Mindconnection eNL, 2019-10-20

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Item 1. The number of concealed carry permit holders is up 8% since 2018. This is good news for many obvious reasons. But if you are a rapist, mugger, or other violent criminal this is not good news for you.

Item 2. In the third quarter of this year, the UK reached a milestone. 40% of its electricity came from renewables, while 39% came from fossil fuels (the balance came from nuclear power). This is really good news, mostly because it shows what may be possible in larger countries such as China and the USA.

XPOWER A-2 Airrow Pro Multi-Use Electric Computer Duster, Canned Air Replacement

• By using the A-2 Airrow Pro, you will feel confident about not only eliminating the cost of canned air dusters, but freeing your home or office of toxic inhalants as well.
• Powered only by electricity, the Airrow Pro has no dangerous fluorocarbons and other deadly propellants.
• For U.S. or countries with 120V/60Hz power standards.
• With just one A-2 Airrow Pro Handheld Electric Duster, you will never need to buy another can of air again.
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• Convenient Features: Built-in 2-speed control, easy to change washable filter, and 10 ft durable cord that can be nicely wrapped around the unit for easy storage.
• Save Money and the Environment: Inexpensive and nontoxic. Unlike canned air dusters, the XPOWER A-2 Airrow PRO has no fluorocarbons or dangerous inhalants/propellants. This is a onetime investment so you will never need to buy canned air ever again.

Buy yours now.

Stop to think about what, if anything, of actual value you have gotten from FB. Then think about how much time you have spent to get that, if anything. And then think about how much personal security you have simply thrown away.

For most people, the "value" they get from FB or other anti-social media is a "like" or some other fairly meaningless affirmation. Instead of wasting hours to get that small reward, why not invest an hour or two helping a less fortunate neighbor? Maybe rake their lawn. You will be SO appreciated and you will get good exercise. Or become a mentor to someone, for an ongoing series of emotional rewards.

Similarly, I don't listen to the radio, read the newspaper, or watch TV. I stopped listening to the radio a few years ago. I stopped subjecting my brain to TV in 1990, though I never was much of a TV watcher to begin with. I stopped reading newspapers in 1982. The "value" people believe they get from these sources is "I am up to date about current events." How does being fed lies, distortions, and propaganda make you "up to date" on anything?

My recusal from "the lie machine" has left me with a much more accurate sense of what's going on than what I would otherwise have. No "junk food for the brain", here.

There is plenty of "mental food" that is good for you. Choose the good stuff.

Profit is revenue minus costs. Seems simple enough, but the number one reason 95% of new businesses fail is their owner/operators didn't know their costs. And so it is with "gig economy" jobs. The first thing you might notice about these is they offer the customer a big cost-savings over what they'd pay using a conventional service (e.g., Amazon uses UPS, a traveler stays in a hotel, a rider uses a cab or bus). That should be a big red flag, right there.

Where do you think those savings come from? The costs are externalized onto the gig economy worker.

Consider Uber

Let's take Uber for example. Cab service, with all its short distance trips, is considered "hard service" vehicle usage. All that starting and stopping cuts engine life by more than 50%. Uber drivers should change their oil every 2,000 miles due to hard service. It's a fair bet that 99.99% of them continue to change at 5,000 or more miles as if their car is operating under normal conditions instead of extreme ones.

You can rack up a lot of miles, putting you into a higher mileage category for insurance, too. Not to mention your high risk of collision due to driving in unfamiliar areas and being distracted by a passenger who wants to talk with you while you are negotiating heavy traffic.

There's wear and tear on your vehicle. Passengers get in, they don't usually care about someone else's car. Those mysterious scratches and dings on your door, the fingerprint acid etching your exterior paint, and the various insults to your interior finish and trim including boogers drying on the back of your headrest. Someone gets in with a milkshake or ice cream, and oops, your carpet develops a massively bad odor the next day. Or someone with massively bad gas gets in, and your car instantly stinks so bad you can hardly stand it.

Driving around for Amazon has a similar set of issues, minus the inconsiderate passenger. But you're still moving boxes in and out of your car, and that's not good for the upholstery. Or your back.

Consider Air BnB

Wow, use a spare room to make money! What could be easier?

Well, a lot of things.

When you lease that room to a stranger, you are also leasing other parts of your house. At least one bathroom, for sure. And usually space in the refrigerator (how much can you spare?), cupboards, etc. What about higher utility bills, issues with parking, conflicting bed times, conflicting shower times, and so forth? What kitchen appliances will you share with this person? If you've ever used a community microwave oven at work, you know the horrors that can arise here. So let's not get started on the washer and dryer.

Will this person bring paper sacks or boxes into that spare room, leaving you to deal with the bugs that are attracted by the glue in those sacks and boxes? What drain-clogger might this person flush down a toilet? Aside from the loss of your privacy, what other issues might emerge? What about hygiene issues? What about carpet cleaning due to, oops, I dropped my coffee in the hallway where I wasn't even supposed to take it?

You give up an awful lot of just living your life to make this extra money. A big problem here is you can't just leave the office and go home, your home is where the problems all are. You're stuck with them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, as long as your spare room is being leased.

False promises

All of these gig economy arrangements offer "free money" as if there is no cost. Or no real skill needed. If you run an Air BnB and want a good reputation, skill and hard work are just the beginning of what you must provide.

Nobody is going to provide you with a profitable, low-effort gig. Typically, these gig economy arrangements result in net financial loss. The people who offer these gigs are cutting their costs by making those your costs. Yes, you can make a little extra money and that is the bait. Don't take it, or the hook will sink and you'll get reeled right in.

What to do instead

The single best thing the typical wage earner can do is have an attitude change. About 80% of Americans are disengaged at work. A full 70% hate their jobs. So they show up, go to meetings, and paint by whatever numbers their boss provides. They do what it takes to make it through the day, and most of what they do is meaningless and unnecessary.

We hear "TGIF" not because people had a great week being outstanding employees doing work they love, but because they have spent the week getting by and are glad this week's charade is finally about over.

If you want to be a star either with your present employer or a new one you can attract, then start thinking like a business owner rather than a hired hand. Start your day by asking, "What one thing can I accomplish today that will make me valuable to my company?" Then do it the best you can. Not sure what that thing is? Then ask your boss what three things he least likes to do and then offer to do one of them so he doesn't have to. Start networking within your company to find out where problems are and offer to help even if that means doing so in your free time. Be a problem-solver. Don't be an "idea generator" because everyone has ideas. Come up with real solutions and real innovations.

Here's an example from my past life as an employee. My employer put on a conference each year, and it always lost about $90,000. They considered that a marketing cost. So I began looking at their process for registering attendees and I found a few problems that, if corrected, would surely prevent the losses. I discussed this with my boss, who told me not to get involved. My next move was to contact the new person who had been hired to run the conferences. I gave her a teaser on solving one of the problems and asked for a meeting.

During the meeting, I first asked her to lay out her registration plan. It was the same as always. So I asked a few questions to lead her to see what the problems were. Then I told her how each of those problems could be solved. She agreed to implement my suggestions. For the first time in its history, the conference actually made money. It broke even 30 days prior to its opening, and it made $95,000 in profit instead of a $90,000 loss.

Of course, the company didn't split the profit with me. But I impressed the bejesus out of a lot of higher-ups and that paid off in multiple ways. Including eventually getting my idiot boss fired and replaced with someone possessing both integrity and brains (he was probably my best boss ever).

So first focus on being the best employee you can be. Look for opportunities to serve. An opportunity can be in the company, as with my example. And/or it can be outside the company, for example taking a lead role in an industry professional association.

A second approach is to start your own gig. What is it you do well and that you are passionate about? Start your own sideline business doing that. If you can do that AND have your employer as a customer that's even better. If you go this route, don't make money your goal or you will fail. That's because chasing the money instead of your passion will lead to bone-headed, business-fatal mistakes. Of course, you do need to know your costs and correctly allocate your resources. But your focus must be on providing value to others rather than on getting money from them. And that's pretty much what is behind my advice on how to behave with your current employer.

What if you already have a business and it runs you instead of the other way around? That is happening because you are thinking like a disengaged employee instead of a business owner. Get clear on your strategic vision, and start pruning things so that your activities support that vision instead of being diluted across non-strategic goals. If there's something you hate doing, hire someone to do that for you (contractor, service provider company, or employee). Focus on what you do best. Simply working harder won't make you more money. Focusing on what you do best is the solution there.

Also, make a point of setting and following standards of excellence. I don't mean perfection. This is an entire topic unto itself, but my main point is you must do consistently better than just mediocre if you want to improve your financial position. No "easy money" gig economy arrangement can even come close to providing the rewards that come with consistent excellence in whatever you love to do.

https://techtalk.pcpitstop.com/2019/08/07/scammers-are-once-again-offering-up-fake-refunds

Photo taken a couple of weeks after my 59th birthday.

Note that the information provided here will likely conflict with the "fad of the moment" and other unsustainable, unproductive ways of looking at health and fitness.

Article appears below.

See my climbing videos here:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCyb67uKOxW_TsG6BVPbBIQ/videos

Because these substances are addictive (due to their effect on dopamine), kicking the "processed food" habit is nearly impossible. I say nearly. My diet is devoid of this garbage, and I will tell you how to beat the addiction too.

The first thing you must do is recognize that once food is processed, it is on longer food. Thinking otherwise is a huge mistake that will cost you your freedom from the addiction. Many people say, "All things in moderation" or "You just need balance" as an excuse for continuing to consume these things. That excuse will keep them from freeing themselves, because, as already noted, these substances are addictive. You must break the addiction.

Breaking an addition cold turkey is difficult and can cause physical discomfort. So here's a gradual plan that anybody can implement. Just take each step at your own pace. When you're comfortable and adjusted to one step, then add the next step. You might be able to do that at a rapid pace (each grocery store visit, you move up a step) or you may take months. Remember, you're making a permanent change. You're not trying some short-term crazy diet; in fat, you are getting OFF a crazy diet. Going forward, I'll refer to "processed foods" as PFs.

• Step one. Eliminate liquid PFs. This includes fruit juices (which are endocrine modifiers, and that's as bad as it sounds) and soft drinks. But also read the labels on any sauces, dressings, condiments, and beverages. If the labels say corn syrup, sugar, fructose, etc. (look up "names for sugar" with an online search, it's a long list), don't buy the product. If you already have the product, toss it out. You can replace liquid PFs with water, tea, or coffee (in that preferred order); but generally, liquid PFs are so full of sodium they cause a net hydration loss so replacement usually isn't necessary.
   
• Step two. Replace wheat with greens. You can replace bread with bok choy leaves, for example, to make a wrap instead of a sandwich. Start looking closely sat what you eat to see if it contains wheat, then substitute something else. What if you like the convenience of a delivered pizza because you don't have time to cook? Try this, instead. Keep on hand a tub of mixed greens (kale, spinach, and bok choy for example) and bowls of boiled eggs. It takes under two minutes to throw some greens in a bowl, peel and slice two eggs, and pour mixed vinegar and oil over it. Grind up some black pepper, and you have a delicious nutrition bonanza that is low cal and that won't disrupt your endocrine system or jack with your dopamine.
   
• Step three. If you bake, replace wheat flour with healthier alternatives such as oat flour.
   
• Step four. Adjust your fats. PF-based diets are deficient in healthy fats. Add those to your greens. Sources include olive oil, peanut oil, organic butter, nuts, and avocadoes.
   
• Step four. Adjust your fruits. PF-based diets are typically fruit-poor. Eat at least two different kinds of fruit each day. Avoid dried fruits, as their sugar concentration is very high.
   
• Step five. Review what you've done in each of the preceding steps and look for omissions. For example, you joined a gym and now eat protein bars and protein shakes. Almost every bar on the market contains sugar, and many protein shakes do also. But there are ones that don't.

And remember, Halloween is coming up. Is it ethical to hand out to little kids PF that will rot their teeth, induce osteoporosis, send them into near insulin shock, and increase their dopamine-related health problems?

Taking it to the next level

Once you've kicked the PF addiction, what's next? You already look better, feel better, smell better, and enjoy a nice IQ bump. What if you have even higher aspirations for your health? Follow these tips:

• Spread your calories. It's traditional in the "mainstream" to consume three meals a day. This is actually an unhealthy practice. Divide those same calories over six meals and the effects are noticeable after only a few days.
   
• Adjust your portion sizes. In the USA, portions tend to be way too big. Start shrinking yours, either across the board or one meal or one ingredient at a time. Do this until you reach a point of statis; your meals are about as small as you can make them without your getting hungry between meals.
   
• Adjust your portion content. Eat more "super foods" than other types of food. If it's a vegetable, it's a super food (iceberg lettuce excluded). Eat a variety of vegetables for the best effect. If your diet has fewer than eight different types of vegetable, you need to diversify.
   
• Experiment with meal prep to save time.
   
• Don't fall into the trap of replacing PF with a few boring foods, as that will cause you to go back to PF. Instead, find and use real food recipes to enhance your enjoyment of food. Or simply experiment. Try different combinations, different forms (e.g., diced versus sliced), and different presentations.

• The best workouts are short and intense.
• A good diet contains far more flavors and satisfaction than the typical American diet.

Today we hear about "fake news" as if it's something new and shocking. The fact is the news has been fake since long before any of us were born. This sad state of affairs is why Mark Twain made his famous quip about newspapers (look that up).

In conversation, do you seek to understand or do you seek to impress? One of these methods actually does impress, the other has the opposite effect of that which was intended.