Money:

If money is the root of all evil, why do churches beg for it?

Like many things, money can do good as well as bad. Just like some people are wonderful and some are butts. Religion teaches the facts of greed but then the pastor sells salvation. Just like paying lip service to a balanced budget but going on a spending spree. People can get greedy, and many do. After the necessities are covered, why would anybody want more? It's disgusting.

Can you tell it's Sunday?


-© 2009 by Willy

P.S., "With coarse rice to eat, with water to drink, and my crooked arm for a pillow, is not joy to be found therein?" - Confucius, a looong time ago.

Eating Well

When I was in Middle School and early High School, the welfare department gave us commodity cheese, powdered milk and big cans of Spam. Breakfast was milk, I took cheese sandwiches to school, and grandma cooked that Spam every night while it lasted. I delivered newspapers, cleaned toilets and mopped floors but there was just no money for frills, like much food.

It wasn't just Ethiopia where boys were undernourished.

When I was a starving college student, I ate almost exclusively 9-cent boxes of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and it was unusual to have a burger. My diet had little protein, so I wonder how I stayed alive those years... at 21, I was 6'1" but my pants waist size was 28" Slim. When I visited grandma, she'd try her hardest to fatten me up with what she had.

When I got my first career job, I had money, and I actually went out for lunch daily. It was burgers and fries or steak and loaded baked potato. Then some honey saw that and grabbed me and married me, and there went my brief good eating time.

All of a sudden I was a young man with a huge mortgage, cars, demanding wife and two kids. We ate oatmeal for breakfast, I again took cheese sandwiches to work for lunch, and we had an awful lot of beans for dinner.

In general, it was not until I progressed in my career and made more money, that my eating got good but bad... because milk, oatmeal, rice and beans... the poorman's diet... are real good for you, not lots of steak and potatoes nor a steady diet of fast food.

So, when the wife went crazy with demands and left us, things got good and we three started eating out at McDonald's, Taco Bell and Arby's, and I got heavy and so did my daughter. The son did not but he had hollow legs. We called Taco Bell "The Kitchen."

That was a while back. The kids left long ago and I've had some awful relationships (the grabbing honeys were still out there). It's just terrible how some people treat themselves and others.

More recently, I'm staying away from fast food and fast women. I eat soy milk for breakfast, a reasonably balanced lunch at the work cafeteria, a protein bar for an afternoon snack and try to eat a small dinner at home after gym or ride. I haven't eaten beef in years but stick to chicken and fish. It's a constant battle to stay at a weight at which I can do all my outdoor activities I love so much, like hiking and bicycling, while maintaining the muscle mass to weightlift at the gym. Since I live alone now... ignoring the grabbing honeys... with my iRobot Roomba vacuum cleaner "dog" and a forest backyard full of wild birds and animals... I don't have any excuse except to eat right.

So I'm eating well now and I'm having the best time in my life.


- © 2008 by Willy
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Want to Save the World?

The Pope just denounced "insatiable consumption" as a threat to the world's environment.

We're killing the world allright. In many ways, Mother Nature is upset at us, and one day she's going to blow our fuze. Want to help yourself and save the world... all in one shot? Let me give you some suggestions by example.

I live in the south, where summer consists of most of the year. When my fiance lived with me, the utilities bill was well over $300 a month during hot summer months. We struggled with the thermostat settings on a continuing basis. When she left, I raised the upstairs thermostat setting to 89, shut down the downstairs unit (I don't get in until late), and the utility bill shrank to a little over $100 a month. This summer, I've gone greener... I've shut down both units and bought a $97 window air conditioner for my bedroom, which is the only room I need to be cool, in order to sleep good. Since most electrical generation in this country is coal and oil powered, I'm doing something to reduce our pollution... because of me, less fuel has to burn.

When I bought my current hillside home in 1991, I could see clear to the next county. Now some summer days I'm lucky to see the valley below.

I bicycle to work near-daily on a good day during summer. I have fun, enjoy nature, get fit, save gas money, and prevent several tons of auto exhaust pollution a year... my own car's. I run errands on the bike on the way home, although on Saturdays I do crank up a car to pick up groceries, bird food, and other big or temperature sensitive items. On Sundays, I don't use a car either... I start from the house, bicycle to breakfast and do a long and slow ride for fun and fitness. And I'm NOT a young man.


I also feel good about doing my bit to reduce middle east money and power. Hope we all get on board so that those rich arab muslim extremists eat their oil.

I'm trying to not overeat because I want to improve my overall health and fitness. I've reduced the amount of junk I buy because I have everything I need already, and my needs are small, and I go by the Salvation Army and Goodwill stores. I do agree with the Pope that our insatiable consumption is insane and is killing the world, and it's about time somebody high up recognized it... we little guys in the bottom knew it long ago.

I believe in fixing things from the bottom. In the same way, I really don't care who gets elected, because they are not going to do squat about the awful pollution, terrible economy and high gas prices. I need to save myself, and save this country and the world too.

It's me that solves the problem.

Want to join me?

- text © 2008 by Willy
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There's BS Everywhere

Surely you know that we live in an age of BS. When we listen to radio or TV, or read a newspaper, we're being fed mostly advertising, with just enough content to keep us interested. The boundary between ads and program is gone... we now have some ads that ARE merged with and are part of the program or content.

The only way to avoid this barrage is to leave the radio and TV off, or to stick your fingers in your ears as bullshit protectors.

It's not just where the camera shows some character drinking a specific brand of soft drink. An NBC news report tonight on sub-prime loans contained a dozen realtor and lender signs. One of the "3-second shot Cameos" was a banker, by-lined properly.

The TV news today was that Consumer's Report said Ford was increasing vehicle reliability. Can this be anything but an ad? How subjective is this?

I believe that we are bombarded every second of the day and night with ads, suggestions and commands... subtle or otherwise... not just from the media but also from our significant others, to influence and control us. Deception and Untruth are everywhere because there is no downside... deception works.

And thus the subtle poisoning of some of my friends by my "innocent" ex worked well too. I quit having lunch with acquaintances years ago because it ended up being a sales pitch for Amway, and I've quit committed relationships because they have all been cons.

This may be why I only watch TV that I've Tivo'ed and can fast-forward ads, why I prefer to ride and hike solo, and why I live by myself. There's comfort and relief in quietness.

- © 2007 by Willy

What Drives Us?

Yes, it's love and money that drive us, just like Freud said. But there are some subtleties within this. My friend Ed, who has a PhD in physics, but also for years owned a retail store, says that we engineers/scientists marry the first woman who pays attention to us... and the second and third. And he may be right. We don't seem to discriminate people very well, although we can easily pick out the best product... TV, car, missile, or whatever, that fits our need.

It may be that we can't pick our women well because it is usually they who pick us, and it seems that they do it on the basis of money and availability. In this town there are many more engineers & scientists than there are doctors, and The Almighty Dollar reigns, specially for those women that don't make a lot of money themselves. I've noticed, in general, that the women that have a great career don't need no stinkin' husband, but they'll take a wife instead, and some I know have done just that... a meek husband that caters to their needs and who may not have a decent paycheck... a dependent. And they have the same trouble with their men as I've had with women. It is rare to see a couple that get along well, but even more rare is to see a couple with great careers, both, that stay together. These are definitely in the minority. Funny, isn't it?

Yes, I could be a male chauvinist pig, and I might be a cynic, but this is my observation. Look around yourself and check it out. Tell me if there's no truth to this. Although, if I have hurt your feelings, or you are the dependent in the story, you have my apology and sympathy... and a suggestion that you plant both feet on the ground and go after that degree and that career to better yourself and contribute! Do something with your life! Dam' the relationship torpedo, full speed ahead.

Oh... and don't get me started on love

- text © 2007 by Willy
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