The journey continues

I mentioned I have an idea that I am working on. What I didn't mention was that I tried to get the attention of Elon Musk and Richard Branson. No success, obviously there are too many buffers between them and me. But I do aim high. My little brain is working on this all the time. I am not an engineer, I suck in math, but that is okay because I can hire those people to make things work.

What I have realized is that people aim to low. There is the fear of failure mixed in with the fear of success. Everyone can imagine the fear of failure. But success? If one achieves what you are shooting for and succeed, what next? Is success what you thought it would be?

When you are blazing your own trail you can only guess what is next. If it is something new, your map that you are drawing only shows where you have been and the starting point and the ending point of your journey, well you don't know where it will lead to.

That is an idea worth pursuing all on its own.

ray

Parenting, long hours, no pay

It is true you know. Just out of sight, never out of mind, the job of a parent is never done.

We have our own personal challenges daily, day in and day out and yet our children no matter what age lurk in the background. As a parent we hope for the best and yet best has several stages and levels.

At a certain point there is nothing we can do.

It becomes burdensome at times, yet we all give and give until there is no more. And give some more. You stand on the shore with a lifeline, realizing it is too short, hoping they can swim closer, hoping you taught them how, fingers crossed. Hoping for a happy ending, fearing for a bad ending.

A parent is supposed to be the rock, stoic, unshakable, it is just a mirage as a parent knows.

And the wait. see how it turns out. Hope for a happy ending, a soft landing, no crash and burn.

fingers crossed.

ray

Thought Process

I have read many biographies of famous and or important people over the years. Two recent examples are Nikola Tesla and Elon Musk. I like the fact they wanted/want to do something to benefit mankind.

That is the thought that surges through my mind and controls my thoughts, not money or fame but to help everyone, to come up with a game changer idea. My strength is my ability to envision something, my mind goes through the pros and cons of an idea. My weakness is the inability to proceed.

I am sure that I will find what I thought were insurmountable problems will be laughable down the road. Publicly stating a course of action and documenting the course of events will be exhilarating and scary, there will be butterflies a plenty for sure.

There will be applause and handshakes from some and head shaking from others as I continue along this journey. But this time there will be not failure from not trying. That alone will make me successful.

I will start a journal of sorts and at some point in time share it.

Time to draw a map and get started, no gps needed!

ray

The disappearing man

Almost to the day from a year ago, I have lost 30 lbs. The last 12 lbs have come from giving up candy, cake, cookies, and ice cream. I bring coffee (black), tea (unsweetened) and water to drink throughout the work day, close to 120 ounces, each day. I do eat something for breakfast and dinner when I get home.  I never hit the vending machines at work.

This is not rocket science of course. I am old or getting older. I hurt in many areas, knees and heel bone spurs are on the list.

I am on my feet upwards to 12 hours a day, sometimes more. The last few hours, as the sales floor slows down, the mind no longer occupied becomes painful. I experiment with food choices. I realized long ago the addiction to sugar. The more I read I realized sugar wasn't the only culprit.

Processed foods. It is not real food is it? Additives. Artificial coloring. Artificial flavoring.
Natural flavoring. Whiteners.

Is it real food? How can it be? When you go through the drive in and order up and complain how long it took to get your food (we all have), ever wonder what you are eating that can be served so quickly? Chicken nuggets? boneless wings? pretend ice cream? hamburgers? (why do they call it a ham-burger when there is no ham in it?) but I digress.

Cheap food is not real food. It can't be good for you.

Labels. Read them. Spend some time looking up what the ingredients mean and do. Titanium dioxide is a whitener and it is on a golf ball and in paint.  Trisodium  phosphate, known as tsp, in the paint aisle, used to de-grease walls before painting, in foods. Be aware, be active, do it. If not for you, for your kids.

Next.
Another 30 lbs. Even then, that will bring me back to 1980 weight wise. Not enough but goals have to be attainable.

Wish me luck, wish us all luck. I will need it.

Ray

Card Shark...son...clever man!

Do you see the card?

ray

Why is hemp illegal? Here is an example.

There is always a reason and most of the time it has to do with money.

from wikipedia

In 1937, the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed in the United States. It levied a tax on anyone who dealt commercially in cannabis, hemp, or marijuana. The reasons that hemp was also included in this law are disputed—several scholars have claimed that the Act was passed in order to destroy the US hemp industry,^{[106][107][108]} with the primary involvement of businessmen Andrew Mellon, Randolph Hearst, and the Du Pont family.^[106][108]

One claim is that Hearst believed that his extensive timber holdings were threatened by the invention of the decorticator, which he feared would allow hemp to become a very cheap substitute for the paper pulp that was used in the newspaper industry.^[106][109] Modern science suggests that this fear would have been unfounded. Improvements of the decorticators in the 1930s, machines that separate the fibers from the hemp stem, could not make hemp fiber a very cheap substitute for fibers from other sources due to the fact that the long strong fibers are only found in the bast, the outer part of the stem. Only about 1/3 of the stem are long and strong fibers.^{[33][106][110]}

Another claim is that Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury and the wealthiest man in America at that time, had invested heavily in DuPont's new synthetic fiber, nylon, and believed that the replacement of the traditional resource, hemp, was integral to the new product's success.^{[106][111][112][113][114][115][116][117]}

The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in a unanimous verdict decided in Leary v. United States, and ultimately superseded by the Controlled Substances Act of 1970.

Hemp was used extensively by the United States during World War II. Uniforms, canvas, and rope were among the main textiles created from the hemp plant at this time.^[118] Much of the hemp used was cultivated in Kentucky and the Midwest. During World War II, the U.S. produced a short 1942 film, Hemp for Victory, promoting hemp as a necessary crop to win the war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemp

ray

When I was a young lad I thought the Dave Clark Five were better than ...

the Beatles, mainly because of Dave Clark who I thought was a better drummer then Ringo at the time. I had all this expertise because I thought I was a drummer or really I was a wanna be drummer.
They had energy, a sax player, great singing and great songs. And their own movie!

It was a great time for music and the world was collectively waiting.

Below is just a snippet. The first album I ever bought was one of theirs.