Charlie's Blog: October 2026

10.25.2026

Basic

Sometimes you just want to go out and have a meat and potatoes thing [and] forget the French dressing.
GENE SIMMONS

I am a basic guy. I appreciate people who live and operate on a higher plane of existence, but that isn't me. While some rock out to King Crimson and Yes, I prefer AC/DC. I like things that are uncomplicated and without embellishment. The rest of this post are just examples of my basic nature in action.

I write in a basic manner. Whenever something doesn't sound right, I make it simpler. I try to not use big words or obscure references. When I read other writers, I get the feeling they are showing off instead of communicating to an audience. I am definitely in the Hemingway school of writing. Simple is better.

I dress in a basic manner. 90% of the time, I wear work clothes. I don't wear suits or jeans. I don't dress like an athlete or a gym rat except you may catch me in my walking shoes. My top fashion destination is Goodwill.

I eat basic food. My diet is plant based, but I am easy to please. Salt, ketchup, and hot sauce are my primary condiments. I eat oatmeal for breakfast. I eat sandwiches for lunch. I eat spaghetti for dinner. I am totally fine with leftovers reheated in the microwave. I never eat steak, escargot, or caviar.

I don't smoke cigars or a pipe. I don't drink craft beer or aged whiskey. 90% of the time, I drink water from the tap. The rest of the time, I drink black coffee or a tea hot or iced. I prefer drinking my coffee at Dunkin' Donuts instead of Starbucks, but this is on rare occasions. My preferred coffee is served at home.

I used to drive a 20 year old used pickup truck and would like to drive it again. I don't drive a Lexus, a Corvette, or a Porsche. I would drive the same vehicle even if I won the lottery. I don't care for fancy cars.

I do not own a smartphone but use a flip phone I upgraded to in 2019. That upgrade was forced. I don't care for an iPhone. I also use an old HP desktop computer instead of a Macbook. I am still using Windows 7. Sometimes, I use my wife's Chromebook like I am now.

I buy most of my tools from Harbor Freight. I like the stuff at Walmart, but I don't like the self-checkout. My top place to eat is Taco Bell. I can't eat anywhere else because of my plant based diet.

My entertainment is the radio, a DVD player, and a personal library of used books. I like using the internet to read the news, check my email, and watch gardening videos. I never go to concerts or the movie theater.

I think these are enough examples for you to get the gist of my basic nature. I never thought anything about it until someone mentioned it to me. I am a basic guy. I will admit it. I am a boring guy. In a world full of people striving to be special, I choose to be ordinary and mundane. The irony is this basic way of doing things makes me an exception now. I am a nobody in a world of somebodies. I am a rock in the stream of society.

I have to defend basic now. 20 to 30 years ago, these basic things were just fine. Today, something is wrong with you for liking Pizza Hut over Mellow Mushroom. You are an idiot for driving a Ford instead of a Ferrari. Ours is a pretentious age even if the only way to afford it is to max out the credit cards. To do less is to be labeled a "normie" whatever that means.

You choose basic when you are content with life. I am happy with my life. I don't care to add anything to what God has given me. My contentment comes from my faith in God. I don't expect worldly things to fulfill the needs of my soul. And that, Gentle Reader, is why so many are discontent with their lives. They try and turn everything into a spiritual experience. They seek to overwhelm their senses in the hopes of soothing their aching hearts.

I ignore the discontented. That is the ultimate irony. My basic life is more satisfying than their lives. I do not wish to boast, but I will brag about this. God satisfies me. If you have God, nothing else matters. A simple lifestyle is satisfying to the person with simple faith in God. The material needs of life only need basic things to satisfy those needs.

UPDATE #1: I have been struggling lately with an obsession over a hiking shoe. This is the Merrell Moab 3 hiking shoe. I don't need a hiking shoe. I don't even want a hiking shoe. I don't even want to go on a hike. I even tried on this particular shoe at Dick's Sporting Goods two years ago and hated the way it fit and felt. The obsession went away and then returned recently. It has made me think that I am the target of subliminal advertising messing with my brain.

Part of my thinking about this issue comes from this excellent video from Levi Hildebrand:

The DARK SIDE of the Outdoor Clothing Industry

Hildebrand points out that the outdoor space has become consumed by the outdoor clothing industry, and this overgearification has diminished people's desire to actually go outdoors because of the irrational fear that they are under equipped. They spend more time researching gear than they do actually going outside. The real clincher comes towards the end of the video where Levi points out that the number one outdoor activity is simple walking which you can do with stuff you probably already own. You don't need a Gore-Tex jacket from Arc'teryx and expensive hiking shoes to walk outside. I know this for a fact as I walk in my New Balance 608 dad shoes and workwear with a Casio G-Shock as my "fitness tracker." If it gets cold, I wear my $10 fleece jacket from Walmart. If it gets wet, I wear my $20 windbreaker from Walmart. Both jackets are close to 20 years old. I think Bush was president when I bought them.

I think the reason for my hiking shoe obsession comes from happening upon some outdoor video or article. I ignore the advertising, but the advertising is working in a subliminal fashion. So, I looked at the ad, and there it was--the Merrell Moab 3. I am not buying the shoes, but I acknowledge the effect of the advertising on me.

There are two words I have learned to ignore when it comes to gear. The first one is "tactical" which is the word they use for right wing oriented military style gear. It could be a pocket knife, boots, or a backpack. On the left wing side, you have "technical." This is the high end gear they sell from outdoor brands like The North Face, Black Diamond, etc.

I don't buy tactical or technical gear. I have learned to get basic gear from Walmart from brands like Coleman, Igloo, and Ozark Trail. For me, the keyword is "practical." Marketing and advertising hate practical stuff. They make more money selling you impractical stuff that they label as tactical or technical.

I think housewives would be better off with a minivan. Instead, they buy SUVs that are not practical at all. Likewise, men would be better equipped with an old fashioned pickup truck or four door sedan. Instead, they buy Jeeps and Porsches that are not practical at all. Advertising and marketing work. People want things they do not need and need things they do not want. That is a helluva trick. So far, it hasn't worked on me, and I intend to keep it that way.

UPDATE #2: I came across this interesting video that underscores what Levi Hildebrand was talking about:

The Outdoor Industry Is A Scam

You have to wonder how anyone for thousands of years managed to get outdoors before the Advent of REI. This combox comment nails it:

Consumerism is a heck of a drug

It makes me glad that I am not a hiker. As a fitness walker, I keep my gear needs to the basics. That doesn't change the fact that the relentless pressure to consume is exhausting. Marketing works even if the cash stays in your pocket. The beauty of camping out in the 80s as opposed to today is that you never felt under equipped back then. It wasn't a thing.

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)
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