Charlie's Blog: May 2026

5.31.2026

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?

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?

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

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.

5.24.2026

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.

5.17.2026

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

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.

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Parents say: Bring back pencil and paper

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

A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator

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

5.10.2026

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

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

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.

5.03.2026

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.

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Complicit Clergy
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