Tag Archives: lifestyle

Being the luckiest man on the planet has a down side

Posted on September 27, 2013 by | 15 comments

Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read.

Those who read here, I assume, predominantly wish they could be me.  Most likely you think living the life I’m blessed with is all smooth sailing.  Figure all I have to do is remember to be grateful for the flat tires and 47 different ways to cook potatoes, 98 raman recipes, and clean the burrs out of the cat hair.

Sometimes I even think that’s true.  But the fact is, even the flood of blessings I enjoy in life become a trap.  Complacency slips in through the cracks and sometimes I forget to look for all the reasons those rough spots are actually a gift the Universe gives me, sometimes only as a reminder.

As an example, there’s a dragon lady in the courthouse in Timewarpsville who’s in charge anytime someone wants to try licensing or registering a trailer or motor vehicle.  I’ve found, if a person wants to get it done in fewer than three 100 mile round-trips he’d best find a time when she’s out to lunch and the other lady’s the one doing the business.

In the name of just doing her job that dragon lady can find more tees that need a 50 mile drive to cross and eyes that need dotting next trip any the average person who hasn’t experienced being Adolph Hitler could imagine.

But that’s okay.  That’s actually the Universe reminding me again I’m the luckiest man because, you see, I don’t have to be her.  Hells bells, I rarely even have to deal with her.  Don’t have to live in the same town, don’t have to have her for a relative, barely have to acknowledge such people are alive on this sphere and are part of the human species.

Sometimes I forget.  But that’s just the downside of being me.  Complacency.

Old Jules

15 Comments

Posted in 2013, America, Human Behavior

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

Scaring the high-tech scarable

Posted on September 24, 2013 by | 6 comments
Three wooden toothpicks under the hatband forward of the feather leaning backward scares the hell out of them

Three wooden toothpicks under the hatband forward of the feather leaning backward scares the hell out of them

Good morning readers. Thanks for coming by for a read.

During those upsy-downsey times when I was trying to squeeze out a living playing blackjack I picked my casino carefully.  Only casinos offering the surrender option allows the player to throw out the blackjack books and stack the table and the odds in his own favor.  It’s a cause for black looks and hatred from the other players, but deep suspicion on the part of casino security and pit bosses.

Surrender doesn’t exist in a lot of gambling joints.  It allows players, once they see both their cards and one of the dealer cards, to take back half his bet and bow out of the hand.  I’d spent a lot of time on the computer figuring out how to turn this into a slight, but significant bending back the fingers of the house advantage.

One day I was doing fairly well on third base at the Santa Ana Star Casino.  I was wearing the high roller, and I always kept a few toothpicks in the hatband ahead of the feather for easy access during moments of contemplation.

My splitting 10s and not splitting aces at times, not at other times, doubling down sometimes, surrendering others, was working despite the fact it defied the traditions, superstitions and religions of blackjack.

I’d been there an hour or two when the pit boss came over standing beside me, watching.  At one point he bent across the partition during a hand, close to my head.  I thought he was smelling my high roller.  But a few minutes later two security men came and stood with him, watching.

A couple of hands later two more security folks came and stood behind me watching the play.  I didn’t change my strategy, kept getting as much money on the table as I could when the advantage was my way, surrendering when it wasn’t.

When the dealer finished the shoe the pit boss leaned over to me and said, “Would you mind taking your hat off please?”

I reached up and pulled it off, thinking he was admiring my high roller.  He bent over and squinted, along with the four security guards.  I handed him the hat and he showed it around, feather side up.  They all squinted.  Then one of the guards carefully took one of the toothpicks out of the band.

“They’re just toothpicks!”  He handed it around so they all could confirm it.

He handed my high roller back to me and shrugged to the security men.  “You can go.”  Then he turned back to me.  “Why do you keep toothpicks in your hatband?”

By this time I’d caught onto their suspicions and concerns.  I was barely able to restrain myself, keep my humor dry.  “Mojo.”

“What?”

“Mojo.  Three toothpicks brings me paired 10s and more blackjacks.”

Sneering, he shrugged and walked away.  Surrendered and never knew it.

Old Jules

6 Comments

Posted in 2000's, America, Gambling

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Time to switch hats

Posted on September 23, 2013 by | 9 comments

hatrack

Hi readers. Thanks for coming by.

I just want to remind those who might have forgotten it’s time to put aside that old sweat-stained straw and don your felt, or cloth hats.  Admittedly a lot of people don’t notice these days because they’re wearing ball caps sideways or backward, or just aren’t sensitive to delicate style issues.

Tilley

But the people who matter will notice.

Old Jules

9 Comments

Posted in 2013

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,

The good news behind the bad news

Posted on September 22, 2013 by | 2 comments

Hi readers. Thanks for comng by for a read this morning.

The news is always so full of Judeo-Christian-Muslim religious fanatics terrorizing one another we sometimes overlook the larger issues.  This is one example.

Look at the Kenya army troops in this picture. 

  • First thing you notice is they’ve got a lot of meat on their bones.  Obviously, once they kicked out the British these people had food left lying around they could eat and fatten up.  Same as the Irish.
  • Second thing you see is the weather’s cold, but these guys are dressed for it.  Looks as though they’re wearing US Marine Corps sweaters.  But all of them are bundled up, which means they had the means to do it.
  • Third, they’ve got helmet-liners which don’t look like the old NAZI coal-scoop ones from WWII nor the ones US troops wear now.  That means they’re not indiscriminately blowing up civilians for the hell of it.
  • Then there’s the boots.  Those are good boots.  Those boots weren’t taken off some civilian corpse.
  • Look at the weaponry.  Any gun nut in the United States would kill to get one of those rifles.
  • Okay, yeah, the truck they’re in doesn’t have a spare tire.  But hell, y0u can’t have everything.

Here’s a better look at the boots and trowsers of the troops.

Notice they’re mostly wearing pre-Vietnam combat boots, though one’s wearing Vietnam era ones, and one’s wearing desert boots.  Obviously they have some style choices.  But they’ve all got US Army fatigue britches from back when US military clothing was made from US cotton and sewn into uniforms by US workers.

Now, here’s the parking lot in front of the mall those Judeo-Christian-Muslim religious fanatics attacked.

Notice the automobiles.  The lousiest car in that picture is better than any I’ve owned in more than a decade.

Seems obvious once they ran the British out of Kenya things got a lot better, all in all.  At least in that part of Africa you can’t tell it from the US. 

Sure, they have problems with Judeo-Christian-Muslim religious fanatics.  But who the hell doesn’t?

Old Jules

2 Comments

Posted in 2013, America

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: This blog might be hazardous to your mental health

Posted on September 19, 2013 by | 11 comments

Hi readers.  I probably should have warned you about this sooner.   Hopefully I’m not too late.

I write this blog because I enjoy doing it.  I write it because to me writing it reduces the pressures of having to exist in a world where swarm behaviors dominate my species.  This blog is my teflon coating to help me partially escape participation in the swarm.  I write this blog to help me unravel the world around me as I observe it and attempt to draw meaningful conclusions.

For me it’s a piece of my own determination to be a better human being tomorrow than I am today.  It’s a part of an ongoing program to continuously persuade myself such a thing is possible.

Sometimes I write what I believe are facts.  Sometimes analogies.  Sometimes absurdities that only contain what I believe bear similarities to facts without actually attempting to capture them.

Swarm behavior can’t be examined, analysed, understood from inside the swarm.  Sometimes my thinking is trapped inside the swarm and I attempt to examine it, but frequently I’m able to achieve escape velocity and observe from some distance away.  Even I usually don’t know which is which, whether I’m making valid observations from outside, or flawed ones from inside.

In any case, I suggest nobody take this blog seriously.  If you see words, phrases, paragraphs here you find disagreeable, there’s no call to be offended.  I can’t threaten your swarm, and if you’re outside your swarm you probably can’t beckon me to the position you are viewing it from.

But the main thing is, enjoy the blog if you can, because there’s nothing I might say of enough importance to justify a moment of displeasure.  It’s an easy blog not to read. 

Protect whatever mental health you believe you are carrying around with you, either by smiling when you read here, or by going somewhere else to read something more smileable.  This blog is not an important issue.

As far as I’m aware the blog does not cause cancer, does not carry any communicable disease in its words.  I don’t believe there are any environment consequences, no threats caused by second-hand blog when it’s shared.  I’ve tried to be responsible and avoid that

I appreciate you either way.

Old Jules

11 Comments

Posted in 2013, America, Communication

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A place to live if the RV breaks down

Posted on September 14, 2013 by | 7 comments

Hi readers. I swapped Gale for this trailer, finalized it yesterday.

In addition to giving me the means to get my stuff out of this valley and into storage in Harper, I can live in this thing if the RV breaks down somewhere up the road. It’s light enough so a half-ton junker pickup truck can pull it.

It takes a considerable load off my mind. Both Gale and Raymond, the guy up the hill have pointed out if that RV quits I’ll be dead in the water. I tried not to let it bother me, but couldn’t help it nagging me some.

But with a Coleman stove and oven, my diesel burning heater, a bunk, I can live in this thing. Better than almost all my ancestors almost certainly lived before they left Europe. And certainly better than any Native American ancestors did.

The DuoTherm heater began life in the late 1940s or early ’50s as a kerosene trailer heater. The man up the hill had it, but we couldn’t get the carb to work. Eventually replaced the carb with a needle valve and converted it to diesel fuel, which is cheaper and more easily available.

Besides, if a person doesn’t have much he doesn’t have much to lose.

Old Jules

7 Comments

Posted in 2013, America, Texas, Transportation, Trucks

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

Making money the old fashioned way

Posted on September 13, 2013 by | 5 comments

Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.

I saw a bumper sticker in town yesterday in the parking lot of the last Gibson’s store in existence. 20 year old beat-to-hell pickup with the sticker, “I make money the old fashioned way – I work for it“.

Judging by the truck, I’m guessing he’s probably telling the truth.

Inside the store when I went to pay for my purchase the cashier held the bill up to the light, then used a black felt tip pen on it and squinted at it again. When she decided it was okay I asked whether they get any phonies.

“Lots of them.” She shrugged and counted out my change, which I didn’t examine closely. That’s trust.

The fact is there are lots of old fashioned ways to make money. Working has always been the least efficient method, but it’s widely praised by people who have a lot of it by inheritance, politics, graft, bailouts, handouts, subsidies, and prostitution. Someone has to do the grunt work or the whole system of economics falls apart.

Fact is, someone has to ring the cash registers, clean out the sewer lines, change the oil on cars, sit behind desks doing meaningless, boring, dead-end chores all day or it would become downright inconvenient for people who made their money the various other old fashioned ways.

And those hamburger flippers and sewer plant operaters need to be able to find something about it they can construe as a virtue, rather than just being fools and useful zombies drawing lousy pay for essential work to keep things running.

5 Comments

Posted in Adventure

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Witch doctors as an alternative to everything else

Posted on September 11, 2013 by | 7 comments

Hi readers. Thanks for coming by.

20 years ago I quit going to doctors because they never told me anything I wanted to hear. So I bought some books about vitamin and mineral approaches to staying healthy, learned about a number of other non-mainstream alternatives including diet, exercize, and metaphysical healing techniques. Considering my age I’m one hell of a lot healthier today than I was when I was going to physicians and letting them tell me all the ways I was likely to die and what I needed to let them cut off or out to keep me living.

I’m not trying to sell you on the idea you ought to follow this route. Although, if the docs have given up on you and sent you home to die you might find a pleasant surprise waiting for you if you should look into it.

But I’m writing this to tell you about something Jeanne came across and passed on to me.

http://serrapeptasefor.me/the-role-of-natural-enzymes-called-serrapeptase-in-scar-tissue/

The Role Of Natural Enzymes Called Serrapeptase in Scar Tissue

Scar TissueNatural enzymes are beneficial to our body because they eliminate and prevent fibrosis which is also known as scar tissue. As we get older, fibrosis becomes one of the main factors of sudden death. During our 20′s, the production of enzymes in the body start to reduce and by the time we reach the age of 40, the enzyme level becomes too low. As a matter of fact, those who are suffering from cystic fibrosis do not produce natural enzymes anymore, making their bodies weaker and less immune to sickness. This will eventually result to the formation of scar tissue and the shrinking of the lungs. Children with this type of disease will not be able to withstand the side effects thus will die before they even turn 20 years old.
If the enzyme production will continue to diminish, the body will not be able to control the abundant deposits of fibrin from simple wounds such as cuts and scratch. This will penetrate inside the blood vessels and the internal organs which can develop into deadly illnesses like fibrocystic breast disease, adhesions, uterine fibroids and endometriosis. Both men and women are affected with this condition although studies show that the female species are more prone. Women develop arterial sclerotic plaque that invades the body system and makes the organs reduce in size. Over time, the organs will stop functioning while the patient suffers from pain and visible scars.
The only way to control the scar tissue formation is to replace the lost enzymes. Doing so is useful to avoid the issues related to the absence of natural enzymes and abundance of fibrin. Studies have also proven that the addition of enzymes in the body system can actually reverse the harsh effects of fibrosis. Old scars are unbelievably gone after natural enzymes are added into the body. Scar tissues from pulmonary fibrosis, surgical wounds, kidney fibrosis, and even the nasty keloids will be gone. Although medical practitioners from Asia and Europe have been using this method to their patients for more than a decade already, doctors from the US are just starting to discover its benefits.
Serrapeptase scar tissue and nattokinase are some of the best natural enzymes for the removal of scar tissues. On the other hand, if you are looking for the most effective defense against pancreatic cancer tumors, Chymotrypsin and pancreatin are considered as the best option.
Serrapeptase is also an ultra powerful enzyme which can only be found from a group of bacteria present in the silkworm’s intestines. This bacterium is called Serratia Marcescens E1. It enables the full development of the silkworm by dissolving its cocoon. In addition, Serratia also reduces the scar tissue by healing and improving the inflammation on the skin.
As the healing process is going on, Serrapeptase aids in digesting the dead tissue while the living tissues are preserved. Serrapeptase is also beneficial in dissolving unwanted scar tissues namely blood clots, cysts, fibrosis, and anterial plaque. Sinusitis is another illness which can be cured by Serrapeptase scar tissue. It is used as an anti-inflammatory agent against excessive mucous secretion, fibrocystic breasts, and varicose veins. Most importantly, scientists believe that Serrapeptase scar tissue plays an essential role in protecting the body against cancer cells and layers of tumors. It fights cancer by strengthening the immune system.
In conclusion, Serrapeptase scar tissue is not only effective to patients of lung diseases but it is also beneficial in clearing out the cancer cells within the body. Removing those dead tissues is a big help for our bodies to cope with numerous diseases. Natural healing process is crucial because it has better results than artificial treatment methods.

Stuff sounds as though it has some potential for some of the things I live with. Such as a goozle half-high with scar tissue from stomach acid reflux used to try to bleed me dry before Prilosec came along. Maybe even high blood pressure. I’m going to try it. So’s Jeanne, because of the scar tissue giving her fits recovering from the broken wrist and surgery a couple of months ago.

If you’re interested enough to want to know what people who’ve used it thought about it, and what they used it in hopes of helping, Amazon Customer Reviews might be a good place to start.

http://www.amazon.com/Doctors-Best-Serrapeptase-Units-90-Count/product-reviews/B000EDCJ3Y/ref=cm_cr_dp_see_all_summary?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1&sortBy=byRankDescending

But hell, if you’d rather go to a doctor by all means, do it. He’s convinced he’s got all the answersand this isn’t one of them.

Old Jules

7 Comments

Posted in Adventure

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Trickle-down economics and pornography

Posted on September 11, 2013 by | 1 comment

Hi readers. Thanks for coming by for a read this morning.

When Ronald Reagan invented trickle-down economics and sold it to US lawmakers it sounded like one-heluva good idea to the people who know most about money by having a lot of it. The idea was that if people who have more than a million dollars didn’t pay as much in taxes the extra money they had would trickle down their legs and end up in the pockets of store clerks, hamburger flippers, ditch diggers, truck drivers, and guys who spend their days in slaughter-houses whacking hogs on the forehead with sledge-hammers to keep hams flowing into the grocery stores.

The problem was that all those rich people spent the extra money they got with tax breaks watching pornography. Vanessa Del Rio, Annette Haven, Lisa Deleeau and Marilyn Chambers did indeed find themselves plenty of work, though. Johnny Wad Holmes and Ron Jeremy got a fine boost from trickle-down economics.

But that was back before the Internet. Once Donald Trump, wossname, the Microsoft guy, and wossname #2, the AOL married to Jane Fonda guy, had worn themselves out watching porn they naturally just went back to trying to figure out how it could make them some more money. Probably a lot of that went into recruiting new porn stars and putting their work up where it could make them some more tax breaks.

Today there are a million porn sites on the Internet, I read somewhere. Which must mean there are what? 50? 60 million? people out there working to keep the porn industry going, moaning, grunting and sweating all day long taking advantage of trickle down economics.

In fact, I’m betting old Bill Clinton’s probably spending his idle days when Hillary’s busy checking out the economics of it. He was too young when the Kennedy’s were passing Marilyn Monroe around between them, but Vanessa Del Rio might still be alive.

Old Jules

1 Comment

Posted in Adventure

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Zen of politics – Romantic vs Classic forms

Posted on September 10, 2013 by | 4 comments

Hi readers. Thanks for the visit.

Probably some of you have noticed as I have that things in Washington D.C. aren’t always as they appear to be.

Moving the White House and Congress to Disneyland – A serious proposal

The reasons for this reach deeply into the psyche of the people who call themselves Americans. They’re entrenched in the idealized construct of the US Constitution and the romantic, dehumanized cardboard cutouts of the ‘founding fathers’, US presidents, generals, politicians and jurists. By definition their motives were pure, their decisions and actions were entirely driven by the desire to protect the rights of the future citizenry.

A classical view of all this would note a few contradictions inside the fog of idealism. The supposed ability of the judiciary, for instance, to shed the skin of partisanship and self-interest once sworn into office. The fact a substantial portion of the humanity born inside the borders, the ‘Indians’, were not to be included in the census, not to be taxed. In fact, were not citizens at all when it came to the protected rights of citizenship. The only protections the US Constitution provided them were treaty obligations approved by the US Congress. Even the 14th Amendment to the Constitution in 1868 pretended the tribes governed themselves and the US Government had no jurisdiction over them. Excluded for automatic citizenship even those who gave up tribal affiliations.

Keeping the options open, those realists. Kept them open until 1924, by which time the protection of any rights they might have had as citizens couldn’t do them a hell of a lot of good.

Not to say impartial or non-partisan Supreme Court jurists, or what happened to the rights of American Indians has anything to do with anything except reality.

The reality. Washington D.C. is inhabited by human beings looking out for their own best interests. They’ve pared the environment down so it’s contained in a two-party system to protect itself from intruders, outsiders, invaders. They’re all singing from the same songbook inside the conch shell where the only sound you hear is their ocean.

Whining about taxes, rights protected by Constitutional amendments, undeclared wars and candidates for National elected offices who aren’t blessed with chins can’t penetrate the walls of the conch shell.

The reality is that if any of that can be changed it can’t happen in a capsule of romantic form anchored to a past that never existed, celluloid people canonized in myth and a piece of paper with less substance than a US dollar.

Playing nicknack tallywack inside Washington’s two-party system only results in them throwing the dog a bone. But the dogs do love it.

That’s reality.

Old Jules

4 Comments

Posted in 2013, America, Government, Politics

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,