends with no end in sight as we now have a $39T national debt being paid for with more debt. It is insanity.

People can decry the insanity except they participate in the madness by their own individual choices as borrowers and consumers. It is the rare person who is debt free today. The ones with debt and toys mock the ones without debt and toys. For the thrive mode people, survive mode is a needless and avoidable hardship.

When does the bill come due for this economic madness? I don't know. The sky never falls. Despite inflation not seen since the 1970s, people are still living their best lives. They are going on cruises and vacations to Disney World. They still eat out and get their meals delivered to them as they mindlessly scroll on their devices. The one thing I don't do is worry or concern myself with what is going to happen to these people. Whatever happens to them will be deserved when it comes.

Love And Hate: The Kindle

If you drop a book into the toilet, you can fish it out... But if you drop your Kindle in the toilet, you're pretty well done.

STEPHEN KING

This post is a response to the news in this article:

Your Old Kindle Still Works Perfectly. Amazon Is Killing It Anyway

https://reclaimthenet.org/your-old-kindle-still-works-perfectly-amazon-is-killing-it-anyway

I recommend reading the whole thing. Meanwhile, here are my two cents on the matter.

The Love

I bought my Kindle sometime back in 2007 or 08. I can't remember, but my device is close to 20 years old now. I still have the original battery in the thing, and it still works. It is certainly one of the devices that Amazon wants to brick now.

I bought the Kindle because of all the free books in the public domain you could download on the thing. I downloaded many of them. I liked the fact that you could carry around a library on the device that was the size of a paperback, and it has been in my backpack many times when I have had to travel. There is no clutter with the Kindle.

The Kindle really shined for me after my accident. My eyes cataracted over from the smashing of my head, and my vision began dimming to a point that I could no longer read a regular book. With the Kindle, I was able to enlarge the font to a gigantic size which allowed me to read the text. I chose to read the Douay-Rheims Bible, and I finished it on the Kindle. I could have never done that with my dead tree version of the Bible.

I had an iPod Touch once upon a time, and I read books on the Kindle app. But my eyes felt like someone had scrubbed them with sandpaper after reading on the thing. I discovered that I was not blinking when I was reading on the iPod screen. I don't know why I did that or what caused it. My eyes were drying out from not blinking. I have never had this problem with the e-ink display of the Kindle. They got that part exactly right, and it is why I preferred the Kindle over a tablet device like the Fire or the iPad.

The other great thing about the Kindle is that it allowed rapid delivery of a book. I didn't have to wait for the days that it takes to get a physical book through the mail from Amazon. And there are no late fees or return trips like you have with library books. That is the perk of "ownership" which brings me to the hate portion of this post.

The Hate

The argument that I heard from the beginning about the Kindle is that you don't really own the books on the thing. The fact that Amazon is going to brick my device supports that argument. The other thing is that Amazon had the ability to retroedit the ebook after the fact for whatever woke agenda they might want to push. You can't do this with a physical book. This is why it behooves you, Gentle Reader, to own and collect physical media.

The other thing about the Kindle is that it isn't the same experience as reading a physical book. My wife hates the Kindle and prefers a book she can hold in her hand. She can flip the pages and put bookmarks where she needs them. My wife is not a book vandal and does not make notes or underline things. But some people want that vandalism option which only a physical book provides. I can say for myself that I prefer reading a physical book over the electronic version. Since my eye surgeries, I have gone back to reading the Bible in its physical form.

They have tools and tricks on the Kindle to make it more like a physical book, but it was too aggravating to use them. A real book is the ultimate form factor for reading, and this is why physical books haven't died. This is why bookstores like Barnes and Noble have been making a comeback. Books are never going away.

This brings me to another criticism from my wife. Many of the books you would buy for the Kindle cost almost as much as the physical book. It costs virtually nothing to "print" and "deliver" an ebook. It is just electrons on a device. You could sell a book on the thing for a dollar and still make a profit. Instead, they demand full price for the thing that you never really own.

The Future

I know that Amazon got the idea for this unplanned but forced obsolescence from Apple who is famous for bricking older devices to churn the base of their cult of customers to get more money out of them. This was the fate of my iPod Touch. I appreciate that Amazon relented for almost 20 years on this move unlike Apple, but they are going to be the losers on this. I will never buy a new Kindle. I will never buy another ebook for the Kindle. They have shot themselves in the foot on this.

Would you be a fool to buy a Kindle or an ebook now? Absolutely. This digital crap is merely the illusion of ownership. That illusion is over. The only positive note on this is that you can still access your ebooks on the app on your other devices. I don't care. I am going back to physical books 100% now.

As for my current device, it still works and will continue to work until I reset it or whatever. I will hang on to it for now, but I am sorely tempted to eat the loss and trash the thing. I can't look at the thing without getting mad about it. You tricked me, Amazon. You won't trick me again.

****************

KINDLE NEWS and not the good kind 😨

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

Amazon’s Ending Support for Older Kindles… And That’s Not The Worst Part

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USk3J_elv6M

I Tried Reading On A Kindle Instead Of "Real" Books... Here's The Truth

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5LLRNdXzvQ

Kindle has a big problem, so I'm leaving it behind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwU5xkXj7Kw&t=21s

Ebooks, Kindle and the Erosion of Ownership

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqt7Ev37IbA

Van Neistat Falls To The Dark Side

All about this video screams "just unsubscribe" but I'm going to wait for strike 3.

FROM THE COMBOX

I can't remember when I discovered Van Neistat on YouTube, but I was an instant fan. I thought his videos were the best thing on YouTube. I loved his quirkiness, eccentricity, and love for all things analog and blue collar. When a Van Neistat video dropped, it was an event. Then, the quality began to decline. Finally, Van dropped this video:

Does AI Finally Work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBZvG506-ZA

This one did not go over well with me or with the fans as evidenced by the pointed remarks in the comments section. The video amounts to simping for AI and a commercial for the paid content on Van's Patreon channel and his wife's AI project. I remember a combox commenter who said that a channel goes downhill whenever the creator starts a Patreon account. This is certainly the case with Van Neistat.

Van is the last guy you would think would become an AI fanboy. The guy uses a manual typewriter to type his scripts. His favorite tool is a mechanical pencil. The name of his channel is "The Spirited Man." Going over to AI just cuts the spirit out of a man.

I haven't unsubscribed from Van Neistat's channel, but I am definitely in the "pre-unsubscribe" zone. I am learning the lesson that a creator is done when he starts a Patreon account. He is definitely done when he starts flirting with AI slop. Meanwhile, Van's brother Casey does not have a Patreon account. When you have over 12 million subscribers, you don't need a Patreon to pay the bills.

I don't expect Van to change the path he is on. What I can say is that the red flag for a YouTube channel is the Patreon thing. Once you go down the Patreon path, your channel is done. My advice to creators is to keep working that day job. This advice won't go over well with those who want to make a living from their fun creative endeavors. The irony is that the ones who work a day job for a living make better content than those who play for a living.

UPDATE #1: Van Neistat posted another vid that went over about as well as the AI video:

$100 For What?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FFzBfJy-Qk

Van's wife has taken to running interference in the combox. This commenter nailed the problem:

he's working for his Patreon subscribers because they’re the people who pay his bills. YouTube monetization sucks

Apparently, YouTube changed the rules on how creators get paid and get selected by the algorithm. Van isn't making money anymore from making his videos.

For myself, I've decided to unsubscribe from any channel that uses Patreon.  I'm never going to pay for the content, but the Patreon thing is a sure sign that the quality of the content will be diminished to the point of being a commercial for the paid content.

UPDATE #2: Van pulled out the promised long form of the short videos he was making and posting:

This Is My Computer: Long-Form Ep. 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrbgbyJWih8

I hesitate to say that Van redeemed himself, but I watched every minute of this long form video and enjoyed it. Fundamentally, Van used AI to create an analog solution to a digital problem. I am mystified as to why he was making the chopped up shorter videos or where he is going with all of this long term. I am also not happy about the AI stuff. But the video was entertaining. That's about all you can ask from the guy. I remain subscribed to the content. I am still not paying for Patreon. Van is on probation for the time being.

UPDATE #3: The wife says that Van Neistat is a sellout with this latest installment:

AI is REALLY NEAT!!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dG5pEiGhB_c

I see this as a man who has decided to embrace a thing he should be fighting. The segment where he is training the AI made me want to gag. Is this the Spirited Man? I don't think so. I think I am watching a slow motion train wreck, and I can't avert my eyes from the disaster. Plus, that AI manifesto crap was stupid. You are trying to draw boundaries for how far you're going to compromise. The way out is to just walk away, Van. But I know it is too late for that now. Not yet unsubscribed. Gotta watch the finish of the train wreck.

UPDATE #4: I am unsubscribed now. Though I had seen it before in the long form video, this short sealed the deal for me:

Is it wrong to want an AI Agent?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-ImXV23zb8 

I can't take this crap anymore. Van has beaten me with his superior stupidity. I am out. Love these combox comments:

I'm discouraged that Van has been AI-pilled in his own weird way.

***

Why are you pushing this earth destroying slop?

***

Why do you KEEP pushing the slop? Oy vey

***

I'm sorry but I'm off. AI centric and all those short pieces of the longer formats reposted just puts a bad taste in my mouth. I love the usual content and I understand why but it's a bit sad the way it's going. Wish you all the best. It's just not for me anymore. Really mean it, thanks for all the great content and I wish you nothing but the very best.

Keep Your Pleasures Small

Find joy in the simplest of pleasures and you’ll never feel deprived.

UNKNOWN

I may have told this story here before, but I will tell it again. When I met my wife, I made a promise to her. If she married me, she would be materially better off, but no one would envy us. This was based on the simple mathematics of me paying rent and utilities and also my recently found love for minimalism. I offered her the simple life, and she took it. The women I dated before her were not interested in that offer. And that, Gentle Reader, is one of the tips you need to remember when finding a good woman. But I digress. . .

The misconception I want to dispel about our voluntary poverty lifestyle is that we live in a state of adversity and deprivation. This isn't true. We actually enjoy our lives very much. We have learned that God provides for your need and not your greed. We don't want much, and that is the secret of contentment. Some people have not discovered that secret which is why they are never satisfied. That is also why no one envies us. I don't care to provoke that envy either.

I have a lot of pleasures in my life. They are small pleasures. I like to point to the year 1985 as a marker because that is when I believe my life was as good then as it is today. I was a teenager, but I remember enjoying a good book, a movie, a TV show, and listening to music on my ghetto blaster boom box. Those things represented the icing on the cake, and I still enjoy them to the present day. In the pleasure category, my life has never gotten better or worse than it was in 1985. VCR tapes turned into DVDs. Cassettes turned into CDs. The phones got mobile. Ultimately, the pleasures remained the same. I love a good story and a good tune. The only variation has been in cost and delivery.

I wish all things were as good today as they were in 1985, but they aren't. We had Star Wars in 1985. Today, we have woke Star Wars. Special effects have gotten better, but the stories have gotten worse. My wife and I have taken to watching old TV shows from the old days when sanity still existed. The same goes for music. Our favorite radio station is an oldies terrestrial station that streams on the internet out of Jamestown, New York. They play Sinatra and Perry Como. If we ever lose the old stuff, it would greatly diminish the enjoyment of life for us. I don't think we are alone on this as people have taken to collecting and storing physical media again.

I have a philosophy about pleasure. I don't think pleasures increase when they get bigger. The best example I can give on this is fishing. I don't fish for pleasure because I don't eat fish. I am just an observer, and I have observed that there are three kinds of fishermen where I live. The first type is a humble fellow who fishes off a bridge, a dock, or a riverbank equipped with a bucket and a cane pole. The second type goes out on the water with an old jon boat and a rod and reel. The third type goes out on the water in a shiny $40K bass boat. I don't think the fish care. I also don't think the guy in the bass boat enjoys his fishing anymore than the fellow with the cane pole. So, why buy that expensive bass boat?

There are some who will take issue with my observations and argue that the bass boat enhances the pleasure of the activity. I know this is utter bullshit. The argument comes from the desire of these fools to convince themselves that they are somehow enjoying an elevated level of experience over the poor man with the cane pole. $40K has to buy something. Yet, when the bass boat idiot passes the cane pole fisherman, he grinds his teeth and cusses under his breath. The pleasures of fishing should be off limits to those poor fellows and restricted to those with mean$.

There is a kernel of pleasure that represents the essence of the thing. This could possibly be enhanced, but it rarely isn't. When pleasures become big, they become less pleasurable. The bass boater knows this as he goes through all the aggravation of maintaining the boat, paying his property taxes on the thing, and making those monthly payments. It isn't fair that the cane pole fellow has escaped this misery completely. This is where the status thing comes into play.

Most of the enjoyment of these elevated pleasures comes from being seen enjoying them. This is why golf has eclipsed bowling in participation. Golf is a game for snobs. Similarly, the bass boat is for the fellow who wants to display to the world that he has the means to afford a boat he doesn't really need. It isn't enough to enjoy activities or possess things. One must also be envied for enjoying them and possessing them.

I like to tell people that the best Mexican restaurant I have eaten at is Taco Bell. This causes all sorts of fits of apoplexy with people arguing that Taco Bell isn't actual Mexican food. I don't care. I'd rather eat a bean burrito from Taco Bell than from the fancy Casa de Diarrhea place. That observation torpedoes people's overblown conceptions of living the good life. I remember when the Motorola Razr flip phone was the premium phone to have. Try flipping one of those out today in the iPhone world. What was once the object of envy is now the object of derision.

This vanity is what kills the enjoyment of life. I enjoy life more today than I did in 1985 because I don't care what other people think. If anything, I take a perverse glee in offending their sensibilities on these things. I don't know if that is a sin or not. I just think people need to get over this nonsense. They would be happier if they did.

My enemies on this unofficial crusade are the marketers who go around creating a sense of deprivation in consumers. This is when the cane pole guy decides he can't fish without the $40K bass boat. He has to have the status object. This does happen. Consequently, our modern American society has so much stuff accompanied with so much dissatisfaction.

Keep your pleasures small. You will know when they have stopped being small when they stop being as pleasurable. I am an accidental birdwatcher as I started watching birds while sitting outside or on a walk. To enhance the pleasure, I got out my $20 monocular telescope that I bought for some other purpose from Amazon. Then, I dropped $10 on a laminated bird guide from Tractor Supply in order to identify the birds in my state. That is as far as I care to go on this activity. Getting a better looking glass would not enhance the experience for me as those things are pricey. I also don't care for a camera with a telephoto lens. I don't log these things or belong to some stupid birdwatching club because that brings status into the game. I just look at birds and other critters as I enjoy sitting in the outdoors.

I play the kazoo for ten minutes a day to scratch my musical itch. Playing the guitar became painful for me because of a pinched nerve in my left arm. I only played the six string for ten minutes a day. I am not a serious musician. Likewise, I play checkers because I find chess to be too complicated. These are simple pleasures that I keep simple on purpose. I can enjoy them because I don't take them or myself seriously.

I doubt the rest of the world will get a clue about small pleasures. We are outgunned by the marketers and by society. But for those who do get the clue, life is really sweet for them. If money can't buy happiness, the lack of money doesn't preclude happiness either. What is in your wallet matters less than what is between your ears. Go and enjoy the simple pleasures of life, Gentle Reader.

The Problem Of New Solutions

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

AGE OLD WISDOM

There is an old adage that every solution breeds new problems. For example, electricity brought us lights and appliances along with electrocution hazards. We accept those hazards because we like those electric lights and appliances. This is not an essay about those new problems that come with new solutions. This is about old problems that were solved but were brought back with new solutions that don't solve anything except satisfying some company's desire to make a buck.

A great example of the problem of new solutions is this article from Fortune about the cognitive decline among the young relative to their parents as a consequence of technology in the classrooms:

The U.S. spent $30 billion to ditch textbooks for laptops and tablets: The result is the first generation less cognitively capable than their parents

https://fortune.com/2026/02/21/laptops-tablets-schools-gen-z-less-cognitively-capable-parents-first-time-cellphone-bans-standardized-test-scores/

Our society already had solutions. These solutions were physical textbooks, paper, pencils, and the blackboard. Those things worked for generations. When something works, you don't need to replace it. And whatever replaces it must be as good or better than what it replaced. This is common sense. Yet, those computers were forced into classrooms to solve one problem. This is the problem of lazy teachers who didn't want to do the hard work of teaching anymore. The consequence is that good parents have taken to homeschooling their kids with the old methods while bad parents allow their delinquents to go to the state supported babysitting service with the new technology. The computers, tablets, and smartphones keep the brats entertained. The problem is that entertainment is not education.

AI promises to take the lunacy to a new level. What is the problem that AI is trying to solve? This would be the problem of human beings. AI never calls out sick. It never asks for a raise. It never asks for a vacation. It doesn't need to take a random drug test. AI is always clean and sober. You can see why businesses want AI and robots now. This will certainly breed new problems, but that is the topic for another essay.

It is easy to castigate the culture, but I prefer to bring it down to the personal level. What can you do as an individual to stick with the old solutions that work in opposition to the new solutions that don't work? What can you do as a human being to resist the stupidity of a technophilic culture?

The first and most basic thing you can do is to read old fashioned books. When the codex replaced the scroll as the preferred physical form of the book, it became one of the killer apps of human history. It still works today and will always work. The new solution is the electronic scroll of the smartphone and the tablet. People doom scroll themselves into a stupor and wonder what they have to show for it. More time is spent looking for stuff than actually consuming stuff. Books don't have this problem. Books require deep focus and is very rewarding for those who do that deep reading.

The second and most basic thing you can do is pick up a pencil or a pen and write something. It is even better if the writing is in cursive. I like using a keyboard, but that is the end of my writing process. These posts begin with writing by hand the notes that form the backbone of what I write about here. Writing by hand helps you think.

The third and most basic thing you can do is get a dumbphone or dumb down your smartphone. The phone is a communication device. The computer is an information device. The smartphone is an entertainment device. We would laugh if schools handed out Nintendo videogames to the kids, but this is essentially what they did with the iPads and smartphones. Entertainment has replaced education, and kids are now stupid. That generation has now been lost.

Technology has conditioned our culture to seek the new solutions. This is why they want to sell you kitchen appliances connected to the internet. Everything has to be a "smart" thing with the smartwatch being one of the dumbest examples that I see on a daily basis. They tell time until it is time to recharge the things. They tell you other things like your heart rate and step count. But if you forget to charge it, what then? I just use a dumb watch that tells the time. If I need to know my heart rate, I will put two fingers on my neck and count.

The simple fact is that we have solved many of our problems. It is only now that we see the old solutions as problematic. Their only problem is that they are old. The tech revolution amounts to digital euthanasia of old solutions as we are forced to adapt and upgrade and ignore the decline of our culture and civilization. We are losing our minds over this crap along with our dignity and freedom. Today, the answer is to not keep pressing forward because the way forward is headed over a cliff. We need to turn 180 degrees and go backward. That is the answer. Return to the things that weren't broken and don't need fixing.

************

Parents say: Bring back pencil and paper

https://www.joannejacobs.com/post/parents-say-bring-back-pencil-and-paper

Back to textbooks: Denmark rolls back digital learning • FRANCE 24 English

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKoCZKtpS3Q

A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Upf_B9RLQ

SURPRISE: Study shows break from smartphone improves cognitive functioning (the internet has thoughts)

https://notthebee.com/article/the-internet-is-on-fire-talking-about-a-year-old-study-showing-that-a-two-week-break-from-your-smartphone-makes-your-brain-an-entire-decade-younger/

The Package Deal Of Hard Work And Simple Living

If you look at what you have in life, you'll always have more. If you look at what you don't have in life, you'll never have enough.

OPRAH WINFREY

I am not a fan of Oprah Winfrey, but I find myself agreeing with her in the quotation above. I recently came across these two items that have been on my mind the last couple of days:

18 Statistics That Reveal How Consumeristic Our Culture Has Become

https://www.becomingminimalist.com/culture-we-are-swimming-in/

Something Is Happening in America… The Cost of Living Is Pushing People Too Far

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CkE_FzCYVY

The first comes from Joshua Becker and is a condemnation of our consumerist society and its excesses with telling stats to back up what he's saying. According to Becker, we have too much stuff. The second is a video that is a collection of people whining that they don't have enough. Which is the true story? Are we drowning in abundance and excess? Or, are we barely getting by?

The reality is that our society works too little and consumes too much. Most of the whining in the video amounts to lamenting the need to work more hours and take on second jobs while tightening the belt on expenses. Implied in that whining is that older generations never had to do this sort of thing, but this isn't true.

My greatest generation grandfather worked two jobs in his day to support his family of five children. Additionally, all five of those kids had to work even before they left high school. I don't recall my grandparents living lavish lifestyles. I can't say the same for the Boomers that came later. There was a real contrast between Great Depression survivors and Baby Boomers. The Great Depression generation looked at what they had. The Baby Boomers looked at what they didn't have and went after it. Since people adjust more readily to luxury than adversity, this has set up an expectation in our society of living a Boomer lifestyle instead of a Great Depression lifestyle. Since the economics can no longer support this insanity, our present culture lives larger and more indebted than the preceding generations.

My wife points out that despite the inflation, sky high rents and mortgage payments, student loan debts, and whatnot that nobody is actually hurting. We see people going on cruises and vacationing at Disneyworld while driving brand new cars that cost a fortune along with various toys like boats, motorcycles, and campers parked outside their McMansions. We had a time like this once before in American history. It was called the Roaring 20s. People lived large until the bottom fell out. This led to the Great Depression. This country needs a second Great Depression to relearn the lessons.

The first and most basic lesson is that people need to reject the 40 hour work week. This was based on the flawed idea that a man needs 8 hours of sleep, 8 hours of work, and 8 hours of leisure and recreation each day. 8 hours of goof off time each day can only lead to poverty as this leads to less income and greater consumption. Much of this consumption comes in the form of drinking alcoholic beverages. The simple fact is that idleness leads to consumption and vice as people try to alleviate their boredom.

It's hard to be bored if you're working all the time. This is why I believe in the biblical pattern of 12/6 in opposition to 8/5 and 24/7. Basically, if you are able bodied, you should aim for a maximum of working 12 hours a day for 6 days per week. The seventh day is a day for rest and worship. As for leisure, you still get 4 hours per day and can still sleep eight hours per night. The idea of working 72 hours per week is outrageous and extreme to many people, but I believe this was the historic norm for farmers and laborers going back for centuries.

Our culture has become conditioned to having both the time and the money for a life of leisure. This has become unsustainable, so people have resorted to credit to keep buying things they can't afford and don't need. This drives up the prices on everything. This is why private equity firms charge so much because our self-indulgent society has sent the signal to them that it can and will pay for these excesses.

The second most basic lesson is that people need to get back to a balanced and more common sense view of the purpose of leisure. Leisure and days of rest are when we take our break from our labors to reconnect with the Lord through prayer and worship and spending time with our families. Under the 12/6 program, the working man has a total of 40 hours each week not devoted to work or sleep. That is plenty of time to go to church, eat a family meal, go for a walk, read a book, watch a TV program, and on and on.

Leisure becomes unbalanced when people think that free time requires expensive toys and past times. The most notorious of these would be the game of golf which seems designed for no greater purpose than to separate men from their families and their faith and the cash from their wallets. That is one of the things that separated Great Depression survivors from the Boomers. I don't recall my grandfather ever playing golf or even desiring to play the game.

Excessive leisure is the genesis of our consumerist culture. Most leisure is nearly free. It costs so little to have so much pleasure and fun. But people reject playing catch with their kids in favor of paying for golf. They reject a day in the park for the week at Disney. They reject the book from the library in favor of the various subscription streaming services and the $1000+ flagship smartphone. The irony is that all of these costly forms of leisure leave people more dissatisfied than ever. Yet, to suggest that these people go back to simpler forms of leisure and entertainment is to be met with howls of indignation over the "suffering" that would entail.

The antidote for our times is a return to hard work and simple living. This sounds quaint and even unbelievable to people who are "struggling" today. You have to remember how we got to this place. If people saw the lifestyles of the Great Depression survivors instead of the Boomers as the historical norm, they wouldn't have any problems getting by today. The lie is that this present generation has it tougher than our forebears. The reality is that it is self-inflicted. As Oprah put it, people look at what they don't have in life and feel that it is never enough.

I can make a lot of points about high taxes and the Federal Reserve debasing our currency with money printing. Yet, all of this becomes a moot point when you consider how people borrow that money for their consumerism and repay it with double digit interest. People risk homelessness because they insist on living in a McMansion. For every economic malady, there is a personal dimension that comes with it. Often, the malady gets cured when people decide they are not going to play the game anymore. You can call it minimalism, voluntary poverty, or simple living. The consumerist game ends when you stop playing it.

Most people don't and won't stop playing the game until they are forced out of it. I know people who lost homes in the 2007 housing collapse who are back in the same situation again. That is the saddest tale which is the simple fact that people don't learn the lessons of hard work and simple living.

The Bishop Voodoo Appeal

I offer my prayers daily for those whose lives have been hurt or devastated by the actions of a member of the clergy or by any other persons, especially all abused children and other vulnerable persons. It is particularly tragic when the abuse is at the hands of a priest in whom their spiritual care and wellbeing has been entrusted.

BISHOP GAYMONE

People may object to my use of nicknames for bishops and priests, but our Lord used nicknames for the "den of vipers" in His day. I use the nicknames to actually spare the reputations of these men as the use of proper names would lead people directly from a Google search to this place. I do not believe that priests, prelates, and politicians are entitled to the same level of privacy as ordinary citizens. I even spare celebrities and refrain from gossip about famous people because they never forfeited their rights to privacy. But our leaders need to recognize that they are held to a higher standard. This is why I have never aspired to public office.

I begin with the quote from Bishop Gaymone because I see the cynicism in it now. People have accused Gaymone of sexual abuse, but the Vatican cleared him of all these charges and allegations. Additionally, when he came to our diocese, he had the task of dealing with the sexual abuse issues here. I believed that Gaymone was one of the good guys. Then, he allowed a pervert priest to come from another diocese where he had gotten into some trouble there. His move to our diocese amounted to giving cover to this guy until the heat blew over. Unfortunately, that priest got into trouble here propositioning a teenager on the Grindr app and was looking at jail. He got off on the technicality that Grindr demands that all users be 18 years or older.

Why would a bishop do this after all of the crap that had happened preceding this? Clearly, this priest is unfit for the priesthood. I came to the conclusion that Gaymone was doing a favor for the "network" by taking this guy into his diocese. From that day forward, he earned the nickname I use to identify him, and I ceased giving another penny to his Bishop's Appeal. Gaymone is now in forced retirement.

Pope Francis appointed our current bishop who I refer to as "Bishop Voodoo" after watching him preside over an "encultured" irreverent Mass at his parish. The video of that got scrubbed, but I recall some dancing and raucous music. I suspect Bishop Voodoo was selected because he would help aid and abet the illegal immigration efforts requested by the Democrat Party. Regardless, I consider Bishop Voodoo to be one of the bad guys.

One of the first things Voodoo did was change the name of the Bishop's Appeal to the Catholic Appeal. This little marketing move is the hierarchy bowing to the reality that the reputation of the bishops has diminished the giving. Somehow, changing the name is supposed to fool us into giving. It hasn't. From what I heard, the participation rate for the appeal in the diocese is only 14%.

Ever since Gaymone, my plan for giving has been to employ the Blue Envelope Strategy. This is where I put the bulk of my donation to the parish in the blue envelopes provided for the building and maintenance fund. I put "building fund only" on my checks. I give to nothing else especially those dreadful second collections. I give a dollar to the weekly collection to cover the expense of the host and the power bill. We also give to Christmas and Easter flower collections. That's it.

If the diocese decides to embezzle from the building fund, I can't do anything about that except cease all giving. So far, I have heard nothing to indicate this is going on. The secret to ending this corruption is to stop paying for it. The easiest way is to not give to the Bishop Voodoo Appeal.

***

Complicit Clergy

https://www.complicitclergy.com/

END DISTRACTED DRIVING

Arrive alive. Don't text and drive.

A SLOGAN AGAINST DISTRACTED DRIVING

Recently, my state enacted a law mandating hands free driving. It began with warning tickets but now will cost people fines and points off of their licenses. I wholeheartedly support this law and pray that the cops enforce it vigorously. I thought most people would share my opinion on this, but I was wrong. A glance through the combox comments on articles and videos announcing the new law shows a litany of idiots crying and whining about the "injustice" of the law. These fools believe they have a God given right to play on their phones behind the wheel and endanger everyone else on the road including themselves. It truly boggles the mind.

This country has a serious problem with smartphone addiction. Before my accident, I drove a truck for my day job. From that perch, I could see down into the interior of every vehicle that passed me on the left side. I calculated that every third driver had a phone in his or her hand texting and driving. I would blow the horn at these people, but it made no difference. They just keep tapping away at the screens at 70+ miles per hour.

I remember driving to work one day and glancing in the rear view mirror at the driver behind me on her iPhone. It was directly in front of her face. All I saw was that Apple logo and prayed that God would spare me my life. She never dropped the phone, and I was thankful to get away from her.

The idiot who hit me and put me in the hospital was almost certainly playing on his phone. I suspect he was in a rush to score some opioids from his drug contact that he was texting with on Facebook messenger. He used his Facebook page to declare me at fault despite the testimony of the two witnesses he almost killed before he hit me. I estimate he was flying along at 90 mph while texting and eating Chick-fil-A. A year or so later, he posted a meme on his Facebook account making fun of his distracted driving habit. Gentle Reader, these are the sorts of idiots who are sharing the road with you and your family members. Somehow, we are supposed to respect their "freedom."

You can Google the stats but distracted driving has been blamed for 8% of all traffic fatalities last year. I suspect the actual number is higher because people lie, and it is difficult to prove distracted driving especially when law enforcement doesn't care to investigate. Additionally, law enforcement are some of the worst offenders when it comes to distracted driving. I remember reading a story recently of a cop that ran over a woman on the beach and killed her while playing on his phone. His life is ruined.

I consider distracted driving to be worse than driving under the influence. The drunk driver still has his eyes on the road and is trying not to get caught. I don't know what it is going to take to make this country embrace common sense on this matter. We are at the point where stupidity has taken on deadly consequences. The smartphone needs to find a place alongside alcohol and tobacco as a dangerous thing. Until then, I do my part to raise awareness on this. My life has already been ruined by one of these idiots. I pray that the idiocy stops.

End Distracted Driving

https://www.enddd.org/

Q & A 2

I am a musician. My passion for music has obliterated everything in its path for my entire life.

BARRY MANILOW

I like the Q & A format because it allows me to write on things that aren't big enough for a dedicated blog post. Most of my posts come from asking myself a question which the post will answer. I just delete the question except here where I keep the questions. That is a small window into my creative process. Here is my second edition of Q & A.

Q: Do you think there will be a widespread return to dumbphones?

A: I have reluctantly had to admit that smartphones are here to stay. The real question is whether or not dumbphones are here to stay. The pressure to conform to the smartphone cult is immense, but I think dumbphone users like me represent a stubborn minority. We refuse to die.

Q: Is it still possible to buy quality?

A: I think it is possible to buy quality, but I think it is much harder today. The two things that kill quality today are debasement of the currency and women's addiction to fashion. Why make a quality product when the women will want it in a different color or flavor next season? This is how you get our current disposable culture.

You can find quality if you're willing to go to the thrift store and buy old stuff from better times. You can also buy quality if you invest the time and energy into researching the things you buy before you buy them.

Q: Should they completely privatize the post office?

A: I have always considered the US Postal Service to be a branch of the federal government like the park service, the FAA, and the FBI. The idea that the post office is a private enterprise is a fiction, and it needs to be dropped. Yes, the postal service operates at a loss on a yearly basis, but the American public has had no problem with this. They just get mad when the cost of stamps goes up.

There are some things I don't think can or should ever be privatized. Prisons would be one of those things. Roads and highways are another. I think they should drop the idea of privatizing the post office like they have done in Denmark. That looks like a disaster.

Q: What happened to Eddie Bauer and Harley-Davidson?

A: I identify those two brands as Baby Boomer brands. The Boomers are now dying off in what I call the "Boomer Bust." I expect to see many more brands go down as the demographics change. Red Lobster is one of those brands. I think steakhouses like Longhorn and Outback will also suffer because steak is mostly a boomer thing. Omaha Steaks has already been hit. Wine is getting hit hard as well. Gen Xers and Millennials prefer cheeseburgers, Mexican food, and beer. I don't think they will ever develop a taste for steak and lobster.

Q: What went wrong with Star Wars?

A: George Lucas is what went wrong with Star Wars. He had a good idea that was boosted by others until he decided that selling toys was better than making movies. From then on, he proceeded to immolate the franchise before selling it to Disney to finish it off. The amazing thing was that he had some good ideas in the first place.

Q: Which are better as pets--dogs or cats?

A: I don't own pets because I can't afford them. If I did own a pet, I prefer a cat because cats will poop in a box and bury it. Dogs don't do this. Cats have their issues, but I think they take less effort than dogs.

Q: Why have Nike's sales fallen while sales of New Balance have increased?

A: This question comes from this video from CNBC on YouTube:

Why New Balance sales are soaring while Nike falls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc60OAYG9os

The talking head on the video totally blew her analysis on the reason for the decline of Nike and the resurgence of New Balance. You get a better idea from the comments section that tells the real story. I will give my two cents on the matter.

Gen X and Millennials got old. These were the folks who used to buy Nike products, but they are now middle aged. When you hit middle age, the "dad shoe" becomes more appealing than the LeBron James shoe. I was one of those Gen Xers.

I used to wear the Nike Air Pegasus shoe when I was pretending to be a runner. I hated those shoes because they were uncomfortable as hell, but I thought those were the shoes you had to wear to be a runner. I ended up donating my last pair to Goodwill unworn in a virtually brand new condition. I will never go back to Nike.

I started wearing New Balance on accident. The lady who managed my apartment complex had bought some New Balance shoes for her husband who complained that she had bought him the wrong size. The reality was they were not flashy enough for him. She gifted me the shoes, and I made a face when I saw them. They were uncool dad shoes that seemed more fitting for geriatrics. But I already had a brain injury by then and was pushing 50. I swallowed my pride and put them on. They were the most comfortable sneaker I had ever worn and were perfect for fitness walking. I regret that I had not discovered them sooner, and I consider it divine intervention. I have bought many pairs of that same exact shoe since that day and keep some on standby in my closet.

I doubt New Balance will ever eclipse Nike in sales. I just think you are seeing demographics in action. Old people want comfortable and non-flashy shoes. New Balance delivers on that desire. The younger folks will keep buying Nikes.

Q: What is your opinion of third orders?

A: I like to tell people that I am a third order Trappist. I like to go around keeping my mouth shut. Fortunately, I have this blog where I can say what I really think.

I think third orders serve to scratch the itch of spiritual pride that some laypeople have. Everybody wants to be a special snowflake and not just some layperson living an ordinary life. I discovered this impulse in myself when I had a desire to be involved with Opus Dei. Now, I see them as a cult that needs to be deactivated in the Catholic Church. One can only hope and pray that happens.

There is a third order Carmelite in my parish that is always recruiting for the third order. I have always declined the invitation. I am a nobody, and I intend to remain that way. It is all I can do to pray the Rosary each day, so I know I am not up to the demands of a religious order and the Divine Office.

The only religious order that I have an affinity for are the Franciscans and the Poor Clares. I think this comes from watching Mother Angelica on EWTN and living a voluntary poverty lifestyle. I have never desired to be a Secular Franciscan. The appeal to me of the Franciscan orders is their desire to be humble and small. You can't be humbler or smaller than being a nobody.

Q: What is your opinion of spec ops?

A: I think these special operations units amount to ordinary men brainwashed into doing suicide missions. To achieve this brainwashing, these guys go through a process to weed out the quitters until they get a group of guys who would rather die than abandon the mission. Then, they sling them into those suicide missions. These men are not superhuman, but they are led to believe that they are. That hubris gets them killed sometimes. Other times, it makes them throw shade on each other as you witness Navy SEALS talk smack about other SEALS. Humility is not a hallmark of spec ops.

I came to this conclusion at the end of the 1990s watching some Navy SEALS lose the Eco-Challenge to some middle aged hippies from New Zealand. I had picked the SEALS to win the ultra endurance event and worried that the woman ultrarunner forced to compete with them would hamstring them. The opposite happened. She ended up dragging them through the event until they washed out in humiliation on the water.

Navy SEALS are not athletes in the same way that athletes are not special operators. If you put the SEALS in a game with the Los Angeles Lakers, the Lakers are going to win every time.  Likewise, if you send the Lakers into a war zone, they are going to come back dead.

I have always agreed with the Marine Corps mentality when it comes to spec ops. They hated spec ops because they considered it bad for morale. Witnessing the SEALS today with their books, movies, and podcasts only confirms what the USMC already knew. Unfortunately, the Pentagon forced the Marines to turn their Force Recon personnel into special operators to create a spec ops force known today as the MARSOC Raiders. I suspect the Marines would like to undo that, but they have to follow their orders.

Should spec ops exist? I can't answer that question. The simple fact is that we will always need men to go in harm's way. Would they still do it knowing they were just ordinary men likely to die? I can't answer that either.

Q: Why do people run marathons?

A: Less than 1% of the world's population has ever completed a marathon. This still puts the number of marathon finishers in the millions. The reason these people run marathons is because they want to feel they have achieved something special and rare. As I said, people want to feel that they are special snowflakes. A finisher's medal from a marathon scratches that itch.

I don't think running a marathon is that big of a deal. I think many others in that community agree with me which is how you got the Ironman Triathlon and the Badwater Ultramarathon. At some point, it changes from a sport to a stunt. I stick with walking. I am not a special snowflake.

Q: What do you think of Barry Manilow?

A: I won't get into the particulars of Barry Manilow's private life as I believe even celebrities are entitled to their privacy and should not be the subject of gossip, detraction, and calumny. I will stick to the music.

I think Barry Manilow is an awesome songwriter and performer who had a real ear for melody. For some reason, it became fashionable to hold Manilow in scorn and derision. This happened sometime in the 1980s, and I was one of those snarky types who loved to take a crap on Manilow.

My derision ended when I encountered a Manilow fan in high school. Mr. P. (name withheld) was the special education teacher, and I remember our journalism class going to his section of the campus to help his students with their volunteer labor for the school newspaper. While we were working there, Mr. P. was playing a vinyl record on an old record player. When I looked at the sleeve for the record, it was Barry Manilow.

"Barry Manilow?!" I exclaimed in my warm up to take a huge crap on it.

"Oh, yes! I just love Barry," Mr. P. said.

I felt bad, and I checked myself. Mr. P. is deceased now, but he was one of the finest human beings you could ever meet in life. There was no smartass snark or derision in this man. He was the real deal, and his love for Manilow came from a place of sincere appreciation for good music. I share that appreciation now.

That snarkiness and smartassery became a thing in the 80s, and I blame Chevy Chase and David Letterman for this. I don't really like their comedy where somebody has to be the butt of the humor. I think Jay Leno was better than David Letterman because he didn't do the snarkiness. I think the American public agreed which is why Leno consistently beat Letterman in the ratings. Leno could come back right now and be the king of late night all over again. But I digress. . .

I like Barry Manilow's music. I like disco music and the Bee Gees. I even like lounge music and Lawrence Welk. I don't care whether it is "cool." Cool is garbage to me. I love a good tune, and I think everyone else does, too. I think it is a tragedy to allow cynicism and fashion to keep you from experiencing good things in life.

Q: Do you think someone murdered Kurt Cobain?

A: No, I don't. I think Cobain suicided himself in accord with Occam's razor that holds that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one. The guy was on a self-destructive path for a long time, and I think his atheism and nihilism undid him. The people with the murder conjectures want to rewrite Cobain's story much like others want to claim that Jim Morrison faked his death and is still alive somewhere. I am waiting for people to make the same claims about Cobain one day. It is all nonsense.

That's all for this second edition of Q & A. I am already working on the third edition.