Bring back the Fairness in Broadcasting Doctrine, because white supremacist corporations are not people

 Thursday, March 4th, 2021

BRING BACK THE FAIRNESS IN BROADCASTING DOCTRINE, b/c WHITE SUPREMACIST CORPORATIONS ARE NOT PEOPLE

Today is the day that the QAnon people and hardcore Trumpers believe Trump will finally come to power and be the "legitimate" 19th President of these United States through some made-up theory based on supposed historic precedence. It's all bullshit. Pure "coo-coo for Cocoa-Puffs" (tm), kind of thinking by a manipulative, out-of-touch, and splintered Republican Party. They are a party without a center, held together by conspiracy theories and a misguided, deep-seated fear of anything from the Left. Their compulsion to "own the Libs" at just about any cost would be laughable if it wasn't so damaging to the American electorate. The Right is and has been for nigh on 40 years, chipping away at our democracy for the sake of holding on to power that is slowly slipping from their grasp. In the last two weeks alone, Republican-led legislatures across the country in more than two dozen states have presented over 250 pieces of legislation that would make it harder for people to vote. Which people you ask?  Why, that would be communities of color that would be affected the most of course. Could it be a coincidence that at the same time that the conservative party in this country is increasingly out of touch with the people because of their failed policies and obstructionism-at-all-cost strategies, that they are also trying to make it as hard as humanly possible for POC to legally vote because they know that if the majority of people do vote, Democratic candidates win? The plethora of voter suppression tactics employed by the Right just proves the point that they cannot win by their ideas. They can only win if they restrict the voting to only those people they know that will vote for them: white, hetero males. 

White Supremacy? Is that what I'm getting at? I'm sure that those on the Right will continue to attempt to Gaslight the American people into believing racism isn't so bad here, that it was actually Antifa that stormed the Capitol on January 6th, and the Democrats stole the election. They are precisely doing that, and the sad thing is, 68% of the Republican party believes all those lies. Which is not terribly surprising when you realize how they've been fed a steady diet of lies and misinformation from the GOP and their Right-Wing media propaganda machine for about the last 33 years. Ever since Reagan got rid of the Fairness Doctrine in Broadcasting in 1987. What is the "Fairness in Broadcasting Doctrine" you ask? Well, I'm glad you asked. What it did was to establish two forms of regulation on broadcasters: 1. to provide adequate coverage of public issues, and 2. to ensure that coverage fairly represented opposing views. Getting rid of the Doctrine opened the door to one-sided journalism and the rise of AM conservative talk radio that was not required to broadcast any opposing views. The listener was fed a steady, daily diet of right-wing propaganda that could be presented as news to the consumers without the pesky bother of providing opposing viewpoints that might distract the growing and loyal audience. Enter Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Which led to the likes of Glenn Beck, Ben Shapiro, Steven Crowder, Alex Jones, Laura Ingraham, Bill O'Reilly, Dennis Praeger, Tucker Carlson, and a host of other far-right conspiracy spewing "Trumplican" sycophants.  

They are, without a doubt, the two biggest entities that fomented the rise of the ever-increasing fascistic tendencies of the Right. Cloaked in outrage and directed at the perceived immorality, and big-government overreach from the "Crazy Libs", they have slowly chipped away at our American democracy as they come to the stark realization that their party is increasingly losing support because of their one-sided view of the power structure in this country. They've blindly worked so hard to hold on to power with their Jim Crow-like, voter suppression schemes and policies, that they refuse to see the damage they've caused. This is a generalization, but, conservatives don't seem to see problems in society until they or their family are directly affected. But even that is in question in these days of conspiracy theories and misinformation on social media. When I listen to the speeches from the Right, I hear fear-mongering demagogues telling scary campfire stories to a lot of scared, angry, white people that have been persuaded to believe lies about their fellow Americans, and whatever else they can think of to cling to power. 

The answers to our problems as a country will be dealt with one way or another. I just would rather it be in a responsible and equitable manner that considers all sides of the issues as opposed to the Republicans' "Head in the Sand" policies. Let's face the long-term issues that go far beyond the next quarterly profit report. Let's start thinking about the good of the people, not the corporations. Because contrary to the Supreme Court ruling, corporations are NOT people. 

I'm sure this has been said by countless others throughout human history, but we really are living through scary and precipitous times. Not just politically, but if we don't start to align our politics with the reality of the state of the planet we live on, then we might just be another in a long line of species that have died out on this blue-green speck of a mote on a sunbeam in the endless sea of the Universe. It's time we start making the civilization we ALL deserve, not just the privileged few. 

Wait, how about those teeth and that credit? That last post didn't even have a title. What's going on here?

That's right observant readers! I never said what happened to my teeth or my credit. I am not with it yet, eh? I'm getting there. At least I noticed tonight, only about thirty minutes after posting the last title-less post. Sad.

So what happened was, I got in that terrible accident, and about a year later I got a settlement. With that settlement I fixed my teeth and paid off my debts. Most of them anyway. I've still got one hovering about. Sometimes I think I enjoy being miserable. Not that much though, because I'm far happier tippy tappy typing about on my laptop at home, than cooking at that hospital. Of course, getting paid for my writing will be much more beneficial to my well being than giving it away for free here on my blog. I need to write though. The only way to get better is by doing. I've done my research, so now I do. And learn.

Well, I suppose I could talk about these past few weeks. I've been home on a medical leave of absence from my job for the past almost 3 months. Complications from the car accident in my right leg. The vascular system is shot. I had some ulcerated sores on my right ankle that took forever to heal because of my condition. In the process of healing, I've come to the realization that I can no longer work a physical job. My body can no longer take the abuse. So currently I am trying to get on disability through work, get a new job through work, or just leave altogether and pursue this writing career.

After the first month or so, I started going for a walk every day for 30 to 45 minutes to get the ol' heart pumping. Also to keep myself occupied I've been finishing the inside of the house that I moved into over a year ago. My office is organized and fully functioning, my front closet is the same, and I've hung all of my paintings and art on the walls. Just a few more minor projects and the inside will be pretty slick my man. Slide me some skin.

After that, I'll finish up that mother-scratchin' garage biz-knee. Garage business. The framework is there, just gotta put all the pieces in place. It's all coming together now. Soon my truck will be in the garage. Bring on the snow old man winter, I'm not afraid of you. You can't kill me Unless I die of exposure or hypothermia, then you can kill me. But that's not going to happen because my truck will be in the garage. Ha. Suck on that Ice Queen. Gonna rock this town. Polar vortex ain't got nuthin' on my car hole.

I've kept busy, as you can plainly tell. Oh no sir, it's not sleepin' in time, and there's no dolphin waxing until at least after the lunch hour. I'm carving out a whole new paradigm for myself. I don't  know how long it'll take me to get to the point of self sufficiency, but  by God I will get there. I crave the freedom of working for me. I'm tired of making money for someone else.

Geez, listen to me gettin' on my high horse. It's just been a long time that I've been knocking myself out for an entity that could care less whether I'm there or not, alive or dead. I'm just happy to be working for me now. But like I said before, it's gonna take me some time and hard work getting to the point of making real money.  Plus, for the next blog, maybe I could write about something a little more interesting than me dropping out of the working world I knew to pursue a career in something that I, granted, enjoy, but am not a professional at. Which of course will come with time, just with anything. It's all good brah!  See you on the flippy floppy. Maybe next time we talk about pirates.No, robot pirates. That's a damn fine subject. It's settled then: butt  pirates tomorrow. Good night!

Knock, Knock...
...
..
Knock, Knock...
...hrmmm...
...
KNOCK, KNOCK

Hello!?!!

Knock, knock, not hello.

What?

It's a knock, knock joke.

Knock, knock?

Yes.

Who's there?

Precisely.

Precisely who?

What?

Precisely who? I'm playing your game.

You're playing my game?

Yes. Isn't that what you wanted?

Well,.., yes. Yes of course.

You hesitated.

No I didn't.

Yes you did, I heard it. Distinctly.

Distinctly?

Quite.

All right then, I did hesitate.

Why on Earth did you hesitate?

Well... it's not so much the joke as an alarm clock.

An alarm clock?

Quite.

Well, what pray tell might this alarm clock be for?
Precisely.

The alarm clock is for waking you up.
Precisely.

Is it now?

Yes, quite.

So, you're telling me that I have been asleep. Is that correct?

That is correct.

Ok. How long?

Look at the date of your last post here. You've been asleep since your last blog post.

I don't know how to find that.

I'm not surprised.

What?

Nothing, just go up top somewhere and look around. You'll stumble upon it soon enough.

Ok then. I'll get to that. First off though, who am I?

You're the writer.

I'm the writer?

Yes you are.

OK. Who are you then?

I'm the alarm clock.

You're the alarm clock?

Oh yeah.

I don't believe you.

Good. You shouldn't, and frankly if you hadn't just told me that I would have scrapped this whole project from the git-go.

So, you're not the alarm clock?

No, but it is a minor responsibility that somehow made it into the bylaws millenia ago, and I must fulfill all the duties of the office. So, for all intents and purposes, officially, yes I am the alarm clock.
Begrudgingly. Antiquated laws will add to the decline of this empire. But I digress.

So, you are the alarm clock, and something more.

Yes, something... more. Indeed.

What might that something more be exactly? You sound a bit ominous.

For now, that's for me to know, and you to find out.

OK then. That's great. Not creepy at all. Thanks for that.

     All right then, now that I'm awake, what is it I'll be writing about?

     Hello?

     Really? You're done?

     That's it? No mas? Yo quero alarm clock.
 
     Fine. That's how you want this collaboration to move forward? That's fine by me friend. I've got things to do. Places to go and write about. You come and go as you please. I don't give a rats ass. Ya freak.


Well then, as long as I'm awake, might as well get caught up. It's been some time since I last wrote an entry in this blog. Very long time. I have no idea how long, and don't know how to check it without turning this into a draft and confusing myself, so I'm going to guess it's been over 2 years since I last posted here. Probably over three. Maybe since  before my car accident. I don't know. I'll check later and let you know in a later post. I'm just going to assume it was sometime around the time of my accident.

Let's get caught up then. What say we start from the accident? Splendid.

The accident. It was the fourth of July, Two Thousand and Eleven, at 2:07 p.m. I was in the  Eastbound lane of rural two-lane IL highway 22, (speed limit 50 mph), heading home at 48-50mph after an uneventful day at work making food for the sick and the weary, and the patients as well. Within a  quarter mile of leaving the hospital parking lot, I came upon the intersection from whence the accident did occur from the right side, that is to say, from the South. She was a Westbound sedan, 4 door upper middle class brand with a 16 year old spankin' new driver just lookin' ta set off some holiday cheer with her friends no doubt! Oh the travesty. Oh the travesty indeed. For me. Not her. She walked away unscathed physically. I can only hope her view of my broken frame haunts her dreams for the coming decades. I was majorly fucked up.

Multiple broken ribs, lacerated liver, left lung punctured, fractured sternum, beat ta hell right kidney, spiral fracture of left ankle, fractured left fibula, fractured right tibia, and a shattered right femur.

8 1/2 months after the accident, I went back to work cooking at the hospital. With a compression stocking on my leg I could do my job. Quite well as per usual. But time and age work their magic on a busted leg and out you go. I am physically unable to continue the work I used to do to make a living. I can no longer be on my feet all day without the threat of continued damage to my leg. I'm done being on my feet. No more.

Currently I've been on a leave of absence from work until they can figure out if I am to be placed on disability leave, or job placement. Not sure which, kind of in the dark. Bureaucracy and such. Red tape, what-not.

Regardless of all that, I need to find something else to do, whether or not the company gets me a spot or not. It's time I started workin' for me, Jack! Let the chips fly where they may, I'm gonna let my freak flag fly free!!! Don't mess with Texas!!!

It's time to write. Write, write, write. What then? What shall I bring to the fore? Current events? All things blueberry? Shakespeare on the hound? Witty banter concerning current events? Cat talk? The sky's the limit I suppose. You are what you write. Is that what they say? I don't know. I'm guessing some form of this blog has already transpired somewhere and when on the web. Not the most original idea really. Someone else blogging about their career change, hoping to make a living by writing. On the web.

I've done some research over the past few days. It seems that it can be done. Don't fool yourself though. It is work. I won't bore you with the details here, as I'm not getting paid for this, and it's just my introduction back into this writing world.

I suppose I need an end for this beginning. I'm jumping off into the abyss, throwing my pen into the ring to at least make a living and pay the bills. It's easier than cooking, and might just pay better. I'm going to give it a go. Why on earth not. Life is far too short to be stuck in a job you hate. Do what makes you happy. Be. Find your joy. Well, it's a start. More tomorrow. 8^)

Ode to Jack La Lane, and Grandfather Ball

What an inspirational man Jack La Lane was. He got thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of bon-bon munching, depressed, fat-ass housewives off said fat-asses, and got them up and moving, getting in shape and motivating them to make a better pot roast for their husbands to come home to. Of course this was back in the '50's and 60's before women had jobs, or the vote, or the vim and vigor to get out there and earn 70% of what a man makes in the working world. But by God, they did it, and a few years later they got the women's liberation movement, and Gloria Stienem helped them make a big stink about every little thing, and now we're all finally equal. All due to Jack La Lane, a man, and his in home exercise system to get the ladies moving.
     But I don't want to talk about the ladies, I want to talk about exercising, and getting my fat-ass in shape so I don't end up a feeble, brain addled nincompoop, if and when I get to be an old man. If I have to get old and fall apart, I'd like it to be a little less painful than if I was 80 Lbs. overweight with onset diabetes, emphysema and cirrhosis of the liver, 'cause that's what I was lookin' forward to the way I was livin' my life. Of course livin' like that, I would have been assured not to make it to any ripe old age. Now at least I've got the chance, and I'll take it if I can. I've had my wake up call, (a.k.a.,second chance) luckily, and now it's time to make good on it.
     This coming weekend I'll be doing my fitness assessment with a personal trainer down at the gym. He'll get me set up on a plan to work away the pounds of flesh that I've accumulated lo these many years, and especially these last few months since I quit smoking. I know it's going to be rough, but I feel I've already laid a pretty good foundation so far this past month. I've got a good routine going so far, and have even upped my speed walking to actual jogging. I've been sweating profusely. It feels good, but I just haven't seen any real results as of yet. I think I'm just keeping the weight gain at bay, not actually dropping the pounds yet. So I'm looking forward to getting a plan in place and stepping up the workout to a whole...new....level. That will be for the running and the cornucopia of machines that are offered up at the gym. When it comes to swimming, I don't think those trainers know their breast-stroke from a hole in the ground,(that's what she said), but that's ok, I swam in high school, so I think I can figure that one out. It's been going quite well so far. Swimmingly you might say. HA!  I'm at about 1400 yards per workout after one month. Not too bad, but I do know how to swim correctly. Swim correctly you ask? Yes indeed, swim correctly.
     There is a technique to swimming in an efficient manner that will get you through the water with an acceptable amount of effort, and yield you a great amount of physical good. It's still a bit of work, but it wouldn't be exercise if there wasn't now would there? You don't want to stay fat and lazy forever do you? I'm not going to go through all the minutia of movements to a good freestyle stroke, but I will give you the basics to get you started. First you need a bathing suit, something form fitting that will reduce the amount of drag as you move through the water. I myself use a standard Speedo that you see the Olympic swimmers wearing like that dope smokin' Phelps kid that won all the gold medals, even more than Mark Spitz. I believe that when you're working on getting in shape, vanity has no place in the conversation. I might look a little funny, but that's ok 'cause I'm there to work. Let it all hang out baby. Next a pair of goggles will do you a world of good. Not only do they keep the water out of your eyes, but you can see quite well under water which keeps you on the right track, and occasionally lets you peer at the ladies in the other lanes surreptitiously as you're moving along. Not that I would do that mind you. Now, that's all that I use when it comes to equipment. Some folks like to use the form fitting wax like earplugs, or the nose-plugs to keep the water out. That is, if you're a pussy. Nothin' like a little snort of pool water up the nose to let you know you're alive, and build some much needed character I say. This country, and this current generation is entirely too coddled when it comes to inconvenience and making an effort to succeed  in my humble opinion. But then again, what do I know? Swim caps are only acceptable if you have long hair, so chicks and long haired dudes may use them. If you've got short hair, and you're using a swim cap, then yer a fag. No I don't mean a gay fag, I just mean a fag as in, "What a fag.", or when you look at the guy at work that kisses way too much ass, then you're a fag. It has nothing to do with your sexual orientation.
      Since I've been swimming at the gym for the past month, I've seen some pretty interesting accessories that people are using to reach their full potential. For example: various sizes of flippers from two inches past the toes all the way up to scuba size monsters that look like they weigh a whole lot more than I'm willing to strap on to my twinklin' little toes. No sir. (I said "strap-on"!)  Then you've got the scuba mask, webbed gloves and of course the snorkel for our short-breathed friends, all adding to the drag of the swimmer. I don't want it to be any harder than it has to be. Swimming isn't hard in the sense of the technical movement through the water, it's just the constant-ness and sense of plodding along, working so hard to keep it moving that is the drag. Breathing differently, suckin' down gulps of pool water, reaching further, kicking harder, pushing, pushing. Slappin' something else on my body to slow me down intentionally is not what I'm lookin' for. I'm like a naked dolphin, sliding through the waves. That's a pretty faggy thing to say. I get flashbacks of high school swim practice with coach Parsons overseeing our nautical progress, guiding our aquatic acumen from his poolside small fold out table with practice schedules and other swim related literature. He was a quiet, short and bald man with hair on the sides and back,(what do you call that?), sporting a full mustache, wearing the requisite coaches polyester gym shorts and usually a white polo shirt, doling out his brand of small town folksy wisdom and common sense to the young men that were called "Lakers".  
     It's been a couple of days since I last wrote on here, so I have now had the fitness assessment, and the guy picked out a basic workout for me on a host of weight machines. I've got a file with my workout sheet that I follow until I'm comfortable, then find another machine to add to or replace with the program. I'm not used to lifting weights though. It's a whole new experience, and discipline for me. Mind you I'm not going for the muscle bound lifestyle in any sense. That just ain't my thing. I just want to have enough muscle power to play the things that I like to play. A little stamina wouldn't hurt as well. Not that I have a problem with stamina, I'm not saying that at all. But compared to the 25 year old me, I wear out faster than I used to. Such is life.    
     There you have it for this edition, don't forget to brush your teeth, and pay your bills on time. Speaking of which, nothing of import to report on that front. Working on it, is the official statement at this time.
  

"Drag me towards that new technology, and pry my cold dead fingers off my turntable, would you son?"

I just bought a new cell phone this week. It's quite a dandy. It's not a "smart" phone, but pretty intelligent nonetheless. It's an LG Octane. OK, first of all, the name of the company is LG, which stands for "Life's Good". That's right, Life's Good. When did we start naming our companies like this? I'm guessing it started when online companies like Yahoo and Google got big and made so much money it didn't matter what a company called itself. But those are internet companies. The internet is new and funky and exciting and weird. It's supposed to have strange sounding company names. But a phone company? It just doesn't seem right. I grew up in the monopolized world of Bell Telephone, and International Business Machines, back when a business's name meant something by God. It told you who they were, and sometimes what they did. None of this feel good, hippy-drippy, let's all be friends and get along nonsense. NO! This is business. Let's all be sensible then shall we. We've got money to make. Bottom lines to draw, and ledgers to balance. We have no time for your happy names, your silly monikers.
      But that's the way it is, like it or not. The only constant is change. Roll with the flow or get run over. I've decided to roll with it myself. I got my first cell phone only about 3 1/2 years ago. Just a phone, no internet applications or mp3 player or movie player. It worked well enough. I've kept up with the national trend of getting a new phone about every 18 months or so. One phone I had to get because I dropped the old one in the tub with my kids. Because my credit is so shitty, I couldn't really enter into a contract with a phone company again, so I ended up buying one of those pay as you go phones that you can pick up at Wal-Mart. It worked well, but I knew that I was paying an exorbitant amount on it. I didn't know exactly how much until the last couple of months since I've been tracking my spending and keeping a budget on a website called Mint.com. It's pretty kick-ass. Here's a link if you want to check it out:https://www.mint.com/. It lets you make a budget with just about any topic you can think of, you keep track of your bank accounts and credit cards, savings and investments. It links up with all of your money institutions and gets your info to organize, and put it in order for you. You can set financial goals, track all of your spending and split your expenditures as well if need be. You can also look at your spending trends as well. I'm really diggin' it. I digress. So......since I saw that I was spending way too much on my little phone, I decided it was time to find a new one that cut down dramatically on my monthly bill, and I thought I might just be able to enter a contract with a major carrier now that I had a couple of years of paying my bills on a mostly timely manner.  I ended up going with Verizon for a couple of reasons: for one, I get a 22% discount on it through my work, and two, I'm pretty sure I still owe AT&T $150 or so. Not much of a choice at all really. I was all hopped up at first to get the smart phone, but when I found out what my ex pays for her non-smart phone, and that you can't get one without internet, I decided on something a little less flashy, and less costly. It's still a helluva lot more than what I was using though. It's got a great camera, which I really wanted, and which also can record video. You can download all kinds of music onto it too, which I'm doing as I write. Only about 10 songs on the phones internal memory, but you can get as much memory as you want with a removable memory card, which is about the size, and thickness, of my thumbnail. It's all so very exciting. I ended up buying the memory card today, then went to the library to borrow as many CD's as I could, and am ripping them to my computer so that I may then copy them to the card to put into my phone. I'm like a kid in a candy store! Great, now the music companies will be after me for stealing their music from the library. You just can't catch a break around here. Sheesh!
     Texting is not my forte, but now that I have a phone that makes it grammatically easier, I am much more open to the idea of it. I flip the phone open lengthwise, and it's got a full sized keyboard with all the punctuations, a space bar and the number keys up top. Then it's got a screen and speakers on the inside as well, so I can listen to an album, or a podcast while I'm texting away. Or maybe not, I haven't actually tried doing both yet. But it still kicks ass!
     Technology is a great confusing tool that takes me a little time to get used to, but once I do, it's a piece of cake. How did we ever live our lives without cell phones? How could we survive without constantly being in touch?  What was wrong with us? I'm sure my children will ask me that someday. I just hope I can raise them so that they don't feel dependent on technology for their every need and whim. They just need to get their asses out of the barco lounger and get outside.
     That's all for now. Kinda tame I admit, but I'm just not feeling that controversial right now. It'll come  back. Remember to pay your bills on time, and  brush your teeth.

"Get back up on the G.D. Horse!"

I guess two months is long enough of a hiatus from the blog. Not that I planned on being away this long. It just kind of happened. It was brought on by about a week of depression shortly after my last entry, when I learned that Google Adsense would not let me make money with them any longer due to the fact that I openly asked people to click on the ads on my blog. I was mistaken, and have acknowledged this to all of you, and to Google, whom I appealed to to get back in their good graces so I could make money again with Adsense. They are having none of it, and that is that. So I was depressed, which I got over within a week or so, after I took a trip to my friend Serena's house to visit for my birthday, and get away for a few days. That helped. As for why I didn't start back in to writing the blog when I returned home, I chalk up to lack of motivation, laziness, procrastination, and a general malaise of the soul. I just couldn't get it up.
     So now here I finally am, getting it up. I can't say that I've actually rid myself of the afflictions that have kept my fingers from the keyboard, but I've found through the years of being with myself, that when it comes to me and getting things done, the only way I'll do it, is if I just start doing it. It's the getting started part I seem to have the hardest time with. Once I get goin' I'm like a perpetual motion machine, I just keep chuggin' along. So let's talk, shall we? I'll get my coffee.
     Besides the usual work, hang with the kids and pay the bills, there have been a couple of new developments. At the beginning of March I joined the "Health and Wellness Center", (a.k.a. the gym), through work, It's been just over 6 months since I quit smoking, so I figured it's time to start trimming off the 25 or so pounds I acquired since I did. And to get myself into some sort of shape besides amorphous blob. I'm starting off slow and easy, as I want to keep this up for a long time, and don't want to give myself a heart attack the first couple of weeks in the gym. I start out stretching with some Yoga moves I learned in a class 15 years ago or so, then walk briskly on the treadmill for about 2 miles, usually accompanied by Spongebob, or whatever the History channel has to offer for the day. Then it's off to the rowing machine for 2000 meters, about 10 minutes, then over to various weight machines for some lightweight repetitions, always hitting the abdominal machine the longest. Someday soon I will again see my nether regions without leaning forward 45 degrees to get past the roundness of my gut. Finally I change into my brand new black Speedo's and hit the pool for about 1000 yards of swim/kick/pull, always stopping in front of the mirrors first to bask in my glory. I am Adonis! After the swim, I hop in the whirlpool for a few minutes and let the hot water jets work their magic on my complaining "muscles". Yeah, that's right, my lower back! Then hit the showers, weigh myself to see that I've once again lost 3 lbs. in water weight, get dressed and head on home to some sort of meal, and a little mindless television.
     The gym offers a fitness assessment with one of their personal trainers, which I have signed up for, and have only done one half of. I haven't yet done the whole thing, because I need to get the OK from my doctor to do the cardiac portion of the assessment. Which brings me to the other development in my life in the last couple of months. My first physical in almost 20 years. Scary stuff indeed, but it must be done. That is if I want to know just what's going on with my body. From a doctor's point of view, as opposed to my superstitious guesswork as to all the funky goings on inside the flesh. I like science. I think it's a good thing. I may be a spiritual person, and believe in the power of the mind to heal, but when push comes to shove, I want a doctor with proven science on my side. Surprisingly to me the physical went off without a hitch. No major problems to report. A little bit of a heart issue since my dad died of a heart attack, and my brother has some arythmia or flutterings or something goin' on with his ticker. I've got some kind of flutterings myself, so they've got me wearing a portable heart monitor for the next week which I need to record whenever I feel  it happening. She also put me on Crestor, which is a cholesterol medication to get that under control, and Fish oil, Niacin, and multi-vitamins to boot. Good God I'm gettin' old. "Where's my pill box Mildred? I left it next to the sink in the bathroom, damnit!" I took a stress test yesterday as well. That consists of walking on a treadmill, increasing speed and grade until they get your heart rate up near 100% of what your age range dictates, which for me is 177 BPM. I got up to 173 after 11 minutes. Not too bad. Everything was normal on that as well, as far as the nurse could tell. A cardiologist needs to give it the final go over. Back at the physical, I went over my laundry list of aches and pains and fears with the doctor which helped her get a more complete picture of my sorry state of affairs. Hypochondria and heart problem aside, I'm doing pretty good for somebody who abused themselves as much as I have over the last 20 years. Lucky fucker. I almost forgot! The ol' prostate is doin' just fine as well. I'm just glad the doctor was a lady. A hot young blonde no less. That's the  biggest sexual thrill I've had in over two years!  Too much? Too bad.
     Even though I've got all this positive action going on in my life, I'm still stuck with a mouth full of rotting teeth, two of which are abscessed and really need to come out. On that front, a couple of weeks ago I got some fairly good news from an old frat brother of mine. Turns out his nephew works for the biggest producer of implants in the country, right here in the Chicago area. I got in touch with him, and gave him my insurance info so he could pair me up with some of his clients, dentists, who might be able to help me out. Plus he might be able to cut the cost of the implants dramatically as well. Well he got me in touch with a local dentist/cosmetic dentist in the area. I went to their office a few days ago to see what they were all about, and what they could offer me. It's a pretty upscale place, with state of the art equipment, and back massaging dental chairs. I was in heaven. But heaven costs money on this plane of existence, and I still have no credit. I really liked this guy, 'cause he's the first person I've talked to who actually said that a lot of my remaining teeth could be saved. Albeit with 5 implants, numerous root canals, bridges and caps, but saved they could be. Of course the cost is where I'm screwed. Right around $32K for the whole procedure spread out over a couple of years. Compared to $40 to $50 K to take out all my teeth and get full implants from one of the implant shops. I feel more informed, yet still impotent to finding a monetary solution. What to do. Indeed.
     Well, I still have some leg work to do, and more research into other options. I've yet to check out the dental universities, and I figure I can talk to my local bank as well. The worse they can do is say no. I've heard that before. No big whup. I also got the idea from somebody to write a short book, maybe 30 or 50 pages, self published on Amazon. Why not. I've already got a few ideas floatin' around in my head. Lord knows I've cranked out quite a few pages on this blog so far, so what the hell. I can write about a book a month maybe, and see much I can make. Somebody out there will buy my schlock. Maybe you. One can dream.
     On that note, this posting is complete. Don't forget to brush your teeth, and pay your bills. And if you feel like donating up at the top of this blog, feel free, and thanks.  

Obsessive Ignorance

Well dear readers, I have broken the rules of Adsense on this Google blog. I openly asked readers to click on my ads to help make me money to help get to my goal of fixing my teeth. That was a no-no according to the terms and conditions I agreed to with Google when setting up this account. I was under the impression that the only stipulation I was to adhere to was that I could not click on my own ads, but much to my chagrin, I was wrong, which they let me know yesterday when they cut off the Adsense program to my blog.
     I have been very excited about this blog since I started it way back on the 14th of January. Perhaps a little too excited. Enough to overlook the rules and ignorantly just ask for help getting money. Here's the thing with the ads: when they are clicked on I make a couple of bucks here and there. But asking for people to click on them artificially inflates the earnings for me, and that is against the rules. They want people to honestly click on them for information, without me asking you to. That is wrong. Now I know.
     The truth is, I was a bit obsessed about the idea of making money on here, and let my naivety and ignorance blind me to what I was doing. I have appealed to Google to reinstate the Adsense program on my blog and am awaiting their decision. I'm guessing they won't put it back on. If that's the case, then oh well. I originally started writing this blog to write about my journey, and to maybe help others along the way as well. I did the Adsense 'cause I thought, what the hell, why not? So I will continue writing the blog as long as Google allows it. If not, I'll go to another site. They're not the only game in town. I appreciate them, but if they want to let me go, it's up to them.Although, if you would like to make a donation, that option is still available at the top of the page.
     I want this blog to be honest, informative, and entertaining. It should not be about making money, and I think I may have lost sight of that.
     That's it for now. I'm working on my next post as this goes out. All about the blizzard of '11! Thanks for reading, and as always, brush your teeth and pay your bills!