Sean Ongley

Category: Writing

Past and Present examples of the writing of Sean Ongley.

  • Finding Kokesh, or, WHY DIDN’T I TAKE THE ACID?

    Finding Kokesh, or, WHY DIDN’T I TAKE THE ACID?

    We have all heard this notion that anyone who actually wants to be President of the United States has to be insane, and therefore unfit for office. I believe most people agree with that.

    So what if that candidate’s platform is to dissolve the federal government? Which candidate is crazier, the one that wants the job or the one that wants to make the job go away?

    This is Adam Kokesh. He is a bona fide madman, but I would trust him with power because he doesn’t want it, and ran for President in 2020 with the Libertarian Party on this platform.

    Whether or not I agree with his position to destroy all federal power, we share the same anarchistic ethos.

    Kokesh calls himself a voluntaryist. Personally, I relate, as I have always considered volunteering an important part of my life. Ten years ago, I had no space in life for a job because everything I did was volunteered. I still basically live that way, but I make money.

    The Libertarian Party is no less statist than the Green Party, when it comes down to it. Can you call yourself an anarchist and be involved with a political party? I certainly think you can tolerate political parties, as it is not your responsibility to ban them. I just don’t see how it works the other way around.

    The characters attracted to and involved with Libertarianism have always varied from anti-federalists like Kokesh to corporatist millionaires simply out to protect their wealth by leveraging federal power to skirt regulations that actually protect communities and individual rights. The resulting policy platform becomes, like the Green Party, off-center but far from any radical change.

    Adam Versus The Man was a very big YouTube show. Kokesh sat down with Joe Rogan in the early years of his podcast. Adam is a combat veteran that became an anti-war activist, but I haven’t frankly researched much further than our direct contact.

    Today, he is damn near cancelled. Last week, he was beefing with Spotify and Rogan for removing his episode from the platform, even though the JRE video is up on his own YouTube page. His Twitter profile remains intact, and that is how we got in touch.

    Marcus from Aquarian Anarchy podcast was his press secretary during the campaign. I was on that podcast in January, and before that, two of the hosts were on my own livestream. Maybe that is why Adam’s girlfriend The Commander in Kief followed me back on Twitter.

    Shortly after that, Kokesh was arrested for possession of federally regulated drugs, in Saguache County, Colorado, even though they have been legalized in Denver County. His core supporters mobilized to get him out, launching the hashtag #FreeKokesh.

    Kief began showing pictures of her relationship with Adam. This was a clear PR move, but whatever, that’s how I learned they were connected. I followed him and he followed back.

    The chargers against him were eventually dismissed, due probably to his purposeful lack of cooperation, and public support. 

    I contacted Kief, saying that I’d like to visit their compound in Ash Fork, Arizona. I make the annual trip to visit family in Tucson, but this was an extra destination.

    I am about to make a life-changing transition from urban to country, I am considering leaving Pennsylvania to come back out west. Alternatively, I could try for two properties — this really is a dream to own at least two places where I love to be.

    When I arrived in Phoenix early Friday morning, I picked up my rental car and made my way north to Ash Fork. I cruised around the region to scope out some parcels.

    Much of the area is just not acceptable for my needs, from topography to land values. Pretty much, the sweet spot is Ash Fork. I know a good investment when I see it.

    The town is dilapidated and scary, on an irrelevant stretch of Route 66. The motels look dangerous, there is very little commerce. All of this spells opportunity to me.

    Adam assured me that if I texted him, he’d be available. That’s why I got nervous when he didn’t answer. After a few hours, I figured I might as well walk about the main street and get to know the community by sitting in a bar. 

    The Oasis Lounge lured me like a mirage on the sand. 

    I walked in, immediately I was invited into the community. I met an engineer and builder couple with seven children who had given up their careers for a free lifestyle. They worked in the Portland area the last year I lived there. They bought me a round. Their daughter was the bartender, aged 19 and still wearing braces. The regulars ambled about like it was their living room.

    That’s when I got the text back from Kokesh. I invited him down for a beer, he accepted, as he was on his way to the Family Dollar down the street. 

    When Adam walked through the door, it was obvious, with his wild hair and beard, the ill-fitting work clothes, and the intensity of his gaze. I jumped up from my stool, extending my handshake to say, “Mr. Kokesh!”

    “Hey! Sean…” he replied.

    “Nice to meet you, glad you made it — have a seat!” showing him the beer selection.

    “I’m sorry man, I forgot you were coming. I’m a dick.” He conceded. 

    Shrugging it off, just happy I wasn’t stood up, I said, “It’s all good.”

    “I’m on mushrooms too.” He wanted me to know.

    Sadly that was the end of his stash. I had my hopes set to shroom that night.

    He already wanted to know what my plans for Ash Fork were, looking to see whether or not I had some role to play in his community. I told him I still needed to feel it out.

    He downed his cider and we boogied, following him home through miles of unpaved road. He wanted to work alone until sunset, so I walked about the perimeter, hung out with the dogs, Thelma and Louise.

    The compound is powered by wind, solar, and locally harvested wood. Structures made from natural, recycled, and reusable materials are scattered over ten acres.

    Adam is 40 years old and I am 39. We are both fixed on starting families, supporting them with self-sufficient properties, and a community of creative freedom-oriented people.

    After finishing his work, he set up my bunk in the sound studio. There was a plaque on the wall from YouTube representing his achievement of acquiring more than 100K subscribers, around a decade ago. I asked him, “Has YouTube cancelled you yet?”

    “Oh Yeah,” he replied.

    He cannot post new content, although there are 263K subscribers to his channel today.

    “Too bad you don’t get a trophy for being cancelled too,” I said.

    “Yeah they should,” he said, laughing.

    We retired to his cabin and proceeded to drink his rum and fruit juice concoction. He offered me food, but I declined, as my metabolism had already settled on booze that afternoon at the Oasis. You can feel it when that happens. We smoked.

    We argued about government. 

    My argument is that we are not culturally prepared for that level of responsibility. The federal government might be the necessary component to maintain liberties across the fifty states.

    “You’re familiar enough with my body of work that I don’t have to explain…” Feeling out my level of fandom.

    I interrupted him, “No, I’m not!” 

    I had only heard his one appearance on Aquarian Anarchy, after his candidacy was over. I told him exactly what I thought about him then, I literally just thought, “I could hang out with this guy.” It was never my ambition to do so. It kind of just happened.

    Adam’s position is that the federal government can be eliminated in relatively short order. All programs can be carried out by the states. This means each state would become an independent nation.

    He called me out as ADD because I was, at that point, impatiently jumping in a lot. He demanded that I articulate my purpose and vision for my life. Every moment was friendly and good natured, but challenging. Friends should challenge each other like this, without accompanying judgement.

    “I see your skills. I see your potential,” but he was trying to discover if there was some reason that I was in his life suddenly, as we were truly strangers getting drunk together in his house.

    I came to the conclusion that my vision and purpose has been clear to me for many years. The problem at this point is confidence.

    “The fact that I am here with you right now is an expression of my purpose,” I insisted.

    “I am so grateful and excited about twenty more years of hardcore work ahead of me,” explaining that I blew my purpose-driven life once already by letting insecurities hold the wheel.

    I started feeling emotional, carrying on that He and I were in the upper percentile of people that even try to follow their purpose and vision outside of what is prescribed for them by institutions. I began tearing up because I know from experience how most people give up before they even start, driven by fear, doubt, and insecurities, and those who pursue their vision without handling those issues, like myself, inevitably crash and burn, or they burn everyone around them to maintain control.

    Conversation had crescendo’d. He ushered me to my bunk. “Thank You for your hospitality,” I said, ready to sleep off the red eye flight.

    It was eight degrees when I woke up, but I was wearing a T-shirt and jeans by the afternoon. Immediately east of Ash Fork toward Flagstaff, it becomes forested desert, ski lodges and tourism, while immediately west, you’re back in pure desert.

    My purpose, in the morning, was breakfast, for which I drove thirty miles to the nearest diner. It was a good opportunity to ruminate on our talk.

    The truth is that I continue to struggle with the idea of individual purpose. I don’t believe anyone’s purpose is fixed. For example, I believe my technical purpose in life is to produce media and music, however, the real purpose behind that is to connect people into community, to open consciousness. This has always been the effect of my most successful projects. 

    Everyone’s God-given purpose connects along the same principles, regardless of how specific you get into someone’s individual situation, because our realm truly operates on base principles.

    When I got back, ready to work, I found Adam cutting lower limbs off trees. I was smoking a joint. He said, “Hey! You should know I dropped two tabs of acid. Do you want one?”

    I cracked up, “No!” I worried about driving home. That, and I never really lifted my personal rule to only do naturally growing drugs.

    He asked, “What do you want to do with your day, man?”

    “I told you I would put in some work and I’m going to do that,” reassuring him.

    We grabbed some gloves, a rake, and loppers, to go about clearing area for camping. I volunteered to rake the tumbleweed.

    He went back to his work and I went to mine. I sought the martial arts in the work. Pulling the rake by leveraging my body weight, I was able to reduce the stress on my body and clear a big area in a fairly short time.

    “Thanks for you work, man, it’s already looking great,” he said.

    “You’re welcome. I’m here to learn about this land, to discover what it means to manage this kind of property,” I said. I mean it truly, you have to feel it before investing.

    “I’m glad you see it that way,” he said.

    His neighbors came over and they continued the tasks just about when I had to go.

    Now I wished I had taken the acid. I realized, there was a headspace that I should have shared with this guy, to fully embrace my visit. I’m a psychonaut too! I really had enough time to peak, come down, and drive. I know I can handle my psyche. I am not afraid of it. One tab was not going to make me nuts. Truly, the universe was trying to say that it was time to try acid.

    When I got home and he retweeted our selfie, that’s when I realized how much this guy means to people, how legendary he is to so many. I was like, “Oh damn, he’s huge!” I don’t care if someone is famous or rich or whatever, so long as they are genuine people who live well.

    This, Adam is, for sure. He is a balanced man with masculine energy, a fighter, that is also concerned with beauty, love and truth, applying artistic creativity to his property, bringing a range of open-minded people together in community for the purpose of mutual empowerment. He generously offers of himself and wants the same.

    The best has yet to come, for both of us. He’s coming to a place where I believe if he runs again, he’ll be much more prepared, not just for the fact that he owns the tour bus and stuff like that, but because he is growing as a man. He was only 38 in his candidacy.

    The only problem I see in his message breaking through is his image. Not his personality, but for how the media will characterize him. How to get ahead of that is pretty darn hard, except, he hides nothing. The currency of the corrupt is secrecy. I don’t know if he has a secret.

    I see an absurdly transparent man, building his property out, preparing for a family. I could see him semi-retired from the public eye to enjoy the fruits of his labor, but the problem with that is, his purpose might be tied to public life. I am not sure if he can resist it.

    I know I cannot.

    Myself smokin’ a J in front of his tour bus.
    My preferred area has this clay soil.
    Beautiful moon over one of the domes.
  • Guest Appearance on Aquarian Anarchy

    Guest Appearance on Aquarian Anarchy

    The guys over at Aquarian Anarchy, whose roster of guests include the leaders from the anarchy, hotep, and libertarian communities, were gracious enough to have me on last week.

    Two of the three hosts of the show were guests previously on my livestreams. They are very open people and believe in taking a chance on building relationships.

    Liberty through leftism is what they wanted to focus on. To most of my community, I have become alt-right. To these guys, I am still a lefty.

    I had to concede that I am more of a civil libertarian decentralist. This means that I have not concluded that the federal government is inherently a bad construction, as it can levy power in a decentralized way toward freedom in the fifty state system.

    I believe the federal government should be reduced to where local communities are self-determined, and the federal government is there to protect that.

    We argue about secession, which I find to be a dangerous move.

    We relax and talk about music, stuff like that. For a two-hour podcast, I think this one is compelling and entertaining, and reviews many of the most important issues surrounding us.

    There was a little stuff that I didn’t choose to argue. I am sure that my social justice friends will be appalled by one or two statements here, but I am not defending anybody. My own views are unsettled sometimes anyway.

    As a civil libertarian decentralist, I want everyone’s rights to be respected. I don’t have to understand someone to respect them. Minding my business and taking care of my own, this is the ethic that outlives all liberal and leftist mores.

    Where pure anarchists I believe go wrong is that they forget that we are the world and the world is us i.e. the state. Leftists also play into a victim mentality, forgetting that they have agency over themselves but not others, and so the government isn’t meant to protect and save us. The only people who seem to realize they are the state are the state is them are ones taking advantage of it. The real victory, to me, is flipping this mindset in America.

  • At Home in the Diner

    At Home in the Diner

    North Philadelphia Avenue is the street leading to and from St. John’s Bridge, a utilitarian Portland, Oregon landmark, of which I had formed an extraordinary bond well over a decade ago. 

    Landing right into town, you take a right onto Lombard Avenue and there is a corner diner there at the next left. It is an old school sock hop soda fountain style diner. It isn’t retro, it has just been there forever. It is called Pattie’s Home Plate.

    Exterior of Pattie’s Home Plate

    The landmark restaurant lives there in memory only today. It closed just after I moved to Philadelphia in 2018. According to a friend of mine, the building was nearly sold. Due to structural issues, the deal fell through. Unfortunately, the owner shut down the active restaurant (and two other businesses) in advance of the failed deal, so the building has been vacant ever since.

    Anyway.

    The “home plate” pun is irresistible. It suggests a starting place and an ending, like rounding the bases you end up where you began. It is a plate of food that you’re seeking, and a refuge like home, but not, because you’re out.

    Pattie’s could not really be a true home away from home because it wasn’t open 24/7. Like many restaurants out west, they chose either to be breakfast and lunch, lunch and dinner, or dinner and cocktails. A few modern coffee houses stayed open late, so they fulfilled much of that role.

    24/7 restaurants offer a holy atmosphere. Especially in the Northeastern United States, with shining steel surfaces, tiled floors and walls, private booths with vinyl seats, the diner is something between a church and a hospital cafeteria. You go there to be healed — possibly to be saved.

    The first 35 years of my life were lived all over the West Coast. There, we do not have the diner tradition like that. In Portland, I can only think of three 24/7 restaurants. There was the Pancake House on Powell, Javier’s (fast Mexican food) on Lombard, and the Roxy on Stark Street. None of these use the term “diner” and they all have some other kind of theme.

    Roxy Cafe interior Portland, OR

    When I was about 20 years old, living in the valley in Los Angeles, I would jump on the 101 and drive like ten miles to the North Hollywood Diner just to drink coffee and eat toast, to read and write, living out a beatnik fantasy that only a young budding stoner intellectual would go out of their way for.

    That NOHO spot is an unusual place for LA, even though the city is full of 24/7 donut shops. Portland is full of coffee shops. Tucson has Waffle House and Denny’s. High school kids with cars that hung out there were “Dennys’ Rats.”

    A couple of weeks ago, I drove I-95 to and from Florida, and I found Waffle House to rule that route. It is reliable but I consider it a last resort.

    The Northeast is different from the rest of the country in many respects, but focusing on the people’s food, burritos are presented with more exoticism and a higher price point in Philly while hoagies are at every corner. Out west, is basically the opposite.

    Philadelphia diners have more Italian history to them — always a selection of pasta. New York tends to lean Greek — always a gyro. Jersey diners define the classic all-American melting pot, offering both gyro and pasta. 

    Jersey diners more often dress the building with steel siding that apparently armors it against the apocalypse. It suggests that this place is bullet-proof: You can rely on it.

    The Midwest is different still. I drove through the town that invented sliced bread in Missouri one time, I could not find a sandwich shop, except for Subway. 

    In Michigan, at least in the areas surrounding Detroit, you will find Coney Island restaurants everywhere, with a range of hot dogs, the typical burgers and omelets, but then it could have some other twist of their own. Usually gyros and pastas are on the menu.

    Wherever you go, there is a regional flavor to it anyway. It’s something I love about this country. We have at least 50 different twists on what it means to be American. You absorb a lot about an area just by sitting inside a local diner.

    However the people like to lay it out in their land, there will always be some demand for 24-hour food. For me, I want a place to sit. When I am with someone, a booth is great. Alone, the counter, because I can usually banter with the server and get faster coffee refills.

    Today, most of the demand for a commuter breakfast is met by gas stations and fast food. Personally, I go to Wawa and Dunkin quite a lot. They solve the problem. Especially Wawa, that place is the gold standard of gas station stops.

    Women at Luncheonette in New York, 1948

    I think about automotive culture and how that evolved the diner into its second generation. Early on, fast food was a hole in the wall near a train station where you could sit down to order a pork chop $0.15, one egg $0.10, toast $0.05, and coffee $.10, and be out in ten minutes for less than a buck, after tip. This was pedestrian life, pre-auto culture. These places are properly called Luncheonettes.

    Then the roadside diner sprang up along new highways and freeways interconnecting the nation for the first time since the railroad. This and commuters from the suburbs changed the idea from the hole in the wall by the train stop to a large building with a massive parking lot, huge signage, and lots of booths.

    Elmer Diner, New Jersey 1950

    I remember my first truck stop. I was a young boy, a few years old, riding home to Santa Barbara from Arizona after visiting some relatives. There is this remote Interstate 10 diner that was featured in the film, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. It was still a new movie at that time — a household favorite — so we had to stop there.

    This roadside attraction these great dinosaur structures that you could walk into, where, lo and behold, there was a gift shop. It’s primary goal was to attract business to Wheel Inn, and gas station.

    Original Postcard

    The atmosphere was fun and comfortable, and when the meal came out it was this massive chili burger and fries. I was delighted and exclaimed, “This is why I love truck stops!” And my father shot back, “But you’ve never been to a truck stop.” 

    He was making fun of me a little. But he wasn’t gaslighting me, it was true. Only I am sure that I knew what I was talking about. It turns out I was right. They are delightful.

    I stopped in there in 2018 but the restaurant was already gone and the dinosaurs became the main attraction.

    We didn’t have any diners around Santa Barbara, although I’d say humble restaurants with standard fare were far more common than today. Santa Barbara has been a gradual gentrification process, to become an epicenter of chic world-class dining. It is not the same town, but even around 1986, the road to its future was being paved in sun-dried tomatoes and sprouts.

    Today, the self-awareness of being a diner is a marketing concept. Before, it was just typical American dining: Always bread on the table, and always soup or salad before the meal. There are a few places that just keep doing what they’ve been doing for decades, and those places feel real. Too many new diners try to reinvent them to satisfy the bourgeoise. It is dumb.

    It is always dumb to focus your attention on the people who do not frequent your business.

    I made it my business more than three years ago, when I moved here, to visit every diner in the city. Whenever I think I am close to meeting the goal, I see one that I wasn’t aware of.

    Honestly, I accelerated my pace on that this year, due to domestic problems. I was three months into an eviction case that was severely protracted, thanks to the CDC eviction moratorium, and subsequent local laws based on that order. The tenant became irate and destructive, so to protect myself, I began to stay with other people. My presence in my own home became covert. I was avoiding the place like hell.

    During that desperate period of three months, I ate a lot of meals, and killed a lot of time, in diners. Even without 24/7 service, these places were available all over the place. The pressures of surviving that ordeal were alleviated by women asking me how I like my eggs, pouring refills of coffee. It was my hospital and church, especially in the morning. It was my home plate.

    Llanerch Diner, 2012, Photo by Marvin Greenbaum

    It was a winning strategy, but arduous. Today, I get to go to the diner not out of desperation but again to enjoy myself, to meet with someone, or simply to get a break from the road.

    And I have so much experience with them now, I could write a review for each one. The criteria for what makes a good experience is entirely my own. I would say in general, diner owners should hold back on LED strip lighting and modern tile designs. I don’t want to name names, but some of our best places are remodeled into oblivion. 

    Return to 24/7 as soon as possible, god willing someone likes working overnight. And keep the menu traditional, just improve the quality of the food, like spending an extra nickel on cage free eggs. If you’re about to spend $50K on bad tile installations, please consider the eggs. That is all. Thank You. I’ll see you soon anyway.

    SOURCES:

    Luncheonette, Bowery Boys Podcast

    Elmer Diner, Flashbak

    Wheel Inn Demolished, Rusting Relics

  • Know What You’re Worth

    Know What You’re Worth

    Self-knowledge is not only the intrinsic value of your existence, the spiritual powers and carnal qualities of your being, nor is it merely the sum of your productivity as a working human, it is also the superficial measurement of your net wealth.

    Not to elevate our finances to the highest value, but this analysis is one that can help guide you toward a life plan. To carry out a life plan will elevate your will power and imbue your life with purpose. This will lead to a greater good in your life, if you’re a good person.

    My financial writing is not meant for the wealthy. It is for the average person just beginning to get their boat afloat, if you like. I am myself just beginning to sail, and I am not wealthy.

    As soon as you embark on the journey of long term investing and retirement planning — no matter how old you are — it is good to have a sense of your net worth.

    There are probably lots of people who make more money than me who never bother with this. The structure of their finances are probably very similar to mine, so this spreadsheet would help them too.

    I bet there is an alarming number of medical doctors whose overall net worth is in the red.

    That prospect is simple. Say you’re a doctor. You’re 30 years old. You have a six-figure income, but you have $100K in medical school debt accruing interest, and you bought your first home adding $300K to your debt, again with massive interest charges. Assuming you lease your car (no debt), you’ll need home equity and investments valued above $400K to hedge against your great saddling debt.

    To look at the interest charges you’ll pay over the lifetime of a mortgage or student loan payment is frightening. Best to ignore it for now and focus on the idea of net worth in the event of liquidation.

    In terms of ratios, the person with no college, starting out at Walmart, in the short term will surpass the net worth of the doctor. The doctor is highly leveraged and carries liabilities out the gate in life.

    The 17-year old cashier could save at least 50% of their income at first and draw it down to 10% as they become independent, relieving the parents from the cost of hosting them. Out the gate, this worker has the opportunity to build their net worth in the green.

    If the cashier rises up to General Manager after ten years, they too can earn a six-figure income. If they learn how to invest their portfolio, they could end up living next door to the doctor in a cul-de-sac. Who gets there first is a tortoise versus hair scenario. The doctor will rapidly earn more money once they enter the workforce, but the entry level worker can build their wealth debt free.

    This is why everyone should plan their finances, not because it is a race or competition of some sort, just because anybody can elevate their situation with focus and planning. I am speaking from experience. I was raised poor and until age 34, I held myself down in poverty. I’m starting later than the doctor, I am low-income. With planning, I believe I will retire before age 60.

    Once every quarter, I go through all of my financial accounts and enter the balances into a spreadsheet. I am including it as a download here. It is a straight forward net worth analysis. Also notice that I have formulas in the cells. These are calculators. I did the work so you wouldn’t have to.

    There is a primary goal for this spreadsheet. It is to predict the maximum liquidity of all my assets, literally all of them, imagining a scenario where I want to reduce my debt to zero and unload my possessions down to a backpack full of cash and nothing but a change of clothes. This figure is my true net worth.

    When you see these celebrity and CEO net worth articles, most of them are highly overvalued. There is no way Elon Musk can cash out on his shares and retire with $100 billion in a duffle bag. It just is not that simple.

    It kind of leads to a gross misunderstanding of the term net worth. I call that gross worth. Net worth to me is simply my liquid assets minus the sum of liabilities. It is easier to figure than Musk’s money.

    In the process of building this spreadsheet, I decided to include net credit limit into the gross worth figure. If I started cash advancing my credit cards and pulling my balances as quickly as possible, what would be the maximum cash I could liquidate? For this, the spreadsheet adds up total available credit, cash on hand, investment accounts, inventory, and home equity.

    Inventory is important for understanding net worth. Considering the minimal time required to keep an inventory of your possessions, with model and serial numbers, I would say it’s worth it. You can even point that cell on the analysis to your inventory total so that it will update your net worth when you manage your inventory.

    By the time you go through your house, add up your car(s), furniture, computers, and devices, depending on how far you want to go with it, your cookware and knick knacks, with modest resale values associated, then you can track an ongoing inventory of your estate.

    The minus debt field simply deducts my credit card balances and all other debts from the gross, giving me the post-debt figure, which means I pay debts off but run my credit cards to the max to go off the grid. It’s a weird figure, it’s almost pointless, but I like it.

    Liquidity is the final figure for net worth in this spreadsheet. It is also the only realistic number. This time I leave the credit limit alone as if I’m cutting up my credit cards. I total up cash on hand, investments, inventory, home equity, and deduct all debts. This scenario would have the maximum cash I can stuff into a bag after selling all possessions, investments, while paying off all debts.

    The truth of your liquidity is still not revealed. There are costs every step of the way. If I sell my house, I’m out thousands in closing costs and fees. Some people still pay brokerage fees to sell their stocks. If you sell your inventory in a hurry, you probably will get a fraction of its top value. I bear all that in mind, but I don’t have a calculator for it.

    Finally, there is one more figure that I realized I should know and estimate for the sake of my parents. My parents will depend on me as they grow old, so I want to know how much they could potentially get from my estate if I suddenly passed, God forbid.

    I do not presently have kids, so I don’t have a serious life insurance policy. Mine is free through the credit union and it pays one grand, which amounts to a basic cremation process.

    The better news about this total, even though I don’t benefit, is that it adjusts for student loan forgiveness. The only person legally responsible for my students loans is myself. This is the case whether I’m single, or married with children. So long as I keep my credit ratio well below cash in the bank, and my other debts below my home equity, then there will be enough of my capital remaining for them to reinvest into their portfolio.

    Prepare for the worst, work toward the best.

    In addition to this template, I have sheets that reference investment balances to chart growth (or loss). I have a very simple sheet that I will update annually for 20 years to ensure I am meeting or exceeding my goals. If I exceed, then I should at that point own my property and inventory outright and be able to bring my monthly obligations down to negligible figures.

    My entire collection of sheets that work into the analysis and projections include a budget. I update this annually to estimate my income and factor in expected costs, everything from taxes to recreational drugs. 

    The whole jawn is a comprehensive tracking system that no third parties have access to. Don’t leave it up to corporations to provide your financial analysis. They use and sell your data. They might even mislead you. Learning this template will earn you the skill to track it all on paper if you want to.

    I have included three versions of the Net Worth Analysis template. It was built in Apple Numbers, exported to PDF and Excel. I replaced my figures with basic numbers and generic labels. You are meant to personalize it and refer to your accounts.

    It is simple, just start adding your bank accounts and what not into the fields and watch the numbers update. Many of the cells contain formulas. Drop a comment if you have any questions about it.

    Download the Spreadsheet

    PDF VERSION

    APPLE VERSION

    EXCEL VERSION

  • What Would We Do Without the Flat Earthers?

    What Would We Do Without the Flat Earthers?

    I decided that I would look seriously at flat earth theory.

    When I say seriously, I mean that I am genuinely willing to stand on a plane, and not a spinning ball, if the truth of it becomes obvious. 

    As a conspiracy enthusiast, I have already had plenty of exposure to the flat earth idea. There was a minute there on YouTube when the flat earth had its heyday. I watched a couple of them, but like everyone, I’ve been educated already. I’ve been looking at globes forever. It seems to me that the science is in: Earth is a globe.

    However, I am willing to entertain the possibility that we are living on a plane that is encased by an ice wall, protected by a dome, while the sun and moon transit across the sky under the dome.

    I notice that spheres are observable in the structure of our physical universe from the planet to the molecule. I have subscribed to the holographic universe idea. Every part contains the whole.

    Then maybe it is all a simulation.

    It is important that I accept what I don’t know.

    More important than standing on a globe is living in reality. If “A” is not “B” then I should not refer to B as A. That’s all I try to live by, straight forward logic. I only know what is obvious.

    The ways that we (the average people) use our limited exposure to science to develop a belief system is striking. I think of it as scientism, not science.

    Science is the art of disproving theory. It is the craft of truth seeking. It is total deconstruction.

    Belief is a tool of free will. If you are a scientist and you believe your theory is the truth, it will be your belief that carries you like a raft between the shores of uncertainty and truth.

    When the truth is exposed through science that the theory is incorrect, the scientist will be better to throw their belief away and find a new theory.

    Our belief systems have historically turned to religion. It doesn’t need straightforward causal logic. The thing is that people haven’t changed. Now we just find the supernatural with science.

    Science-fiction film and books are expressions of philosophy — lets not forget that I was raised in a religion founded by a science fiction writer — and the edicts of our physical world are passed down by the hierarchy of science academia.

    In this world, we are ruled by the theory of relativity, because Einstein is our Buddha. Perspective is relative. Truth itself became relative.

    We have only been literate for about 500 years. The printing press modernized the world. It made literacy universal. Universal literacy means not one person holds the power of knowledge over another. The onus is on ourselves to become educated. 

    The La Cosa Chart, World Map Circa 1500

    Notably in the arch of history are the religious and philosophical awakenings from the period of the printing press into the electric era. It makes me wonder exactly what are the changes to consciousness in the height of the electric era? Who are we now in the space age?

    The church conspiracy was to maintain the idea of the earth as the center of the universe. Putting earth off-center in the universe denies a creator. Physicists today use their advanced mathematics in their attempts to resolve this technical problem of a creator.

    The so-called big bang theory is the most successful example of creationist modeling. The universe is created by a singularity — a single act of creation. Today, theories of a multiverse are replacing that model.

    Perhaps the idea of a globe goes against our first impressions. It is generally easier to relate to our world as a flat plane. The globe had to be discovered. While everything seems flat, someone noticed issues with that and figured it to be round.

    Long before Copernicus and Galileo, and before Christ, there was Erathosthenes, whose experiment resolved the problem of flat versus round elegantly, by measuring two shadows. Wherever there is no shadow at noon on summer solstice, that is the equator. The degrees of the shadow are measured against the stick in the ground and the circumference is determined from that straightforward data.

    Copernican Model of the Solar System

    The flat earther would model the same shadows on a table using an overhead light and call it good. And I don’t know how to argue it.

    It isn’t much, but I did take Astronomy in college. It was a full year through the physics department. We did foundational experiments. We used basic algebra, but the ideas, and the fundamental science sure look to corroborate the conclusions of a globe, in a system that is moving together through space in relative motion along with the whole expanding universe.

    Even though we don’t have all the answers, for example, how the moon was created (or how creation was created) I always felt that modern physics gave us the what, where, and when of reality. The who and the why of the universe becomes a matter of philosophy and mysticism.

    Being mystically inclined, I don’t mind the creator being a mystery. I would rather bask in the mystery and the glory of the realm, the earth, than claim to know who gave it to us.

    This is a misleading model out of context of the galaxy.

    The proof in the pudding in the physics of the globe are supposed to be proven in the fact of space travel. This is where flat earthers get to be very difficult, because they flatly deny that space exists as we are told it does. It takes the notion that the moon landing was faked — a credible conspiracy theory — and extends that to say that virtually everything that all the world’s space agencies have done is fake.

    The reason I wanted to look honestly at flat earth theory stems from the fact that whenever I see a flat earth debate, the person married to the ball is usually stumped. It shows the weakness of accepting reality without studying it for yourself.

    Flat earthers are prepared, for a few reasons. First, they are looking at the world with a new lens, with fresh eyes, so it is exciting for them. Secondly, they are on the defense against ostracism. Third, they will get the same five arguments off the bat, and if they can defend those, and bring five more, they will have the average person who hasn’t performed a single astronomy experiment in their life stumped.

    You will never see a flat earth theorist debate Neil deGrasse Tyson in public. I would love to see it! I love seeing ideas clash. I like seeing things proven beyond a doubt against a well put argument.

    The assumptions and the facts that we take for granted are not unlike the religious folk around the time of Copernicus. We accept the scientist like we used to accept the priest. And we follow the dogma creating our own personal versions of scientism because we are mostly scientifically illiterate.

    In the time when people were fully illiterate, the church could say whatever they wanted. They could fabricate reality for people. There were those who were literate, and those who followed them. The Literati were all in on the deception of masses.

    If history repeats itself, and the truth is that there is a flat earth under a dome, then the globe is the greatest hoax of all time.

    If it is, then they shoved it in our face. Look at the United Nations logo. It is a flat earth model wrapped by what kind of reminds me of an ice wall, just like the flat earthers say it is! Lol

    Official United Nations Logo

    Jiu-Jitsu master and comedian Eddie Bravo is probably the most famous flat earther. He is a regular on the Tin Foil Hat podcast hosted by Sam Tripoli. A couple of weeks ago, Bravo hosted a debate on the topic, including one of the most prominent flat earth content creators, David Weiss. His opponent was a guy named Frank, a friend of Bravo, who is a bona fide scientist, specifically a molecular biologist.

    Eddie also had his own jiu-jitsu master Carlos Machado on the show — who brought on his mechanic friend — but they weren’t necessary, they became the excess cooks in the kitchen. It was a sausage fest, if you like. The show was jumbled by arguments. It got to be a mess. 

    Weiss had two bitcoin, he claimed, ready to give up if someone could stump him. But it never happened. Flat earth theory basically won that debate. By the end of the show, after Weiss bailed, it seemed that they were more focused on the reasons that NASA would fake space.

    So I took the red pill and went down the space rabbit hole again, starting with flat earth.

    It takes real mental fortitude to suspend knowledge to invite into your mind any far out ideas that could ostracize you from society. Especially to do it in a detached, honest way.

    The intellectual workout that happens there is that you can suspend knowledge, and you don’t have to accept what you’ve learned.

    To even be willing to get into flat earth content, you have to be able to handle the notion that everything you’ve been told is designed to fool you. We know from history that humanity and its power structures are more than willing to employ this method of control. The only thing is, what is the degree to which they are willing to fool you? This is where the ground of your existence, your sense of security can drop out.

    To replace your reality with flat earth theory is dangerous. It reminds me of people who were bleeding heart liberal democrats for twenty years to suddenly wake up to a new reality where republicans are the real people, the good ones, and all those years they were deceived, but the opposite team just so happens to be the true party. This is farcical. It should be obvious when you see the deception in one political party that the other is up to the same no good. But many people have to repeat the exact same process of disillusionment.

    Although I will include some content for you to look at for yourself below, this blog post is not about comparing the evidence or debunking anybody. I am offering my appreciation for anybody willing to challenge even our most fundamental ideas.

    Thank god for the flat earthers, because they force you to check your reality, to study up on your facts, to risk uncertainty for truth. In the end, you possess a more resilient intellect.

    Scientism is the eagerness to prove things with science explanations, to take scattershot facts and assemble them into narratives, like I do with my holographic simulation theory. So I don’t get angry if someone believes the earth is flat.

    Incidentally, space has been in the news quite a lot in the last few years. Billionaire executives Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos both rode test flights toward the project of offering travel services for millionaires who will begin taking rides to space as tourists.

    I believe it will also result in high speed international travel. Flying altitudes will become normalized over 100,000 feet, and old school planes will be looked at like Greyhound buses. Maybe Greyhound will absorb a piece of the flailing suborbital flight industry.

    I want to see a flat earther hitch a ride with Virgin Galactic with their own flat lens camera. It would be great publicity to have Eddie Bravo on board that ship.

    The privatized space race began over a decade ago when Obama privatized the space program, when SpaceX was a fledgling company and Elon Musk was far from a household name. I did a radio program about this — I need to find it in my archive and repost it here.

    The rubber will meet the road soon. I want all the flat earthers to ride those ships.

    I personally want to see the earth from above. I will be staring into that horizon with the intensity of a scientist in that moment. Momentarily weightlessness will be fun, but seeing the curvature — or the plane — for myself will be thrilling.

    The more that we venture into space, the more of the truth of our physical universe will come out. I will live today in awe of what I don’t know and what future generations may take for granted.

    Further Viewing

    Featured Image via Winter Patriot Blog

    Eratosthenes Experiment

    “200 Proofs Earth is Not a Spinning Ball”

    Flat Earth Debate on Tin Foil Hat

    iPhone 4S Balloon

    360 Camera Balloon 

    Space Station Video

    Virgin Galactic Test Flight with Branson