A weight breakthrough I never expected

 A little over a year ago I was fired from a job I'd held for 7 1/2 years. It was a job I felt comfortable with and was content to keep things the way they were until I decided to retire. So being fired from that job came as a shock, to be sure.

I was not in a position to quickly find a new job. I had lost my ID years ago while in Boston, and the comfort the job provided me with gave me confidence that I wouldn't need it. I procrastinated. Even after my brother died and I was forced to take a bus to Tucson because I didn't have a valid ID, I still put it off.

Well, being fired turned out to be a great motivator and I got right on it, but you see, it's not like I could go out and get the ID replaced, because Florida wants you to provide your birth certificate, and I was not born in the US, though I am a US Citizen. So I had to send off to the State Department for a copy of my FS520, or some such form, and guess what? They're short staffed due to Covid, so they said to expect it in 6-8 weeks!

In the meantime, I'm doing what I can to generate funds, because the last paycheck had come and gone. I did use some of that to hire a lawyer, because my employer discriminated against my age, but that wasn't forthcoming immediately, so I put up a GoFundMe page, and got a few dollars to keep me alive until then.

Long story short - Too Late! I finally got my ID on August 1st. I got a payout for my lawsuit a few days later. Yay! Windfall. I applied for unemployment, yay, regular income!

Boo! My landlord wanted $4000 in back rent and fees. Debt collectors wanted their share, and the money I had collected was gone.

I had been applying for jobs, had a few nibbles, and nothing solid. I , er, persevered. Food budget was non-existent.  and now we come to the worst possible way to lose weight. I half-starved myself.

I found a part-time job in December and made enough to put me off unemployment, but you know that's not enough. I had help from the government to pay rent for a few months, but you know that's not enough. I got more help from family and friends but that WASN"T FUCKING ENOUGH.

So finally I found a full-time job working from home, doing pretty much what I did before, and I find out the contractor I work for has a different type of payroll system where they keep your paycheck an extra two weeks before they pay you. I didn't know that was even legal, but this is America. So, I find a decent job, but I still have to wait longer to get my money than normal. 

In the meantime, I'm starving myself. literally days at a time. I finally get paid the first time, poof, rent and phone bill take it up and I barely have enough to order some groceries. No problem, I'll keep starving myself.

Second paycheck comes, Poof, it's gone, with upcoming rent and other things. I'll starve myself a little longer.

But Michael, what about Food Stamps? What about Food Banks?

Food Stamps are set up to help people who are homeless or families. I didn't qualify for either. Food Banks don't deliver. Period. I did my research.

So finally the third paycheck arrives, the first that wasn't going to be devoured by rent, and I went apeshit over food. $200 worth of food, and one more thing: a battery for my scale, which I haven't used in over a year.

Last time I went to the doctor I weighed in at 270lbs. Thursday when I weighed myself with clothes on, it was 202lbs. Later I weighed myself without clothes and found I was 183lbs. So I was able to do in a year of half-starving myself what I could not do with all the diet and exercising I had tried to put in the previous 30 years.

Kids, don't try this at home.

A What If Scenario: The benefactor

It has been years since I posted here. Years spent in relative comfort in a job I like and an apartment I like. So, I have nothing to rant about.

But this idea keeps creeping into my head, and I plan to turn it into a series of novels called The Benefactor. The bottom line is some very wealthy person is feeding, housing and educating those who have less, and the novel explores how the world reacts to that.

So I'm using this blog as a sounding board, by doing a what if: What if some known Billionaire starts doing what my protagonist does. I'm not talking about giving to existing charities. Even the best run charities have overhead and the chance of corruption within. But what if this Benefactor, well known to the world, uses his/her vast fortune to do what other Billionaires refused to do: Feed people, house people and educate them, maybe even hiring them until they get the experience they need and give them the pay and health care that no other major employer will do.

In short, it's a version of my Project Five-Star using a Billionaire's money.

So first reaction would be....that's....nice...what's in it for him/her? Well, under the Project Five-Star model, the benefactor would own the rights to any art created by his/her employees, but I don't even want to go that far. The benefactor is just tired of his/her wealth and wants to give it away to those in need. Period. Not asking for any return.

And while the oligarchs are scratching their heads at this sudden reversal, they're feeling a bit scared too, because a precedence has been set. Maybe they try to talk to their comrade and try to convince him/her to change their minds. Or they lobby their friends in Congress to pass a law prohibiting such an act, though that would be very bold and in-your-face to say the poor shouldn't receive this benefit from one of their own.

Do they try to sabotage the program? Use mercenaries to break up the feedings, or stop the construction of cheap new homes?

But why would they want this to end in the first place? Isn't this ideal? People get what they want without other Billionaires having to pay for it. Well, that all sounds so good for the poor people, but what about the Oligarchs? If people are being fed and housed and educated and their health is being taken care of, what happens to the labor force? Will they still accept minimum wage jobs? Who would want to work at McDonald's, for instance when they have no bills to pay? Retail employment would suffer. Oligarchs would find themselves losing power, in my opinion. And this is why they would fight this tooth and nail.

The last option, one that has been taken way too often when people get in the way of those in power, like John F. Kennedy, like Robert, like others in many countries, have found themselves dead just for wanting to make a difference for the little guy. I honestly think this is what keeps those with money from being the benefactor of my dreams.

But in my story, this/these Benefactor(s) are anonymous. No one can find out any information about them, Oligarchs around the world start to panic. Could this lead to war? If so, who fights?

Well, I'm still going over all the above scenarios as well as a few that I'll keep to myself, but as always, thanks for reading!

I Got Nothin' To Complain About

It's been a long while since I posted here. When I first started this blog, I had a lot to complain about. ie., Rant. Today, I got nothin'.

Sure, I can complain about the way our President is heading. But in the end, at the moment, nothing bad is happening in my life. I got a home, I got money, my credit is slowly improving, and I have time to play and even broadcast games live over youtube.

Work is steady and gratifying.

My health is steadily improving, though I must take a small regiment of pills to maintain that improvement. At least I have insurance to cover most of the bills.

I have a car, that has proven to be unreliable, and yet it is working at the moment. It still needs work, but I have the money to put into it. Not that I go far away from home. It's not that reliable, and, frankly, I really have nowhere to go.

This blog has been built on telling you the bad things happening in my life and to find ways to improve that situation. The situation has improved. Will the blog come to an end?

No.

If there's one thing I've learned: Nothing is static in life. And if it is, is that really a life? This blog will remain open and I will post both the good and the bad. And as I alluded to before, I don't like where we're headed as a country.

So stay tuned and expect the unexpected!


As always, thanks for viewing!

Looking Back: Has Anything Changed?

I've been reviewing the first hundred posts in this blog, up to the point where I gave up on what was a stressful life and started to hike the Appalachian Trail. I started thinking, has anything changed from then?

I was stressed, I was behind in my bills to the point where I was evicted and I was lost physically and spiritually. I was on the 'Trail' for 10 days and made my way back to Raleigh exhausted and dehydrated. I'm not even sure why I came back to Raleigh. Technically I could have gone anywhere and been homeless, but Raleigh had a certain familiarity. I knew the shelter system there. I expected to find a job and get back into the swing in a short amount of time.

And it seemed to work. I did find a job and I did get out of the shelter. But it was a worse job than the one I walked away from earlier. I was stressed again. I walked away - literally in mid-call. I went back to the shelter and then found it harder than ever to get a job.

I've blogged about that, so no sense in going over it again. I finally found my way to Astadia, and though the job has been stressful in some ways, it is nowhere near as bad as other places.

So now let me take stock of my life anew. I'm still doing phone work, something I swore never to do again. But this time the calls aren't generally back to back, and I can work on other things besides calls. I'm working from home again with a computer supported by my employer and not of my own build. So if something goes wrong I don't have to worry about out-of-pocket expenses.

And I'm making more money, generally. I can pay rent and internet service and I'm able to save a bit for my ultimate computer system. I'm able to afford a rickety car with an over-powered engine and the insurance that is needed for it. I'm able to pay most of my bills and try to repair my credit, though hospital bills that I  may never repay dominate my credit history.

Health-wise, yes, in some ways I'm worse off than in 2009. My knees occasionally hurt enough to make me seriously limp. My shoulder is a constant source of a dull ache with occasional sharp pains. But I'm not as stressed as I used to be. So I can tolerate a fair amount of small aches. I still get the odd migraine, and allergies keep me sneezing.

But overall I'm much better off health-wise than in 2009. Really, I am.

I still play Warcraft. I still enjoy Warcraft. A lot of the people I've known had to walk away from it at one point or another. I've been dragged from it kicking and screaming.

And I've been writing. moving away from Publish America to Createspace, a form of self-publishing. I've written about my homeless experiences and added another novel in the ongoing Simmons/Timmons Chronicles. I've written and attempted to sell screenplays.

Am I successful? Compared to others, perhaps not. But I'm happier now than I've been in a long time, and to me, that's as successful as it gets.

Needed For Survival = Free

I've been dreaming of my perfect world again: a world where there are no weapons. They have been forcefully disintegrated by my automated police force, including guns, ammunition, tanks, warships etc. There is no crime allowed. Everyone has a house c/o whatever benefactor has created this version of Utopia. That house has its own solar panels that provide the electricity necessary in today's society. The same automated system delivers fresh food on a daily basis, depending on the user's choices. Yadda, yadda, yadda. No one wants for anything except the stuff that's bad for you.

I woke from my reverie to realize that some of that would be easy to implement with the right rich person donating his or her money.

Just the necessities: A home, and access to free electricity and water. Food, education, a guaranteed job and health care will have to wait. Notice these are my Five Points of Hope. So let's stick to housing.

If I had the money I'd buy up some land that was otherwise not being used and I'd arrange to have built a series of small houses. We've all seen them. They have the basics: electricity and running water. The solar panels are easy enough, but water doesn't grow on trees, especially in areas where there's little rain. I suppose it's possible to create a system where the water used is recycled, but even that's not ideal.

So my point is that everything necessary for life should be free. Housing, electricity, water and food. The problem is electric companies and water plants will disagree. If your bill is late because you can't afford it, they have the right to shut it off, then landlords can evict you or communities can condemn your property because it doesn't have electricity and running water.

It's a power no one should have. Yes, electric plants have to pay to maintain the network and generate the electricity by whatever means they use, but the ever-increasing burden of this system is paid for by the consumer.

So what are we to do to bypass this vicious circle? Our benefactor could build solar plants and connect them to the grid. Then bypass existing wiring to provide the electricity for free.

That is actually a pretty expensive proposition. Our benefactor would have to be rich and powerful, because utilities aren't going down without a fight.

It would be easier to rig every home with solar panels. But what of water?

I think the public utilities are going to be around for a long time, but we can lessen their effect on our lives. Yes, put up those solar panels but stay connected to the electrical network.

Yes, put in a system to recycle water but stay connected to the water plant.

We use less of what is being pushed on us and will save money.

We can do this. Any benefactors out there? I still want to build a new city based on these principals. There are a lot of wealthy people who can make a real contribution to society by helping make this a reality. Let me hear from you!

Why Can't I Get Reviews?

'Regrets' has been out for quite some time. I've sold a couple of real books, a couple of Kindle versions, and had it read on Amazon a few times. I've given away several Kindle copies, all in an effort to draw reviews and get some feedback on the novel.

To date, there are no reviews for Regrets in any format.

This has puzzled me immensely. How can someone read a book and have no opinion on it? I'd even welcome a one-star review if it were honest and gave me the feedback I need.

There are a number of places I can go online to request reviews, but guess what? They all cost money that I don't have at the moment.

So, here's the offer. I have a box full of paperback copies of 'Regrets.' One is yours free, including shipping, if and only you agree to read the book and provide a review on Amazon.com and BN.com.

Email me: mike.fox.wow (at) gmail.com with your name and address and I'll ship it off forthwith.

That is all.

Policeman for the World

When I let my mind wander it can turn into a dangerous weapon. I've been thinking lately of turning robots into the world's policemen. This is by no means an original concept, as the first time I recall seeing it is in the movie 'The Day the Earth Stood Still.' Gort is the robot and can vaporize just with a look. Klaatu is the only one that can control him, and gives a stern warning that if we expand our petty wars into space, Gort will act unilaterally.

And that's the problem with using robots as policemen. They have to be programmed by someone who has their own particular set of morals.

So whose morals do we use? If we go by the Ten Commandments a lot of people would be jailed. Are there morals we can agree on? Stealing: bad? What constitutes stealing? Robbing a bank? Surely. Banks charging exorbitant interest? Maybe not.

Can we agree that rape is a bad thing? Apparently not. There are cultures that allow minors to marry older husbands. I'll go with husbands because that's 99.9999% of the problem. You just don't hear very often of an older woman marrying a young boy, and I would consider the boy to be the lucky one.

Murder? Another gray area. I read an article the other day about a man that was murdered in front of witnesses, but because the man was so bad himself, everyone who witnessed it claimed they were turning away in horror at the time the crime was committed and therefore saw nothing.

You see, a robot has to see things in black and white, and the laws it would enforce have to be programmed into it. No one can agree on what a crime is.

And what about the rights of criminals? I'm not saying anyone has a right to commit a crime, but if said crime happens in your own home does a robot have the right to come in and stop it? Do we station robots in every home, or use domestic robots that people buy as watchful eyes?

It becomes a matter of what would society put up with. We already have the technology to limit cars so that they enforce speed limits, but who would want to own a car that won't let you go even one mile over the speed limit? Don't tell me I can't speed if the conditions allow it. Yes, it would cut back on accidents if everyone used self-driving cars. But apparently we as humans feel we have a right to act dangerously if we want.

Which brings us back to whose rules do robots follow? We're all human, with the frailties and insecurities that come with being that way. A robot being asked to police us would likely self-destruct because of all the contradictions

Or they would make us their slaves because we don't deserve freedom.

As for me, I welcome our robot overlords.