Random thoughts, caring and not caring

Just some random thoughts that pass through my mind from time to time.

Bernie Madoff, I don't care that you feel better now that you are in jail. Frankly I couldn't care less that you don't think about committing suicide anymore. I don't condone suicide, I just don't care about you. You cheated your own personal, trusting friends without remorse. You stripped your own family of dignity without so much as a hesitation. Your own son committed suicide out of sheer embarrassment of what you have done. You exhibit no shame or sorrow. Your own wife has to face the public while you comfortably pass the time reading without any concern of where your next meal comes from. By your own admission you have done evil and committed unspeakable atrocities against those that trusted you. Personally, I feel that you are still riding the wave of megalomania because you enjoy the notoriety. I believe the punishment you fear the most is that no one would ever speak your name again, no reporter would seek you out for an interview. Your fellow prisoners would not talk to you. You would be totally alone with your thoughts. You need to be in control and in the spotlight. Some day you will have to face the real consequences of what you have done and it is way more than you could ever anticipate. Other than that, I don't care.

There is a tidal situation in the ocean, El Nino or La Nina or something like that. We, as human beings cannot control it. The weather is affected immensely by it. Snow, rain, wind, heat, and every other form of weather is moving in and out of our comfort zone because of it. Again, we can't change it, we have no control over it, we can't predict with accuracy exactly what will happen and where it will happen. My thought is this: The human race has survived from one degree to another throughout history with far less resources than we have now. Why do we panic so? I mean, complaining is natural but the panic is just way exaggerated I think.

I am so grateful to the people with extreme personalities who are in the news. In my opinion many of their views, lifestyles, perversions and activities are so weird as to defy description or rational explanation. However, without them I would have only myself to look at. Without them I may find fault in my own behavior. Without them I may not feel quite so normal as I do now. We do need a yardstick to measure by. Man, I think a lot of folks in the news are way, way over at the other end of that yardstick and that makes me feel very good indeed on some days.

I am in training for my bicycle trip around Lake Michigan. Things I need to do: Lose some weight. (Isn't that always the case though?) Increase my stamina for longer riding. Strength and weight training for core issues. Develop an eating regimen. Save some money. Build two more bicycles to fit my needs. Map out my route. Arrange for lodging. (I am not about to sleep on the ground like I did the last time) Decide exactly when I am going to do this. Make arrangements to take care of obligations while I'm gone. Keep myself from getting too excited.

Winter is coming, there is much to do. I love the different seasons around here............Joe

Spam and fake college degrees, again.

Spam is all over the place and apparently thriving. This Internet is worldwide and there are electronic devices gathering information as I type. There is no escape and we have to stay on our best behavior and mind what we say.

A couple days ago I wrote a posting regarding college diploma's for sale. Name your college, your desired degree and they'll make it up, put your name on it, mail it to you and there you are, a college graduate. Evidently the trusty spam gleaning machine was turned on full blast because my email boxes were chock full of offers: Doctorates, Master's, Business, Psychology, Mathematics etc, etc, etc. For just a few dollars and a little ingenuity I could appear to be an extremely educated man in a very short time.

It wouldn't work. At least in my case. An Einstein I ain't and everyone knows it. Besides, the guilt factor would surely bring me to the edge of total mental collapse. No wise cracks about the mental thing OK? I do wonder how someone else pulls it off though. Maybe if they moved into a new city and had no friends or relatives in the immediate area and they put it on the wall right away no one would question it. However, what if it is from like Harvard or Yale and someone that went there started asking questions about the classes or instructors or the Fraternities. The one trying to pull a fast one would be dead meat. Is a fake degree worth the gamble?

Lying is it's own punishment. A liar can never stop thinking ahead of them self. They can never rest and have to watch everything they say. This Madof character is in the slammer because he is a liar. I wonder if he has any fake degrees in finance? No, there is no faux degree in my future. But once again we see that the Internet is not a safe and secure place. Be on your toes and alert or the spam will overwhelm you.

Pain of unemployment

A television ad designed to promote a pain reliever for arthritis points out that a body at rest, tends to stay at rest. A body in motion tends to stay in motion. I think most of us agree on that premise. From personal experience I would also add that a body in motion, in most cases feels a great deal less pain. Pheromones or something like that. On the subject of pain, extensive research has determined that artificial pain relievers, if used extensively can cause side effects as bad or worse than the original pain. "The cure is worse than the bite." I think the old saying goes.

There are huge numbers of us that are unemployed right now. It can be an extremely painful experience. The government is doing all sorts of things to help make it better. There is a lot of finger pointing as to who is at fault for the prolonged unemployment. According the the news headlines there doesn't seem to be a lot of introspective thought as far as to just what the curative solutions have done to aggravate the situation.

How about if we compare the TV ad for a pain reliever to the cures for unemployment.:

Pain relievers will offer relief so we can start a little at a time to move again and the movement itself will bring more relief so we need less pain reliever which will help our overall health which will help with more movement and so on and so forth. We become as healthy as we can.

Or; Pain relievers will bring us relief and we will continue to rest and sit and rely completely on the pain relievers which will in turn cause more health issues which cause us to move even less and experience even more pain. Our health continuously spirals downward.

We have a the dilemma:

Completely relying on government assistance to survive and waiting for more assistance and becoming more and more bitter and blaming others for not helping.

Or; Accepting our situation and using whatever is available to get ourselves moving in a direction of providing for our own needs through whatever independent means are available, one step upward at a time.

It's only a theory but definitely food for thought. Unemployment can be devastating. There is no pie in the sky, painless answer. But it's amazing what happens when we use our energy constructively.

College degrees fast, cheap and easy

I'm the first one to admit that sometimes I take the easy way out. Sometimes, but not often. In cooking I have been known to buy cake mix in a box, just add water. Casserole mix for dinner, just add hamburger. Stuff like that. After attending an exercise class for 2 months I was overwhelmed with other activity so I quit and bought a work out DVD to use at home instead. Perhaps we all can admit to a short cut or two from time to time. But some things just shouldn't be cut short.

While working on the computer yesterday the pop up on the right of the screen touted a college degree for busy working people. "Don't have time for class?" it asked. Duh! I thought. "Short on funds to further your education?" it also asked. Double Duh! I thought. "Get an affordable Business diploma in a short time." The banner read. Then the ad scrolled a list of college diplomas available in various professions. "Fill out the form, name the college of my choice, choose the degree or degrees I want to display to my friends, pay my money and within a few short days I will receive a "genuine looking, indiscernible from an original", sheepskin to hang on the wall for all to see. "A reason for me to feel proud."..................Proud of what?

There must be a market out there for these faux degrees but it seems to me that there must be something a bit illegal about them. There were doctorate degrees for heaven's sake. I'm going to double check any new doctors I visit maybe. I signed off the computer after the work was done. When I signed back on later the ad was gone and I couldn't find it so maybe it was a spam thing. So much for my becoming a law professor this week.

Brings to mind the ad for spray cologne or perfume that touts the ability to make people trust you. No need to develop a moral life style of integrity. Simply spray on the trust and go about your business. I've seen some folks that don't realize the spray doesn't work when you speak on TV or radio.

Short cuts. In some cases there ought to be a law......................Trust me on that one.

Reincarnation, aliens and fantasy

There is a movie named, "The search for Bridie Murphy" It's all about reincarnation and based upon a true story. Of course, "based upon" coupled with literary license can become so far removed from the original story that it is almost unrecognizable. From what I understand the case of Bridie Murphy remains one of the strongest arguments for some or all of us having lived before. The comedy team Laurel and Hardy starred in an hilarious movie about airplanes, crashes, death and being reincarnated as a horse. I don't know whether it was "based upon" a true story or not. But, it made me laugh out loud and the movie, "The search for Bridie Murphy" didn't. It is my understanding that some religious beliefs are very strong concerning reincarnation, some regarding becoming another person and some regarding coming back as an animal. I have no real education in those beliefs or the history behind them. There are a lot of interesting beliefs in this world I am not familiar with and more are appearing as time goes on. It's impossible to keep up. Reincarnation is not new though and I found the movie about it quite riveting.

A psychologist or psychiatrist hypnotizes a woman as part of her treatment for psychological problems. While under hypnosis the woman slowly unravels the story of who she was in a former life. The doctor does some checking and finds out it was a real person and the woman he is treating has no way of knowing anything about her. Spooky! I wondered how she knew. I wondered if it was all a hoax like the Cardiff Giant, gargoyles or tax relief. But still, she was so convincing and looked so innocent, someone that looked like that could not possibly lie about such a thing. And, it was all based upon a true story. When I left the theatre I knew I had a lot of thinking to do. Up to that time I didn't believe reincarnation was something to be taken seriously. The next weekend I saw a movie called, "The Thing" It was all about an alien frozen in the arctic somewhere and when some well meaning scientists thawed it out they got way more than they bargained for. This alien creature, instead of wanting to make friends with earthlings, simply wanted to kill them and eat them and their dogs in a vicious manner. I can remember leaving the theatre wondering if this movie too was loosely "based upon" a true story. At school the following week I discovered that I wasn't the only pre-teen guy that wondered if it was true. It made for some lively discussion but eventually we decided, one of us at a time that "The Thing" was fantasy. But the spectre of alien life (especially on cold snowy, frozen, windy nights) always remained. The same regarding reincarnation.

Reincarnation and Alien life forms are not the same subject at all are they? I do wonder if the answer lies in hypnotizing an alien? Yeah, I do wonder that sometimes. Fantasy movies and stories based upon a true story do that to a person.