Electricity Is Overrated

I googled "electricity is overrated" and found the worst blog post ever and it even had a comment saying how good it was. Well I hope to supercede them in the search results with a better post on the same subject.

In modern society we can't even conceive of having no electricity. But in reality it's not that necessary. Wall plugs do not occur naturally in nature.

I think of Tahiti where some islands around that area still have people that speak traditional Tahitian and carry on the old ways of doing things without electricity. This is so called "Paradise" but has no electricity. The Corona beer commercials have made money off of the notion of having nothing but beer and a beach and a chair.

In parts of Alaska there is no way to get electricity except through gas powered generators. So people in self made cabins often go without electricity, and instead use oil lamps and fire for heat, and fire to cook, and rag and soapy water for shower, and wash clothes in a bucket with a plunger. One person "Dick Proenneke" enjoyed this life so much that he lived this way in Alaska for 30 years until he couldn't live there any longer due to health issues. Although almost being blown up by a bearing in the military and then deciding that living in the city wasn't worth it, probably had a part to play in his decision to move to Alaska. Also batteries don't work in Alaska because the electrolyte freezes. Therefore cars don't work and instead they use snow mobiles with a manual ignition instead of an electrical ignition.

Electricity is fun but it only serves to power electronics and appliances, and lights. But how much do we pay for this modern gift of electricity. If you think about it why is it that gas prices are going down but electricity prices are going up? Why not just buy a gas powered generator instead of paying ever increasing utilities? Money could be made here. I myself could live with buying batteries every month for a headlamp instead of paying $75/mo or more for an energy bill.

Phantom loads on your energy bill have to be considered. All modern electronics have standby mode and I'm uncertain as to how much energy they consume. What I do know is that TV's never used to need a standby mode, and DVD players without a clock should never need a standby mode either. This could be considered a conspiracy theory of why we have to pay for this extra energy without us even realizing it. But to solve this problem all you need to do is plug in these devices like the TV and DVD player to any standard surge protector and then turn of the surge protector every night. Even if it's a hassle from the so called "modern convenience" of these phantom load devices.

You'll also find that lots of the energy that the energy companies pump out is wasted energy. Because when it is not consumed it doesn't get stored anywhere and is just lost. So this makes modern energy grids inefficient.

In the end you will always have to pay for energy until we have self made energy sources like "Mr. Fusion" from back to the future. Even if the government is successful with creating a fusion reactor with the "National ignition facility", we will still always have to pay for that free energy. Even though our tax dollars payed for them to build it, we will still have to pay an energy bill on top of that even though the energy is essentially free except for maintenance. This will go on indefinitely, and even your childrens children will still be paying energy bills. All until someday we have personal energy systems, or just choose to live somewhere without electricity.

Plumbing on the other hand I don't want to give up so readily.

Preventative Cure To Heart Disease

Omega 3 fatty acids which are found in the fat of fish have been know to decrease the chances of heart disease and also decrease cholesterol and high blood pressure. Supposedly eating fish twice a week for 2 months will build up the omega 3 fatty acids in your fat tissue enough to create the intended effects.
Or you can buy fish oil pills from the store, if you don't like eating fish, or actual fish is too expensive, or hard to catch.
If you're worried about eating too much fish and getting mercury poisoning just inform yourself by looking at the FDA's website. They show that 2 meals a week of fish that are low in mercury is not dangerous at all. But if you're not having a baby then eat all the fish you want because they say "For most people, the risk from mercury by eating fish and shellfish is not a health concern". I would also assume that fresh water fish would not have mercury in them because of the isolated environment.

Alaska

I was thinking, what if within a year I have enough money to buy a piece of land where I'm at now. Then I will use that as a home base. Then I will set out towards Alaska and find land for sale in Alaska and build one house in Alaska every summer of every year starting next year. And the good thing about living in Alaska is the "permanent distribution fund". Which means that if you can verify that I lived there for 2 weeks out of the year I think, then I'll get 3000$ a year(or whatever it is that year). Then you can buy another piece of land every year and improve the land by building a house on it. Also each house would need boat access to a town in the summer and snow mobile access to a nearby town in the winter.

I have a video on how to build a cabin in Alaska, so I would start out by making my first one with the most obvious and proven methods and then experiment with new techniques on later cabins.

Why is this a good investment of time and money?

1. live in the cabin rent free

2. rent out the cabin to tourists

3. sell the self built cabin for what it's worth or less(you make money the buyer makes money/win,win) and move onto building another one

4. exercise for the rest of my life to lose weight.

5. just the experience of it and knowing how to build my own house in many different ways.

6. The demand for housing in alaska is high while the supply is low. Therefore cabins are expensive so there's high potential to profit.

7. learn how to utilize the environment to find fresh berries or fish or caribou or goats, or rabbits, birds, duck eggs

8. nicest city in america is anchorage alaska

9. No more risky living in the city(accidents, crime, no land, noise,)

10. no more bills (cell pnone, car insurance, electricity, plumbing, cable, internet, food, movies, holidays)

11. everyone always says the city is boring anyway.

12. no building codes or any other laws or rules.

Phantom Bills

I've realized now that living in the city is hurting everyone I know. From the rich people to the poor people, everyone.

My dad, and my step mom have nothing saved up at all over all these years and no retirement to look forward to. It's the same with my step brothers and my real brother. Pensions and social security are far from a sure thing now, even if you live that long. Also my step sister has a house and a good paying job but at the cost of it being a horrible job and her house being worth half as much. Also her friend who is having her rental house foreclosed even when she is a regional manager of some company. And might even file bankruptcy.

I was thinking today about why this is, and I think that not having land is a big factor in why when we live in the city it's a loosing proposition. I notice that almost every house has 1/6th of an acre in the city or less if it's an apartment. But because of people not having land, people never have resources to make their own stuff and have to resort to buying stuff from retailers. The problem is that all stores buy at wholesale price and then sell at retail price, but if we made our own stuff we wouldn't have to pay for shipping or overhead or the cost of the retail price mark ups. Except for highly specialized products that require companies.

Reasons that land is needed by everyone:

• Grow and cook your own food to be healthy and have something to do and save on bills
• Build your own shed out of wood instead of paying retail for it from the store.
• Smokers should grow their own tobacco for infinite supply without paying $7/pack
• We have nothing to do in the cities because everything is done for us and we just pay for it.
• In the country there's opportunity to build and grow which isn't found in the city.
  

Other than general retail monopolies, there are also other contributing factors to why everyone loses in the city.

Divorces are expensive and I'm sure mortgage companies know that most couples that buy a house eventually divorce and lose their house.

Also every loan out their including credit cards is just like a tax. They're taking money without producing anything. So that money just disappears from your pocket and the economy as a whole.

Not to mention taxes which are ever increasing and only damage the economy.

Also everyone I know with a college education doesn't have a job in that field. So even becoming educated is extremely risky if their are no jobs in that field, or the jobs get shipped over seas, or your company goes out of business. Not to mention the extreme divotion of time and money for unknown pay off. I know a friend of the family that went to school to become a police officer but right after he was done with school the sheriff of pasco county Bob White announced that there will never be another police officer job opening in pasco county for the foreseeable future.

And in an apartment all of your rent is money just going down the drain. The landlords are not contributing any product to the economy.

Even rich people are loosing because there monthly expenses rise just as much as their monthly salaries and they never save up either. Who would ever think that banks would go under. And big companies too. These people are smart and try to have the least risk possible.

The moral of the story or the lesson to be learned is: The sooner you get out of the city the better. Also time and money equal fun. So have fun. Cities are boring and monotonous. Just ask anyone that moved out of the city, and into the country.

Don't let it become too late and get stuck in the city like everyone else, with no way out, as one of the working poor. Or a manager with no life at all outside of work.

Comic Biz

I was rethinking my plan at being a comic dealer and making it more of a system. My plan now is that if I get Nov. 7th off then I'm going to buy a booth and sell stuff there no matter what. Then my system for buying comics will be mostly to fill in holes in the collection to have the most selection around at 66% off all the time on the common issues and then retail price on the good #'s and high grade issues, this is how the pros do it and so should I. Also I should eventually someday have more than one of each issue for more than one buyer of that issue and more than one condition and also different comic series for even better selection in the future. Then as they sell just refill the gaps. I may buy comics in bulk but only if they're a very good deal or they're all one good series of comics like spider man or batman. But a good thing about buying in bulk is that you happen upon really good issues every once in a while that you can hold onto for your own personal high quality collection, and have all of the cheap issues pay for the one of a kind issues. Then maybe in old age sell one comic off a week as retirement pension from the comic dealer job.

All I know is that a comic store I used to go to would always write down every comic that was sold so that they'd know which ones to buy to restock their inventory. The good thing is that I already have most of the holes filled, and even then you don't need to have every comic including spider man # 1. So I guess just be well stocked but don't buy too much of something that never sells. Only buy what sells I guess. But even if I don't make money off of the comics, I'll at least be collecting very rare issues for my own collection, to sell in my retirement for about 100$/week. Rare gems may be the best investment because they would always have intrinsic value when comics have perceived value. But I still think that original comics will never go down in value because they're hard to reproduce or forge. They get lost in fires and floods so only become more rare. And people will always like super heroes no matter what they do to the character. As in the many reincarnations of the robin and batman characters.

By the way I just won another auction that had a coverless batman #8 in the lot because the lot wasn't titled or described right, so I had to ask questions. But I paid less for that comic and all of the 10 others in the lot that even the one batman comic is worth. So I might put it up on ebay as buy it now and wait for it to sell or keep it until the convention and sell it at retail there. It's rare enough that it would sell at retail price eventually. But now I might be done buying for the month and will just sell until next month. I'll definitely have fun reading the stuff I got though. This has to be the most fun job in the world if I can make it profitable. Sort of in the ball park of professional food taster.

And hauling the collection around to conventions shouldn't be too difficult as long as I have a dolly and boxes and remain organized. And it's fun doing all of the math and figures.

Rural Area Advantages, Pros and Cons out in the Country

So today my dad was also talking about a friend at his old job and his friend said that he took out his retirement money and paid all of the penalty charges and everything to get in on the real estate downturn, and he said it was a good idea because he bought a multi-acre house in new Mexico for $13,000 and also some $3,000 2-3 acre lots in a rich neighborhood somewhere. And now that I know that somewhere out there those cheap places exist, that's going to be my new plan. To go on a road trip when I have money saved up, and buy a house in a perfect location like Montana, or Alaska, or just stay on the road trip for as long as I can. And buying the land or house with cash means that you get an even better deal by taking 30% off of the retail price of the property. Also if the house is totally paid for then you can just have that be your home but continue going on car trip with whatever other money you can scrounge together. Maybe even have one piece of land or a house in ever state bought every year or so with saved up money from living at your one house rent/loan free and then visiting each property in each separate state by car trip(Alaska, Montana, Washington, Florida, anywhere). And of course take frequent detours with the detour function on the GPS if time is no obstacle.

Also we were talking during the drive today about how there are a lot of advantages to living in the country.

-You don't have to lock the doors or your cars so you don't have keys to lose.
-You don't have to worry about criminals.
-Less pollution,and traffic, and population. Actual peace and quiet!
-Less traffic means less likely to get into a crash if ever.
-No fast food means that you'll be eating healthier home cooked food that also tastes better and has no chemicals. Because convenience foods are usually processed and use cheap ingredients or are not fresh.
-You may be the only person around within 50 miles with your skills, so jobs are easier to create.
-There's opportunity to build things and improve things in undeveloped areas, so opportunity for creating wealth.
-Land costs less.
-Learning to become independent because services and goods are located in far away cities.
-There are less rules that you can go to jail for and less control over you, so less risk in that respect. Like being able to fire your gun in the back yard just for fun or hunting or the 4th of July, or practice. Which you would be arrested for in the city.
-Over all less responsibility and liability in the country. You're not responsible for other people as much or being on time, or dressing properly, or keeping records, etc.. Less danger from accidents and criminals and stupidity, and paying bills, and needing a job to survive, and pollutants, and scams etc.
-Less cost of living in general because less demand on supply. Except for imported things.
-Grow your own organic food on land.
-Build without permit or laws.
-All modern comforts can be added if necessary: Satellite TV, Satellite internet, Video games, ebay, internet radio, cell phone, Movies on big TV, Running water and sewer and electric if bought a house with those.