Charlie's Blog: 2026

10.18.2026

When A Man Gets Bored, He Starts Buying (Retail Therapy For Men)

A bargain is something you can't use at a price you can't resist.
FRANKLIN JONES

This post is in response to this YouTube video:

Moving up. The Icom 7300. Will I finally get my Ham license back!?!

I have learned to no longer leave comments on videos, blog posts, or articles but choose to post what I think here at the C-Blog. I got the tip from Matt Drudge and his eschewing of social media by pointing out that it amounted to building a house on rented land. Why provide free content for their site when you can produce it for your own site? But I digress. . .

This video from Erik of Farpoint Farms earns my derision. I remember that he used to be an amateur radio operator but sold off his equipment a long time ago and let his ham ticket expire. He did keep his CB radio and was a big part of my reason to get into CB radio for prepping and avoiding ham radio as an expensive and needless hobby. Now, like a dog returning to his vomit, Erik returns to ham radio in some vain hope of alleviating his boredom. I don't think he wanted to talk on ham radio so much as buy a new toy that caught his eye, And that, Gentle Reader, is retail therapy for men. When men get bored, they start buying.

Where will all of this lead? I think you will see that spiffy new ham rig for sale on fleaBay in a couple of years as Erik realizes and remembers the reasons he quit ham radio in the first place. Ham is expensive,  unnecessary and annoying while CB radio is cheap, utilitarian, and fun. How do I know this? Erik said so himself in this video:

SSB CB RADIO VS. HAM RADIO What To Consider

In some other video, Erik confessed to buying a boat which was another waste of money. Boredom can get really expensive. When I go to thrift stores or yard sales, I see the collection of other men's regrets. You've got rusty golf clubs, exercise equipment, sports equipment, kayaks, surfboards, bicycles, musical instruments, woodworking tools, camping equipment, and all sorts of detritus from hobbies pursued and abandoned. It is both sad and silly to witness.

One of the frugal tips I learned a long time ago is to not pursue hobbies. Hobbies are just excuses to buy stuff you don't need in vain attempts to cure your boredom. Eventually, this madness gets more insane when it gets into buying big boy toys like motorcycles, boats, sports cars, Jeeps, RVs, ATVs, and even airplanes and helicopters. A new ham rig seems relatively sane in comparison to all of that.

I believe more in doing than buying. Buying stuff is easy. Doing stuff is harder. Yet, doing is the true cure for boredom. We live in an age where men don't do things but buy things to display on their YouTube channels and social media accounts. We have guitar collector influencers who have more instruments hanging on the wall than Hendrix ever played in his life. Likewise, you have stuffed ham shacks with all of that equipment for these guys to end up secretly talking on the CB radio channels because CB is more fun than remembering your call sign and entering DX contests.

We all do dumb stuff. There's no shame in that. The shame is repeating dumb stuff. Erik is repeating dumb stuff here.

UPDATE: One of the interesting facts about ham radio is that hams mostly listen. They tend to be introverted and mic shy. I can relate because I am the same way. This was an interesting video on the topic:

Why Do So Many Ham Radio Operators Only Listen?

I think the reason many people buy shortwave radios and ham radios is out of sheer curiosity. That is an expensive way to scratch that itch. Here is a cheaper option to listen in for FREE:

NA5B WebSDR

That internet based SDR allows you to listen to the various bands on your computer without buying a $1000 radio. The curious thing you will find is that the most active frequencies are on terrestrial AM radio and CB radio when the conditions are right. The shortwave stations are few and usually in foreign languages. As for the ham bands, you will hear guys talking mostly about their radios, antennas, some politics, and their hemorrhoids. If I ever think I am missing out on ham and shortwave, a little listening here settles that for me. You can also listen to the dead air on the 2 meter band. I am able to hear the same dead air on my C.Crane radio that can get 2 meters.

I am grateful to the ham radio community for doing what they do. I return the favor by staying out of their way on 11 meters. I know my place.

10.11.2026

Elite

You don't have the time.

The genesis of this post comes from the linked video of a former Navy SEAL scoffing at the fictional character of Jason Bourne. As someone who was at an elite level for a period in his life, that SEAL knew the idea of Bourne as a man who was at an elite level in multiple things was impossible in reality. Bourne is a Renaissance Man of brutality who exceeds James Bond in fighting skills, weapons proficiency, knowledge of languages, and on and on. He can only exist in fiction because no real human being has the time to know and do all of that stuff at the elite levels Jason Bourne knew and did them.

You don't have the time. I think this is a reality that every person must accept at some point in their lives. It is why I tell people that what you do in life matters less than what you don't do. I remember watching another YouTube video about the Delta Force where someone asked a question. What do those elite soldiers know and do that the rest of the Army doesn't know and do? The answer was that Delta doesn't do anything different than the infantry and the Rangers. They just do what they do to the highest degree possible. Where an infantry guy would be a pocket knife, a Delta operator is a straight razor. Both cut, but the razor is much sharper. This comes from specialization.

To be good at something, it must be done to the exclusion of other things. Even the Jason Bourne character tells us that his skill level came at the cost of his humanity which he rediscovers after a brain injury. The guy was programmed like a robot. He was a killing machine.

The Renaissance Man is a fiction. The reality is that you can be supremely good at one thing or competent at multiple things. You can never be supremely good at multiple things. You just don't have the time. Each additional skill you acquire or job you do takes from something else. You can see this in triathletes who are competent at three sports but could not win a dedicated marathon, bike race, or swim meet against the specialized world class talents in those sports. You are never going to see someone win the Boston Marathon and the Ironman Triathlon in the same year. It can't be done. Someone might possibly transition to something like that and win them at different times. I doubt that I will ever live to see that feat.

Why does this matter? I see many people getting duped into this Renaissance mentality while also ignoring the inevitability of age and injury. This duping happens most acutely with the game of golf where men expend considerable time, money, and energy in their off hours to play a game where they can't break 80 while dreaming of making the PGA tour. I know a guy who was a good golfer, and I asked him why he didn't try to make the tour. He candidly said that would require a sponsorship from someone which would allow him to quit his day job in order to devote himself exclusively to the sport. That's what that level of performance takes.

Talent matters because it shortens and lessens the time to reach those elite levels of performance. You see this with athletes, musicians, brilliant mathematicians, and other fields of endeavor. Even then, talent is not equal. There have been many talented NBA players, but there have been few on the level of Michael Jordan. Jordan's foray into baseball was a real fiasco and a waste of time and talent. He shouldn't have done that.

I can honestly say that you shouldn't waste your time on doing things with great commitment for which you don't have the talent. I like playing my kazoo for funzies, but you won't see me playing the saxophone or piano or the electric guitar. For the same reason, I don't waste my time writing the great American novel or poems. I write blog posts. In another time and place and before TBI, I would have written newspaper and magazine articles. I have the talent to write non-fiction books, but that would amount to collecting the stuff I write here. My heroes in the realm of non-fiction writing are Matt Taibbi and Sebastian Junger. If I ever write something great, it will be telling the true story of some person or event. Non-fiction writing doesn't get enough credit. But I digress. . .

You don't have enough hours in a day or enough years in a life to be elite at very much. This leaves competence. You can be competent at multiple things. This would be Yvon Chouinard as a climber, fly fisherman, surfer, blacksmith, and businessman. Even then, he cuts himself off at the 80% level of anything. That last 20% requires more than he cares to give. Likewise, the Marine Corps demands the same sort of generalization and flexibility from its Marines. This is why the Corps never cared much for having special operators because it goes against their DNA as a force that improvises and overcomes. The Marine Corps mechanic also has to be able to perform as a rifleman and vice versa. They are generalists.

Generalists benefit from the same practice of subtraction as specialists. A skill or pursuit has to be worth doing or not be done at all. The generalist might learn Spanish, but he isn't going to waste time learning the ancient and dead language of Akkadian. The generalist leaves that to the scholars at the universities and institutions.

To be elite requires a 100% commitment. Attaining this requires a 0% commitment on everything else. And that, Gentle Reader, is how you have to look at things. What level of commitment are you going to give to something? This is why the Navy SEALS have that grueling thing called BUD/S that weeds out those with less than 100% commitment. The goal of Marine boot camp is to get everyone to pass. The goal of BUD/S is to get as many as possible to quit. The sad thing about the Navy is that quitting BUD/S turns a good fighting man over to a career chipping paint or something else he never wanted to do. In the Army, you can go back to the infantry if you fail to make it as a special operator. Personally, I think the Marine Corps is the better way to go because the Corps gives you a better chance at succeeding. This is also true of the generalist.

Recognizing what it takes to be elite helps settle a lot of regrets for people. If you have talent, pursue that but also recognize the limit of that talent. With competence, do the things that have some value for your life. For everything else, don't do them at all. You don't have the time for anything else.

UPDATE #1: This subject also touches on the issues of ego and humility. One of the great things I noticed about truly elite people is that they tend to be humble. This comes from knowing that they suck at everything else in their lives. Likewise, generalists do not envy the specialists because they know the math. Generalists are not elite because they wanted to do other things with their time like have a family or read a book. The elite will tell you candidly that they don't have free time. When Hendrix wasn't playing a show, he was playing that guitar in his room for hours by himself. That was it. I just wish he had laid off the drugs.

The disgrace of the elites or those who want to be elite are the fakers. One type of faker cheats to make it. This would be the guy on performance enhancing drugs. The other type of faker is the one who embellishes and lies. This is how you get awesome special operators who end up telling tales and become guilty of stolen valor the same way a homeless guy will fake being a veteran to get money out of people. Finally, there is the resume builder who makes a big deal out of his nothings. This would be the person who puffs his way one weekend through a 5K and claims to be an endurance athlete. The entire running cult is like that. The same applies to martial arts. Some dude rolls at the BJJ strip mall dojo, and he claims to be a martial artist like Bruce Lee. Those black belts are no different than finisher's medals at a road race.

Everybody wants to be a somebody. Everyone wants to be special. Then, they hit 40. Their best years are behind them. They are past their prime and coasting on yesterday's achievements. This is why they are tempted to lie or throw shade on others or whatnot. You can't change the past, but you can lie about what you did and hope you don't get caught. Or, you can be a nobody. Humility is the better way to go.

UPDATE #2: This Army Ranger dishes the dirt on the US Navy SEALs:

Army Ranger Exposes the Truth About Navy SEALs

The SEAL Truth a Ranger Won't Sugarcoat

The basic truth here from this Ranger and the combox is that the SEALs are the douchebags of the spec ops community. Meanwhile, the Delta Force are truly the elite professionals while the USMC, Army Rangers, Airborne, and the infantry grunts are severely underrated and do not get their due. The flaw with the SEALs seems to be going from Navy basic training straight to BUD/S without any kind of time in an infantry unit. This missing piece in their development and lack of maturity results in some amateur decision making and operation. There is no substitute for experience, and the only way to get experience is to experience it. Faking it until you make it just doesn't cut it. You have to put in the time.

10.04.2026

Plant Based Living

The longest-lived people eat a plant-based diet. They eat meat but only as a condiment or a celebration. Nothing they eat has a plastic wrapper.
DAN BUETTNER

Homesteading is overrated. I have hesitated to come to that conclusion, but I am there now. The Gentle Reader might assume that the C-Man has sour grapes because his homesteading ambitions crashed and burned in the accident that damaged his brain. I am not into sour grapes. I am into reality. The reality is that homesteading is a fantasy life. Inevitably, homesteaders come to that conclusion on their own after failing at it. I just got there early because of a personal disaster that saved me from wasting time, money, and energy on a project I was too stupid to not pursue. I needed that smack in the head.

The first thing I need to get out of the way is a definition for a homestead. My first criteria for a homestead is acreage. If you have less than an acre, you don't have a homestead. Some people have backyard gardens and a chicken coop, but this is not a homestead. I might use the term "mini-stead" for this setup but only because of the chickens. Without the livestock, you are just a backyard gardener. A homestead has to be over an acre in size in my definition. It could be 2 acres, 10 acres, 40 acres, or more. The homestead demands land.

The second criteria for a homestead is animals. Homesteaders engage in meat based living. This is why they have chickens, goats, sheep, swine, and cattle. Without the animals, you are essentially a farmer growing crops or running an orchard. Farmers grow food to sell. But I am digressing. The homestead is 1+ acres and animals.

I am not into meat based living. I am into plant based living. Consequently, a homestead makes no sense for people like me. I think I was enthralled more with the options of doing a lot of work than being realistic. I have read that you only need an 8th of an acre of land to grow enough food to feed yourself. When you are a plant eater, you don't need a lot of land. You need a lot of land to sustain animals not people.

I have read a bit about the blue zones and the lifestyles of those people. This is my lifestyle currently. We live modestly, and we grow vegetables to supplement what we buy from the supermarket. My other inspiration is the victory garden movement of the First and Second World Wars where people started gardens to supplement what they bought from the store to help with the war movement. I have read that 40% of the nation's produce came from these victory gardens. I think that model shows that it makes sense to grow your own food.

One of the debates is whether or not it is cost effective to grow your own food versus buying it all from the grocery store. Clearly, store bought tomatoes are cheaper than homegrown, but homegrown tastes way better than anything you can get from the store. Gardening is also good exercise, so you can add not paying gym fees to your savings. I just know that my grandmother was a gardener for many years, and it made financial sense for her. She wasn't doing it for the fun of it.

Is gardening a hobby? The principal reason for pursuing a hobby is to have fun. Vegetable gardening is not fun. You would be better off hunting, fishing, and playing golf if you want to have fun. I see vegetable gardening as being in the class of chores along with lawn care and housecleaning. We see it as optional because of the supermarket and the fast food chain which is how hard work gets turned into a hobby. In an economic collapse, gardening probably won't be optional. I think we are just about there.

Homesteading is a hobby that turns into a nightmare as the financial strain and the immense labor beat you down. Homesteaders generally have gardens, but those animals are the source of the nightmare. You can let a garden go and come back to it in a season or two. Dead plants make good compost. Starving animals will bring the SPCA to your door. Animals always have to eat and be watered. Feeding them costs money. You can grow feed or buy feed, but the end result is that you are buying groceries to feed to your groceries. I don't see how this is financially sustainable. My suspicion is that many homesteaders work a day job and subsidize the animals with that income. It amounts to having pets that you can eat or sell for other people to eat. I think this is stupid. It definitely isn't fun.

Eating meat, dairy, and eggs is not healthy. My decade of plant based eating and reading have taught me that undeniable fact. I credit the plant based diet for not being on meds and not having Type 2 diabetes at 55. Because of my brain injury and exhaustion, I don't move enough. The yard and garden chores help to keep me moving. I manage one hour of labor outside per day except for rain days and Sundays. When I move, I feel better. When I don't move, it is catastrophic. My brain gives out before my body. It has taken a physical toll on me. That hour of daily movement is helping to keep me alive.

Plant based living has turned out to be very beneficial for me. I think other people including you, Gentle Reader, would be wise to follow this example for yourself by eating plant based and planting a backyard garden. My intention is to live this way until the Lord decides that I am done with this life.

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

Are Backyard Chickens Worth It? Why I Quit After 20 Years

My homestead was making me miserable

Is homesteading actually realistic?

The Real Reasons NOT To HOMESTEAD

Why Homesteading Doesn’t Work (And Why We Do It)

Is Homesteading Dying? Why The Popularity Has Declined Since 2020

Planning a Victory Garden

Join the Victory Garden Challenge

The Victory Garden (TV program)

9.27.2026

Why Minimalism Never Became Popular Or Permanent

Levi touched on soothing ourselves, like with Starbucks, in order to feel a brief moment of calm in all the chaos of the world. This is something we aren’t talking about. The corporations use the fear and chaos to make us consume more. Similar to “if it bleeds it leads”. The chaos caused by these corporations drives us to buy more in order to feel a small sense of control or calm or escape. It’s a loop that’s being exploited. And then we are made to feel guilty about it because we were the ones that “don’t have the self control” to not consume.
FROM THE COMBOX

This blog post is my response to this Matt D'Avella video:

Why minimalism didn't work

I like this video. The thing I appreciate about Matt D'Avella is that he thinks and reflects. I don't always agree with him, but I like that he thinks about these things. Minimalism is now looking like a fad as people go back to consumerism. But did they ever really leave consumerism? As for minimalism, some people still live that lifestyle, but it is like veganism. It is the choice of a stubborn minority going counter to the herd. Then, there are those who tried it for a season, and let it drop. I think the reason for the victory of consumerism over minimalism is found in the combox comment quoted above. Minimalism "failed" for the same reason a plant based diet fails. Bacon tastes good. Similarly, buying crap is fun. Living for today is fun. It is especially fun when tomorrow looks hopeless.

Minimalism is austerity. It is doing without. It is eschewing more in favor of living with less. This is not fun or pleasant. That is the bottom line. Matt's detour into income inequality, the excesses of the billionaire class, and his veiled call for some socialist redistribution scheme has nothing to do with minimalism. Prosperity does not lead to minimalism. Poverty apparently doesn't lead to minimalism either. It's like the Type 2 diabetic who is depressed over his poor health, so he consoles himself with a box of Krispy Kreme donuts. Likewise, the person under financial strain gets relief from buying crap the same way some folks used to find relief in cigarettes and cheap booze.

Minimalism or any other program of frugality makes more sense than mindless consumerism. Eating right and exercising makes more sense than sitting on the couch eating chips. Virtue will always be wiser than vice. But it cannot and never will be popular or permanent. And there is no political or economic scheme than can change this. The masses always pick the vices. The wise pick the virtues. Welcome to the human condition, Matt.

Most people find the virtue after paying the price of their vices. With minimalism, many people just got tired of the debt and stress of the consumerist lifestyle. As I am fond of repeating to the point of nausea, people don't respond to motivation but irritation. When you get to your fed up point, you make the change. I know that has been the case with me.

You can feel good for a moment, or you can stop feeling bad for a lifetime. That is the fundamental choice we all have to make. No one else can make that choice for us. As for creators promoting the minimalist lifestyle, your audience will persist and grow modestly for as long as minimalism remains the right answer for the problem. It can never be popular and not everyone is going to stick with it. But for those few who have had enough, you will have the answer they need. Just accept that you aren't going to be more popular or get rich from this "trend." This shouldn't matter to a true minimalist.

9.20.2026

Medium Is Beautiful

It is no easy task to find the middle in everything... but to do this to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for everyone, nor is it easy.
ARISTOTLE

You can be two sizes: You can be big, or you can be small. It's very hard to be medium.
JEFF BEZOS

The title of this post is a variation on the title of E.F. Schumacher's book, Small Is Beautiful. I really like that book and agree with many of its arguments and conclusions. Size does matter, but I find you can be too big but also be too small. No one really praises the virtues of the medium size. It is seen as the compromise. In a culture that loves extremes, medium is the red headed stepchild that gets no love. I love medium.

A great example of medium is beautiful is the United States Marine Corps. The US Army has almost 500,000 active personnel. It is the behemoth of the armed forces. The Air Force and the Navy have similar sizes. The Navy SEALs are approximately a little less than 3000 active personnel and represents less than 1% of the US Navy. Between these extremes is the Marine Corps with a little less than 200,000 active personnel. The Marines would be the medium sized force between the behemoth Army and the tiny SEAL force. Both SEALs and Marines belong to the US Navy, but they are their own things. Their respective sizes are assets for their respective missions.

I am fond of the Marine Corps precisely because they are not as big as the other branches. Consequently, they eschew attrition warfare in favor of maneuver warfare. The Marines punch above their weight class and give opposing forces major headaches. I like that sort of thing. Because they are medium, they are the tip of the spear. They can move rapidly into a combat situation while the Army is still putting on its boots. Unlike the SEALs with their surgical strike missions, the Marines just maul the hell out of the enemy. They have enough size to get the job done.

A similar example of medium is the caliber debate. 9 mm is the small caliber. It is easy to shoot and increases magazine capacity. It is not effective as a bullet as I've watched videos of police officers trying to take out perps with this round, and it didn't go well. The 10mm is the big caliber and will take down a grizzly bear. The problem is that it is so big that the recoil is difficult to manage and the penetration may extend beyond the body to an innocent bystander. You want that penetration for a large animal but not for a human being. The compromise round is the 40 S&W. It gets no love but occupies the sweet spot between small and big. It was popular for a time with the FBI, the US Marshals, and other law enforcement agencies but has lost that popularity. I think this is a real shame. It's not easy being medium.

The real estate market is another area where I see the same thing taking place. At the large end of the spectrum, you have McMansions that are between 3000 and 5000 square feet. On the small end of the spectrum, you have tiny homes that are 100 to 400 square feet. The tiny home movement was a response to the McMansion craze and skyrocketing housing prices. The medium size would be the ranch style homes they built in the 1980s that are between 1000 and 2500 square feet typically. I believe those medium sized homes are awesome. They are not too big and not too small. They are just right. Goldilocks would be happy in a ranch house.

I remember trying to sell the wife on the idea of living in a tiny home, and she impolitely informed me that she was not shitting in a bucket. (Tiny homes generally use a composting toilet design which is a bucket full of sawdust and poop.) Her telling me this put me on the path to medium sized living. She didn't need to live in a palace, but she did insist on living in the first world not the third world.

I go for the medium size on everything now. When I get a drink from Taco Bell, I pick the medium size cup. We own medium sized vehicles not tiny bubble cars or Sherman tank SUVs and trucks. We don't watch movies on large screen TV sets or on the small screen of a smartphone. We have medium sized screens on our portable DVD player, the PC, and our Chromebooks. My portion size for food is enough to cure my hunger but not more than that. I am not into feasting anymore. My wardrobe is neither minimalist nor maximalist.

I am not sure where the extremist impulse comes from. My wife and I both agree that this extremism is a very American phenomenon. I confess to being an extremist on various things at certain points in my life. Now, I strive to be as boring as I can which means going for the medium size in everything. In this way, I am living the Golden Mean of Aristotle and Aquinas. The hardest part of this lifestyle is having to think about it. The luxury of extremism is that you don't have to think about it at all. More is more. Less is more. Medium is something else.

UPDATE: I remember geeking out a bit on the topic of body type. What is the ideal type of body for a man? Is it the skeletal frame of a marathoner or the bulked out wall of meat of a bodybuilder? Plus, I don't see being excessively tall as being an asset anywhere outside of the NBA. Some douchebag corporate types might use height as some kind of intimidation strategy, but that psychology doesn't work on me.

I concluded that the ideal body type for a man is between 5 foot 5 inches to 6 foot tall on the height thing and between 180 to 220 for the weight thing. A guy shouldn't be a midget or a giant. He shouldn't be skinny or fat. He needs to be solid in the muscle department. Guys like Joe Rogan, Mike Tyson, and Jack LaLanne have that ideal body type in my estimation. I was inclined to include rugby players, but they are on the tall side.

What hit me is that these guys are medium. They are in the middle when it comes to height, weight, and muscle composition. There are some things you can't change in life like your height. But you can change your weight and muscle composition to a certain extent. To that extent, I think men should aim to be medium. Medium is beautiful.

9.13.2026

Charlie's Three Recurring Themes

Obviously I have one theme, and it's even in the book I'm working on right now. It's not that I have such original ideas, just that I'm good at doing variations on the same idea over and over again.
JONATHAN COTT

I write about many and various topics here at the C-Blog. This comes from a decision many years ago to not confine myself to one of those single topic type blogs. For instance, I could have wrote about minimalism or politics or religion. Why not write about all of these things? Why live in service to a single thing? Obviously, there is more to life than a single topic, so I write about anything and everything. Along the way, I noticed three recurring themes in my writing, and I share them here.

1. Overrated/Underrated

A good portion of my life and thinking is spent separating hype from reality. I'm not sure when or where this began, but my life is a story of being fooled by the overrated thing until I discover the underrated thing. The most recent example I can give is my evolved understanding of fitness. I will share the story.

I took up running for fitness in college and continued it into my twenties until my 12 hour work days put an end to that madness. In my late thirties, I flirted with taking it up again, but I had a Haglund's deformity on my right heel that put the brake on that project. I still have that deformity today, but my walking routine has caused zero aggravation there. I would prefer to not get the required surgery for that thing. But I digress. . .

As a Knight of Columbus, I volunteered to help out on a color run for the pro-life cause. It was a run/walk thing, and I think it was just a 5K. I remember running 5Ks in my twenties, and I felt bad for being fat and out of shape. I envied the runners in the event while being amused by the housewife walkers wearing FitBits and pushing baby strollers. In my mind, the ones who were running were the real athletes while the walkers were just pretenders. It was OK because it was all for a good cause. Today, I think running is overrated while walking is underrated. The walkers had it right while the runners were idiots. How did I get here?

After my accident and TBI, I had to learn how to walk again. I still have trouble in this area, but I am committed to walking as my primary fitness activity. In doing this, I did some research on walking and accidentally came across the profound benefits of a simple walk. I never knew them. I regret that it took a TBI to make me appreciate the value of walking, and I wish I had spent my running years dedicated to walking for fitness. I would have stuck with that because I enjoy it more.

My advice to people is to switch from reading Runner's World and pick up Prevention magazine instead. There is no dedicated walking magazine, but Prevention comes closest. The irony is that both magazines were published by Rodale who later sold to Hearst. Runner's World is the hype man for running which is how you get so many people doing this overrated activity. I now think running is generally bad for you, and you are better off with walking.

That story is emblematic of so many things I changed my mind about in life. I took the bait of the hype until I wised up. Consequently, I question everything from conventional wisdom to consumer products to lifestyle choices to see what other overrated things I have swallowed in my ignorance. Then, they become material for my blog posts.

2. Confidence/Unintimidation

As I studied up on overrated things, I noticed a certain pattern emerging among men. I noticed guys would go for some hyped overrated thing not based on facts but on how it made them feel as men. Lacking a better term, I chose "confidence" as my descriptor for this. For instance, a man wearing a leather biker jacket is going to feel more confidence in a bar than if he entered the same establishment wearing a Mr. Rodgers sweater. Nevermind that he might feel a bit colder and chillier in the process. If you dress like a bad ass, you will feel like a bad ass. But are you really a bad ass? That's where unintimidation comes in. A bad ass knows he is a bad ass and has no problems wearing the sweater because he knows what he knows. The jacket does not make you a bad ass, and the sweater does not change that you are a bad ass.

Men with an unintimidation mindset don't care about such silly things. Men with a confidence mindset do care about those silly things. My best example of confidence versus unintimidation is the Jeep versus the old pickup truck. Men desperate to feel confidence will buy an expensive Jeep with all of the accoutrements for offroading except they probably never leave the pavement. When they do leave the pavement, they tend to flip these things over in the backcountry on group rides and whine about the damage to their overpriced vehicles. I despise Jeeps and the idiocy of the Jeep subculture. But confidence comes from a place of desperation. They blow a lot of money on this vanity because it makes them feel good as men.

I am down with a good old fashioned pickup truck. I like seeing an old square body Dodge truck from the 1970s at Lowe's or Home Depot. That is a real man's truck. The real man is usually an old man with gray hair, but he doesn't care what you think about him. He knows what he is and doesn't need to pretend or try to impress other people. He is just a blue collar working man who uses his truck for work and not play. Those types of men have my undying respect and admiration, and I aspire to be just like them. They are my heroes in life. If Saint Joseph was here with us, he would be driving that old Dodge. He certainly wouldn't be in an impractical Jeep.

3. The G.U.T.

My Grand Unifying Theory is my belief that every endeavor in life has a simple and effective strategy. It could be a plan of action or a useful tool or whatnot. What makes men embrace these simple strategies is unintimidation. What makes them reject these strategies is a loss of confidence usually from falling prey to some hype.

My best example I can give of the G.U.T. is my style of writing. I write simple sentences. I know big words and adjectives, but I choose not to use them. I am influenced by Strunk and White and the writing style of Ernest Hemingway. Ultimately, writing is communication. Simple writing is effective writing. If you keep it simple, you will communicate better. To me, it is a no-brainer.

I had a friend in college who was struggling to pass his English class. He was a pharmacy major, and this English class was one of those classes that everyone had to pass to get the degree. He was great at subjects like chemistry, but he couldn't write well at all. He made F's on his English papers and papers for other classes because he couldn't write.

I agreed to tutor him at no charge because he was a friend. His problem was that he was trying to sound brilliant in his papers, but he didn't have the skill set to pull it off. He was trying to do literary acrobatics, but he couldn't stand on one foot without falling over. I pointed out to him that he only needed to stand on the one foot. Leave the acrobatics to the circus performers.

I had my friend simplify his writing to the most extreme level possible. The sentences sounded like something from Dick and Jane. But I knew what I was doing. His next paper got an A. The professor was so impressed by the paper that she had him read it aloud to the class. His classmates gave him the nickname "Hemingway." He made A's on every paper after that until the end of the semester. Then, he got stupid. He went back to writing in his old way because that felt "smarter" or whatever. He got a big fat F on that paper. The A's on the previous papers gave him a C average for the semester allowing him to move on in his academic career towards a pharmacy degree.

When I give someone a strategy, I know they will get the same results that I do. I took an F student to an A student. His desire for confidence took him from an A back to an F. It's the same way that Wilt Chamberlain became a good free throw shooter with the granny shot but went back to being an awful free throw shooter because he didn't want to use a "sissy" technique that was an effective strategy. I can't help men like this. They are too stupid to be reached.

I am always finding things that follow my Grand Unifying Theory. One of those is lasagna gardening. Another is index fund investing. Another is Krav Maga. I can usually find the G.U.T. strategy in an endeavor or create one. There may be better ways, but I am no good at sophisticated strategies. It has to be simple for me. Being a TBI survivor has made that even more important for me. I am never going to win at chess. I can win at checkers.

Conclusion

These three themes go together in a sort of package deal. That was not my intention, but I find myself going through these things over and over again in a mutually reinforcing pattern. Ultimately, I rejected overrated things that seek confidence in favor of underrated things based in unintimidation which yields a solution that fits into my Grand Unifying Theory. This is my whole life in a nutshell. When these themes recur in future posts, you will know my way of thinking. My way and thinking is not for everyone, and I don't really care. I just stick with honesty, simplicity, and humility. I am too old and damaged now to change my path on this.

9.06.2026

Schism Is Not An Option

It is well known that I am ready to obey apostolical commands with filial affection, and all devotion and reverence, but to those things which are opposed to apostolical commands I, in my zeal for the honor of my parent, am also opposed… In a filial and obedient spirit I disobey, I refuse, I rebel.
BISHOP GROSSETESTE

This post is in response to this Sensus Fidelium homily:

Can Catholics Reject the Pope? SSPX, Schism & Catholic Unity

I agree with what the priest said regarding the SSPX being in schism along with the sedevacantists and anyone else who goes down that road. For these people, schism is an option. Schismatics are always looking for the exit. They are not looking to remain in the Roman Catholic Church but to find their way out. The reasons for their exit are irrelevant. What they forget is that schism is not an option. Once you have that truth placed firmly in your mind, it clears up a great deal of controversy and confusion.

Where I disagree with the priest is him equating the position of Athanasius Schneider known as "recognize and resist" to be schismatic. I am fully on board with recognizing and resisting. This is not schism. Was Saint Paul in schism when he recognized Peter as the Vicar of Christ but resisted him to the face? Clearly, we have had bad popes, and it is not schism to point out that they were bad popes. To deny they are bad is to do damage to common sense and reason.

This priest is afflicted with hyperpapalism. Like the sedevacantists, he concludes that a pope can never err. For the sedes, this means the erring bishop in white is not truly the Pope. For idiots like this priest, he concludes that the pope never errs, so the error must be in one's personal judgments and observations. This know-nothing papal maximalism is why so many scoff at the idiocy and lack of common sense of certain Catholics.

Folks, when Francis declared the death penalty to be inadmissible, he was wrong. When he worshiped the Pachamama demon, he was wrong. When he opened communion to adulterers, he was wrong. No leap of logic can make him right. When a pope differs from his predecessors and Catholic teaching, he is in error. I don't know how else to put it.

The options put before us are to be either schismatics or blockheads. This is what this blockhead priest is preaching in this homily. I reject both of these options. I will continue to remain Roman Catholic and continue to recognize and resist.

********

Can Catholics “Recognize and Resist”?

Archbishop Lefebvre, SSPX & Church Unity | Can Tradition Justify Disobedience?

8.30.2026

Wired Headphones

I never stopped but i wish phones had headphone jacks again
FROM THE COMBOX

This blog post is a collection of my thoughts regarding this trend:

Why Everyone Is Wearing Wired Headphones (again)

The first thing I have to ask is this. Is this really a trend? I suspect that many people didn't take the bait on the wireless headphones but capitulated to the workaround with the dongle while still using wired headphones. I don't have any stats regarding this, so I don't know. I just know that I am not a smartphone owner much less a user of wireless headphones. I do use wired headphones for my Walkman, and their only drawback is the wire when it gets tangled or gets snatched from your ears. Otherwise, wired headphones are pure win. Why would anyone switch to wireless?

The problems with wireless headphones are multiple. They are expensive. They get lost easily which makes them even more expensive. They have to be charged on a regular basis and stop working without the charge. Then, you have to pair them to your device with Bluetooth which has its own headaches. That's a lot of inconvenience and drawbacks for the sake of not dealing with a wire. Why did people switch?

The wireless option was there for a long time, but it got forced on people when they deleted the headphone jack from the smartphones. The iPhone was first followed by the Android phones. The result was that they were suddenly able to sell wireless headphones that no one really wanted. Wireless headphones and the loss of the headphone jack are just a scam to make people buy expensive crap they don't want or need.

If this return to wired headphones is truly a trend, it is a good thing. It is a return to common sense. It is nature healing itself. I believe that common sense does prevail in the long term, but it can be a long time before that happens. In the meantime, keep that dongle handy.

Why does it matter?

This story is merely a tidbit in the macrocosm of all things tech. The reason I think it matters is because it highlights a pattern that I have seen repeated in the culture and in my own life. This is where a sophisticated solution comes along to solve a problem that isn't really a problem. The new solution persists for a bit until people become fed up and go backwards to the simpler solution they had before. My recent issues with the Kindle is a great example of this. Another example is the story I read about a Gen Xer who bought a personal digital assistant in the 1990s to replace his physical address book. It worked well until the batteries died. When he replaced the batteries, he discovered all of his contacts in the device had been lost. He was better off with the physical address book and returned to that.

Recently, I heard a bit of snark on the radio as they bragged on a promo for the station about how they were providing us with music for free. There was no recurring monthly charge to your bank account like you would get with a Spotify subscription. I am glad that terrestrial radio is slamming back on this subscription streaming crap. Those recurring charges are why SiriusXM has not been adopted more widely outside of the world of long haul truck drivers. This is why I think terrestrial radio will persist like physical books. It is already the best solution for most people.

The simple gets replaced with the sophisticated until people return to the simple once more. I am seeing this beginning in the backlash against touchscreens in cars as people realize that physical buttons are safer and more convenient than tapping on glass with the ensuing distraction that demands. Some car makers are already moving back on this. Even Apple has started adding back physical buttons to its iPhone. I think the headphone jack will also come back at some point in the future. I can't make the same case for flip phones, but I am pleased that they persist in the smartphone era.

8.23.2026

When A Man Lives His Dream, Everyone Else Lives The Nightmare

And father said "I never wanted this. I'm sick of everyone pretending to be old Dan Beavers in his L. L. Bean moccasins, and his Dubbelwares, and his Japanese bucksaw -- all these fake frontiersmen with their chuck wagons full of Twinkies and Wonderbread and aerosol cheese spread. Get out the Duraflame log and the plastic cracker barrel, Dan, and let's talk self-sufficiency!”
PAUL THEROUX, The Mosquito Coast

Dreams follow many cares: and in many words shall be found folly.
ECCLESIASTES 5:2 DOUAY-RHEIMS

I have never read The Mosquito Coast or watched the movie with Harrison Ford. They are both on my reading and watching lists, but I am slow at getting around to these things. I just know that it is a story about an eccentric dad who has a crazy dream and ends up putting his family through hell in pursuit of that dream. Allie Fox is one part genius and one part madman. Unfortunately, he also exists in the real world as a certain type of man who thinks nothing of hurting his family in the pursuit of his dream.

A man finds fulfillment only as a sacrifice. Man is meant to serve others. When a man lives and functions in this servant mode, he is at his best. When a man lives in the selfish mode, he is a disgrace and a failure. Many if not most men live in the selfish mode today.

The servant man looks to Jesus and Saint Joseph as his models of masculinity. He has no dreams that he is chasing. He simply wishes to work and serve His Lord and the people in his life. He may have gifts, but these gifts are meant to serve. They are not hobbies to be indulged for personal satisfaction or the fulfillment of the ego. These are the domain of the selfish man.

Many men are unaware that they are the selfish men. They may even tell themselves that they are doing this for their wives and children. One look at their faces tells a different story. Daddy is living his dream while they are hostages along for the ride they never wanted to take. I've seen wives try and go along with their husband's wishes in a desire to see him happy. Inevitably, this can't last. When a woman finds that she is pulling all the weight in the household while her husband is living the dream, she is out.

What do these selfish men look like? They come in all varieties. One type is the man that writes, paints, or plays music as his wife slaves to support him until he finds his big break in his artisitic endeavors. For a handful, this big break does happen followed by dumping the loyal wife and marrying a trophy wife. For the vast majority, the man's dream never pains out. He is simply a talented bum escaping the reality of working for a living.

Another type is the man devoted to his leisure sports and hobbies. This is the man who spends all of his non-working hours in a deer stand, a fishing boat, or a golf cart. Or, he spends all of his time and money on various toys like Jeeps, lifted trucks, boats, ATVs, motorcycles, Corvettes, and on and on. He is heavily indebted to the bank and the finance company, and his labor is devoted to making those bankers rich. All of this is for the sake of the dream.

There is the man with the homestead who strives to live off-grid and separated from the decadent world like Mr. Douglas on Green Acres. This is great if the family is on board with the program. Unfortunately, I've seen many that didn't share the same passion and dream as the man. His dream of alternative living comes at a price he didn't foresee. You can witness this by watching the men getting blindsided by divorce papers on YouTube homesteading channels.

For most of human history, men did what they did out of necessity. They farmed or worked in the factory to feed their families. Others pursued lucrative professions like medicine or dentistry for the same reason. Men are designed to produce more than they need for their own personal needs and consumption. Men are good at this. They are built to be providers.

This necessity lessened with the prosperity of the 20th century. Men found themselves with leisure time and began to indulge the unnecessary things in life. Eventually, those unnecessary things became the focus of the man's life. He goes from unwinding on the golf course to trying to make the PGA tour. He goes from casting a fishing line off the dock to buying expensive boats and entering fishing tournaments. Or, his job becomes a vehicle for workaholism as he pursues his career ambitions to the neglect of his family.

Men shouldn't have dreams. That may sound harsh and extreme, but I think I am on firm ground in this matter. It is OK to have things meant for relaxation and recreation. These help restore a man in his service to others. But the line is crossed when he goes from being a sacrifice for others to sacrificing others.

How does a man avoid becoming the selfish man? Being religious helps. God wants a man to be virtuous and will help him in this regard. Being poor also helps because most dreams come from a place of prosperity. For those who are not so poor, they should live as if they are poor in the practice of voluntary poverty. Finally, the man should look at his family and ask himself if he is serving them well or simply making them serve him.

The bottom line is that the ultimate way to avoid being the selfish man is to get rid of those dreams. Get them out of your head. Become a man without ambition. You will see this flies in the face of all the popular advice and conventional wisdom to pursue your passions. Almost all of these passions involve selling you a bunch of unnecessary things. Instead of buying that ATV, buy a good lawnmower instead. Instead of buying a Jeep, buy yourself a good pickup truck instead. Instead of buying those golf clubs, buy yourself some hand tools for fixing things around the house. Make hard work your sport and hobby. Otherwise, live a simple life in service to God, family, and country. In this path, you will find the fulfillment you are seeking in your dreams. It is when we lose ourselves that we find ourselves.

8.16.2026

Zone 2 Training / Exercise As Medicine

DISCLAIMER: I am not a doctor, personal trainer, or healthcare professional. These are just my opinions. Consult a physician before starting any exercise program.

If we could give every individual the right amount of nourishment and exercise, not too little and not too much, we would have found the safest way to health.
HIPPOCRATES

Zone 2 is defined as training at 60-70% of your maximum heart rate. A slow jog or a brisk walk achieves the requirement for Zone 2 training. Experts recommend doing 180 minutes or 3 hours per week of Zone 2 training comprising 60-80% of training volume. Zone 2 training has become the rage among the exercise community, and I can understand why. I believe the human body was designed and optimized for Zone 2 training because it is what you do when you walk or work in the garden. I don't think the human body does well when it goes beyond Zone 2 for long, and it certainly doesn't do well below Zone 2. How do I know this? I've done both. Neither a sedentary nor an intensely aerobic lifestyle were good for me. I hit the sweet spot with a daily walk of an hour at the Zone 2 level.

I think brisk walking and doing manual labor in the yard and garden are the best forms of Zone 2 training. It is virtually impossible to overdo it. This is in contrast to Matt D'Avella's 30 day experiment with Zone 2 training:

I tried zone 2 training for 30 days (what I learned)

One of the things I find annoying about Matt D'Avella is how he can do something for 30 days and learn absolutely nothing. He did this with 10,000 steps and using a dumbphone. After 30 days, he goes back to where he was before like a dog returning to its vomit. These videos represent stunts for clicks. But what I found interesting was Matt's struggle to stay under the threshold for Zone 2 training as he jogged and rode a stationary bicycle. I think if you have to wear a heart rate monitor to remain in Zone 2 then you are doing it wrong. This is why I think walking is the better way to go. Unless you are doing that contorted race walking thing, I don't think you can walk yourself out of Zone 2.

I have really taken to the idea of exercise as medicine. As with any medicine, it comes down to taking the proper dosage. Too little is ineffective while too much is deleterious. This flies in the face of the conventional wisdom that you can never exercise too much. As I pointed out in these two previous blog posts, you can overdo exercise:

The Tragedy of Micah True

How We Got The Extreme Path Of Fitness

I don't know the precise point when exercise becomes too much, but that point exists. People in the marathoner/ultramarathoner category certainly qualify with the evidence of cardiovascular damage and increased risk of colon cancer. I remember reading that the conventional wisdom among doctors in the seventies was that you can overdo running, hurt yourself, and damage your health. The runners of the running boom set out to prove those doctors wrong. After all these decades, I think the running boomers have proven those original doctors right. This is an interesting study:

Dose of Jogging and Long-Term Mortality: The Copenhagen City Heart Study

And here is the interesting bit:

The findings suggest a U-shaped association between all-cause mortality and dose of jogging as calibrated by pace, quantity, and frequency of jogging. Light and moderate joggers have lower mortality than sedentary nonjoggers, whereas strenuous joggers have a mortality rate not statistically different from that of the sedentary group.

It seems that leaving that sweet spot of moderate jogging and going into the strenuous zone decreases lifespan. Basically, an ultramarathoner or a marathoner at an elite level lives no longer than a couch surfer.

Why run? Clearly, you can get the same benefits from walking though it may take more time. The supreme benefit of walking is that it is more pleasant and more gentle on the body. This makes it a more sustainable activity as people tend to stick with things they enjoy instead of hate. This brings us to the knee question.

The conventional wisdom is that running is bad for the knees. Research indicates this is not the case. I think this research is prone to survivorship bias as runners with bad knees tend to give up running and remove themselves from the pool of surviving runners. This leaves the outliers who run without significant damage. What if there was a runner stupid enough to severely damage his knees and keep on running? That runner exists. That runner is David Goggins:

Joe Rogan on Goggins’ Knee Injuries

David Goggins talks about his knee problem

There are some crazy folks out there who admire David Goggins's dedication to running. I just appreciate that the guy has made a human guinea pig out of himself to make my anecdotal point that running is bad for your knees. Then, there is Scott Douglas on the topic:

Nobody Knows How Many Runners Get Injured
And nobody knows what “extreme exercise” means.

Scott got injured from running. It was a nasty injury requiring surgery. Here is a telling quotation:

Having one seems kind of important for what might literally be a matter of life and death. Yet if you look through the research on the topic, what counts as extreme exercise is all over the place. Sometimes it’s years of running, sometimes it’s volume or duration, sometimes it’s intensity, sometimes it’s some combination of volume and intensity and duration, sometimes it’s number of marathons and/or ultramarathons and/or triathlons, and so on.

This vagueness just won’t do, given the presumed goal of providing public health guidance. How are we to know if we’re even in the pool of at-risk individuals, much less whether this is something to act upon?

The whole article is worth reading because you see a man forced to consider the possibility that he is overdoing it because he has seriously hurt himself and has some troubling issues with his heart. Faced with the prospect of giving up running, Douglas falls back to the "vagueness" argument you might hear from an alcoholic in denial. How many drinks is too much? Since no one seems able to draw a hard and sharp line on the matter, the extreme is still the way to go. Personally, I would see that line of stitches on my ankle as the hard and sharp line telling me to rethink things.

The problem as I see it is that sedentary people eschew exercise because they believe falsely that they have to train for and run marathons for it to count. Conversely, dedicated runners are too afraid to cut back or give up running in favor of walking as if they are going to miss out on additional benefits like they are forfeiting lottery winnings. These extremes of sedentary and excess overlook the benefits of a moderate program of exercise as recommended by the research and health professionals going back to Hippocrates.

Moderation is not a popular prescription especially in the United States. Americans are peculiarly given to extremism. I think this comes from equating extremism with greatness. Here is Navy SEAL Jocko Willink on the topic:

Accept That Some People are Okay With Being Mediocre

Being "mediocre" is a bad thing. The issue here is that moderation is equated with being mediocre. Jocko says that he sleeps 5.5 hours a night where 8 hours is the moderate amount. Sleep deprivation equals success. Success requires "extreme ownership." Naturally, this sells well to Corporate America (Jocko's clients, Echelon Front) trying to motivate their salaried employees to "greatness." It is strange how this greatness corresponds perfectly with their greed. But I digress. . .

I doubt that Jocko reads Aquinas, Aristotle, or Hippocrates and their call to neither deficiency nor excess. I have personally been on various paths of extremes, and they never end in a good place. I suppose I am now on a path of extreme moderation in all things. Moderation is not mediocrity. It is common sense. Common sense is an endangered species in today's world of extremes, but I know that common sense never dies. It always makes a comeback when people realize their errors. With exercise, a moderate dose is what the doctor ordered.

UPDATE: I came across this great quotation:

Walking five miles a day or more provides the type of low-intensity exercise that yields all the cardiovascular benefits you might expect, but it also has a positive effect on muscles and bones - without the joint-pounding damage caused by running marathons or triathlons.
DAN BUETTNER

I also came across this great YouTube video that gives updated information on the things I've been sharing here at the C-Blog in regard to endurance exercise:

More Exercise = More Plaque

One of the issues with these studies is the lack of information on diet and nutrition. The tragic death of Jim Fixx showed that you can't outrun a bad diet. But from what I have gathered, you can overdo exercise, and extreme exercise does not improve health but damages it. Once again, it comes down to the dosage. Moderate exercise is the way to go.

8.09.2026

Capitulation Strategies

Game over, man!
PRIVATE HICKS, Aliens

At this stage of the game, I am known as a late resistor to new technology. The flip phone I carry on purpose is the biggest sign of my attitude to tech. I am not a Luddite, but I fight the good fight. But you also need to know when to quit. I don't own an 8 track player or a VCR. Those two things represent the sad fact of tech extinction. It happens and will happen again. Here are my strategies for dealing with these extinctions when they come.

1. The Kindle/ebooks

I have already written about this one. Amazon has bricked their old pre-2012 devices to try and force people like me to buy a new device to be similarly bricked at a future date. Long before this, my wife convinced me to eschew paying for ebooks and buy physical books instead because she knew where it was all going to end. She was right. If you can't hold it in your hand, you don't own it.

I have capitulated on this and only buy physical books now. You can't brick physical books. As for my Kindle, it will keep working as long as I don't factory reset it. I can still use it, but I can't add to it without jailbreaking it. As for a battery swap, I am not going to waste my time on this. When it dies, I will bury the thing along with my regrets over buying it. We had a good run.

2. OAB TV

I have already written about my TV issues. Basically, my over-the-air broadcast dumb TV gave up the ghost. I was scheming to avoid buying a smart TV and getting another dumb TV. I am against smart TVs, Roku, paid streaming services, etc. Then, I heard about ATSC 3.0 which is a scheme by television broadcasters to go to a new standard that allows them to encrypt their broadcasts and demand a fee to watch the programs. Why would I ever pay for this?

I realize now that free broadcast TV is mortally wounded. Why waste money on a new set that I am never going to watch? My capitulation strategy was to buy a portable DVD player and return to watching physical media again. The wife enjoys free streaming content on Pluto, Tubi, YouTube, and Internet Archive. We do not pay for streaming subscription services like Netflix. For the DVD player, we have collected old movies and TV shows. We have more content than time to watch this stuff. I am also not a big fan of visual content as it fatigues my damaged brain.

I recommend that people measure how much they watch or could watch against what is available to possibly watch. They should have a meter for this like a water meter or an electric meter. The reality is that there is more content in existence now than you could ever consume in your lifetime. This is why I cut out cable TV over a decade ago in favor of OAB TV. As you can see, the empire strikes back later with streaming and ATSC 3.0.

Yes, the content today is atrocious and not worth watching. You aren't missing anything. But once in awhile, they make something good. I just buy the DVD. I don't have a capitulation strategy for the end of DVDs.

When I run out of stuff to watch, I will reconsider my resistance. That day is a long way off. As for ATSC 3.0, I expect it to fail spectacularly, but the damage will be irreversible.

Charlie's TV Issues

3. Blogger

I know that no Google service lasts forever. I learned this with the end of the beloved Google Reader. My capitulation strategy was to go to Feedly and Inoreader. I also learned to restrict myself to the free limit of the RSS readers and to subscribe to email newsletters to keep posted on my favorite sites. That was my capitulation strategy for that.

Blogger is how I publish to the world. I don't use social media or Substack. When Blogger ends, I will write longhand in notebooks that I have stored for this inevitability. I don't care so much about being read. I just know that I have to write. People wrote before the internet. They wrote longhand and with typewriters. Some were published while others were not. I have to remind myself that I am a writer. Being a blogger is a matter of publishing. Returning to absolute obscurity is something I would actually like. Whatever happens, I will keep scratching the writing itch.

4. The flip phone

I don't know how long I can keep using a flip phone. I hate smartphones, but the day is coming like with 8 track players when that option will vanish. I am fighting it hard, but I can't guarantee victory.

I hate the form factor of a smartphone, but they have some models that fold like my flip phone. They are expensive and not quite there yet. But I am inclined in that direction. The thing has to fold and fit in my shirt pocket. I am old and crusty like that.

I also hate the distracting nature of smartphones, but I have learned from the digital minimalism and dumbphone reddits that you can dumb down a smartphone to essential features. I would certainly do that. I recommend it to anyone who can't make the jump to a full dumbphone but still want to get their lives back.

The last thing is tactile buttons. I like buttons. I liked the old Blackberry devices for this reason alone, and I was sad to see them go down like they did. I hate tapping on touchscreen devices. This is why I use a Chromebook or a PC over an iPad or Android tablet device. Give me my buttons and keys!

I love my flip phone, and I pray that option never goes away. Seeing them experience a resurgence in popularity gives me hope that I never have to capitulate on this one. But I have a plan.

5. Terrestrial radio

This is the one that I think about the least because I think terrestrial radio has staying power. It has survived SirusXM satellite radio and the iPod. The only challenge now is in car streaming or using streaming over a smartphone. The simple fact is that people love turning on the radio especially during the morning and evening commutes. I don't see that going away.

AM radio might die. It was already dying when FM caught on, but it found new life with talk radio. People don't like static on the radio. Steely Dan even made a song about it. I live with the static because I am a radio nerd. I have heard stories about digital on the AM dial, but I think that idea is DOA as no one has gone out to get HD Radios for the digital offerings on the FM dial. I know I didn't get one.

Like with the OAB TV thing, the secret dream is to get listeners to pay some kind of subscription fee for the content they are getting now for free. They can try, and they will fail. I don't have a capitulation strategy for the end of terrestrial radio. I reckon I will enjoy the silence.

Conclusion

Those are my capitulation strategies for the end of some of my preferred tech options. What I have learned is that the only mistake is to give up the fight early. This is what I did with my iPod and my Kindle. I went with the new thing that didn't last. The answer to those disasters was to dial it back to the older and better options which were the Walkman and the physical book. As for the 8 track and the VCR, I didn't miss them when they went extinct. I stopped buying vinyl when cassettes came out, but I am happy to see that those two formats are still surviving. The bottom line is to never be hasty on these things. You have time which can be decades before you have to throw in the towel. You're not beaten until you're beaten.

8.02.2026

Q & A 3

Do something even if it's wrong.
ANDREW LOURA
 
Do I need an intro for these Q & A posts? Not really. You know the program by now. Here is the third edition.

Q: What do you think of the trend of fake trends?

A: The short answer is that journalists have run out of things to report. A fake trend is where you have what amounts to a human interest story like someone still writing with a manual typewriter or still using a flip phone in a world full of smartphones or eating a vegan diet and then conflating that into some popular thing picking up steam and taking over the world. The problem is that it isn't true. They are lying about something that is interesting for the moment but amounts to absolutely nothing. Why not let it be a human interest story? Why lie about it being a bigger deal than what it is?

Q: Is Medjugorje legit?

A: I don't think so, and I don't waste my time on the "apparitions" there. I think some grifters have made a nice little industry for themselves with this thing, and the dirty hierarchy tolerates it because I suspect they get a cut of the action. This is one of the things that needs to be cleared out with the next purge.

Q: What happened to the Blue Collar Ph.D.?

A: The Blue Collar Ph.D. began as an idea on a cocktail napkin while having a discussion with a welder who spent half of each year fully employed and the other half unemployed relative to the demands for his skills. I mentioned to him a fellow from my welding class in high school who was great at welding but decided to learn tool and die making after leaving high school. The combination of being a welder and a machinist greatly expanded his employability. That was the genesis of the idea behind the Blue Collar Ph.D.

I wondered to myself what would happen if someone decided against going to college but spent that same amount of time compiling a basket of blue collar skills. I thought this would be cheaper, better, and more lucrative than getting a typically worthless degree from State U.

I made a drawing on the napkin of a full portfolio of skills that resembled an investment portfolio. Each section was like an asset class. Instead of cash, stocks, bonds, and metals, I put down equipment operation, industrial skills, construction, and automotive. Welding was under the industrial skills set while carpentry was under the construction skills. Imagine a plumber with a CDL who could also weld and build a deck for the back of your home and work on your car. That guy will always have a job somewhere.

The flaw in the Blue Collar Ph.D. idea is the atrophy of skills from disuse. I employed the idea at my workplace by diversifying my skill set with cross training. The problem came with the desire of management to force you into specialization. They wanted you to do one thing well not do three or four things competently. This specialization increased productivity but also increased risk. When someone called in sick, they had no one to fill that hole except yours truly. Management optimized for the best scenario. I prepared for the worst case scenario. Needless to say, I won that bet time and time again because shit happens.

I made it my goal to "complete" the Blue Collar Ph.D., but those plans ended with my accident. The Achilles heel of that strategy is that every job depends upon your good health and functioning. I don't have a strategy for being old, sick, and injured. But if you are able bodied, I highly recommend the Blue Collar Ph.D. as a strategy for always being employable. Being consistently employed is better than being lucratively employed on an inconsistent basis.

Q: What dumbphone do you recommend?

A: I am not wedded to any particular brand of phone, but I am wedded to a particular type of phone. This would be a robust flip phone like the Kyocera DuraXV I got from Verizon. It cost me 300 bones which is pricey for a dumbphone, but I have to use a phone that will last and take a beating. My last phone lasted 7 years which is about 40 bucks per year. It was still working and could go on indefinitely except for new batteries. But it was 3G and outlasted the network. I expect my current phone to do the same.

The reason I recommend a flip phone over a candy bar phone or touchscreen phone is to prevent the dreaded butt dial. I switched to a flip phone in the aughts because of the butt dial. I was surprised that smartphones brought it back. Additionally, the clam shell design helps make the phone more robust and resistant to damage. Plus, it is very satisfying to close at the end of a call.

I am not a fan of the hybrid dumbphone/smartphone. Some new flip phones have apps preloaded like Facebook and allow you to use a web browser. This runs counter to using a dumbphone for digital minimalism. I like the basic functions of voice and text. I like having a calculator on the phone which represents the "app" I use the most. But I keep it as dumb as possible.

Q: Why do they build ugly churches now?

A: The architecture of a church makes a theological statement. Churches of a Calvinist/Puritan strain tend towards the plain. Traditional Roman Catholic churches tend towards the ornate and beautiful. Then, Vatican II and the Novus Ordo happened which diminished belief in the Real Presence. That's when Catholic churches began to look like converted Pizza Huts. I expect them to install drive thru windows any day now.

Q: What is up with analog?

A: This question is inspired by the Andrew Loura YouTube channel. This young man has a real affinity for manual typewriters, paper notebooks, physical books, and analog clocks. Yet, he uses a smartphone and confesses to being addicted to the thing. I am a 55-year-old Gen Xer who uses a mix of analog and digital solutions. I have always done this. I am typing this on a Chromebook from notes written in pencil on the back of a piece of paper I salvaged from junk mail. The thing I find annoying with this newfound love of analog is that these young people think they have discovered something new and secret. They haven't.

Sometimes, the analog option is the best option. Other times, the digital option is the best option. There's nothing like a power outage to make you appreciate the analog options.

Q: Who was your favorite Beatle?

A: I have an appreciation for the underrated Ringo Starr, but I believe Paul McCartney was the real genius behind the Beatles. I have never liked John Lennon, and I think he was a despicable human being. I will never understand why people revered him as some kind of hero.

Q: Are you on Ozempic?

A: I lost a lot of weight over the past year which has certainly lead to rumors of me being on Ozempic or dying of cancer. The real story is that I have been in chronic pain in my legs from my poor walking gait and chronic nausea from overstimulation of my damaged brain. Pain and nausea have killed my appetite for food. I don't recommend this as a weight loss strategy.

I don't have a positive opinion of drugs like Ozempic. They are expensive, come with side effects, and require you to remain on them for the rest of your life. I would rather change my lifestyle than be on those drugs. I am committed to being full natty.

Q: Who is your favorite country singer?

A: Waylon Jennings. For a country singer, he knew how to rock.

Q: Should the Legionaries of Christ be abolished?

A: This question comes courtesy of Taylor Marshall:

Should the Legionaries of Christ be Abolished?

On this issue, I am 100% in agreement with Taylor Marshall. The LC and Regnum Christi need to be gone. Why does the Church allow them to continue? That's ea$y to an$wer. When they get done abolishing the LC and RC, they need to get rid of Opus Dei as well. Cults should have no place in the Roman Catholic Church.

Q: Should I get a CB radio that has FM?

A: I wouldn't waste my money on getting a new CB radio that has FM capability. No one is talking on FM in the USA. Sideband is a must IMHO, and you should try and get a radio that has SSB capabilities. FM is not a negative, and I would buy one if I was buying a new radio. But I don't need a new radio. The simple fact is that CB radio makers wanted to sell their European radios to the American market without having to eliminate the FM for the sake of the FCC. I don't see that as a bad thing. Just know that tuning on FM will bring you a lot of dead air.

Q: What do you make of people who own second homes and vacation homes?

A: I don't think very highly of them. I remember a fellow who I respected very much until I learned that he had a second home at the beach for vacationing. I still respect him, but that respect dropped a few notches. The same applies to the various wealthy Boomers I know who have beach houses, lake houses, mountain cabins, condos, and on and on. I know folks who can't even afford a single home for their families, but these Boomers are living it up owning homes that are vacant for most of the year.

I am not against wealth, and I am not against leisure. I am against self-indulgence and waste. These vacation getaways are a self-indulgent waste. Modesty requires living not only within your means but refraining from lavish living. The reality is that the vacation home is a vanity meant to flaunt one's status and wealth. For the rest of us, we stay at Motel 6. We'll leave the light on for you.

Q: What is your view of TRT?

A: TRT stands for testosterone replacement therapy, but it amounts to a shine job on what I consider to be steroids. Some famous folks who look amazing are using TRT. Other amazing looking folks are not on TRT but prefer to go full natty. I think long term use of steroids is bad for your health. I'd rather be skinny and old than good looking and dead.

Q: Where did the "C." logo come from?

A: When I began using the internet, various services allowed you to create an avatar. Most people used a picture of their face like on Facebook or Twitter X. I didn't want to do this, so I decided I needed to make a personal brand to put in the place of an avatar.

A brand comes from searing a mark into the hide of a cow to show ownership. In the real world, I show ownership of a thing by putting my initial on it. I definitely do this with a styrofoam cup of coffee. I also use the initial for engraving on tools or writing with a Sharpie marker or paint pen. Most of the time, my full name is good, but this becomes difficult on the side of a wrench. That is where the use of the initial comes from.

I wanted a more stylish logo for online stuff, but I am not an artist. I chose to use the Courier font in bold to type the initial. This allows me to reproduce my logo at will with just a keyboard. It is less Nike Swoosh and more New Balance "N." The dot is to distinguish me from organizations that use a C logo like the Chicago Bears and the Chicago Cubs. If I ever become famous, it will make for a quick autograph. I doubt that day will ever come. It is also handy to sign emails to let my people know that it didn't come from a spambot.

Q: Where did the Noble Peasants come from?

A: Noble Peasants is the title of the blog my wife started and who is known there as Mrs. Peasant. I am Mr. Peasant. The inspiration comes from the Angelus painting on the top of the blog and also hangs in our living room above the fireplace just like the one on The Andy Griffith Show.

I use the peasant term for people who live a lifestyle of voluntary poverty. People who choose minimalism are known as minimalists, but I was fishing around for a term for those of us who have similar aims to the minimalists. "Voluntary peasant" fit the bill. It frees us from the OCD nature of the minimalist aesthetic and allows us to wear eclectic items from the thrift store.

I have run out of questions to answer for this edition of the Q & A. That is my outro for this one. I will have a new edition when I get some new questions. Stay tuned, Gentle Reader.
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