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I’d say that’s a problem…

Here it is, 9:00 on a Wednesday morning. I’m looking at a full plate of “work” to do (why the scare quotes? Because it’s all “work” I can approach as play… when I finally get off my fat… fundament and do it), and yet here I sit with four browsers open in three machines (one “real” and a couple of VMs hosted in it), with something over 100 tabs open among the four browsers…

Now, that’s a problem. I’m not doing real multi-tasking but semi-background serial semi-multitasking in a major ADHD/schizo fashion. Sure, things from nearly all the tabs are perking in the background while the foreground is being dealt with (as I write this, things from John Ringo’s rants page and thoughts from Jerry Pournelle’s Chaos Manor Musings are mixing it up with Thomas Sowell and John Agresto over at NRO, while some XBox geek is whispering in my third ear about XBox modding and my gripping hand is grappling with the weird pre-emptive sound problem that’s cropped up in Linux again and my first and other hands are juggling a Mercedes Lackey book and a Dean Koontz book and an Ann Coulter book–offline/online, mix n match).

I think I need to take a break from the computer. Except part of the “work” I need to do is right here sitting on my fat fundamental.

I blame it all on the fact that this is the most comfortable chair in the house. Riiiiiight. *heh* (Well, maybe some of it is due to the fact that I seem to have developed the attention span of a gnat with ADHD. NEED MORE COFFEE!!!)

Maybe it’s time once again to look to Wordsworth (open another tab… ;-))

THE world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
The Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.–Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Trackposted to Rosemary’s Thoughts, Political Byline, Faultline USA, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, DragonLady’s World, Rosemary’s News and Ideas, The Pink Flamingo, Leaning Straight Up, CORSARI D’ITALIA, Democrat=Socialist, Dumb Ox Daily News, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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The Road Ahead, 2.2: Live and Learn…

I used to say (probably stolen from Lazarus Long *heh*) that you live and learn, or you don’t live long, but in today’s rubber-bumber society, that no longer applies. It’s be more accurate to say “You live and learn, or you don’t really live at all.” Or perhaps,

“‘A learning experience.’ The traditional three-word preamble to a burial.”

*heh*

I had occasion to sit down the other day with my parents–both in their mid-80s. They live a few hours away, so I don’t have a sit down with them all that often, though we do chat once or twice a week on the phone. One thing that struck me during our chat was that each of my now elderly parents are still learning… and using what they learn in productive ways.

Over the course of our conversation, it turned as it often does with them to the time when they were the most active in my life as parents. After all, that period does contain the most mutually shared memories. And yes, school came up, and, as usual, my status as the family changeling entered the conversation. *heh*

Now, unlike most Mass Media Podpeople, politicians *spit* and Academia Nut Fruitcakes, all my siblings easily have more intellectual capability than a head of cabbage. In fact, no dummies need apply at our family reunons. Still, I’m the odd one out among my sibs. For one thing, I’m almost certainly the only one that’d go back to school at the drop of a hat, were time and money pressures a tad different. Oh, not for a degree. Have enough of those. For the pleasure of sitting in a class taught by someone who knows more than I do and likes to share that knowlege with people who want in on it.

Oh, and I like taking tests. Just a wee tad competitive. No, not with fellow students, my competitiveness usually manifested itself in striving to outdo my teachers in some way. If it showed up to party at all. *heh*

Still, my sibs and I caught the learning bug from our folks, to one degree or another, and so learning new things is just what we do, even if not in formal school settings. Not all the same kinds of things, of course, but curiosity and imagination have made us into lifelong learners.

Some people aren’t like that, though. Some folks have to have new information crammed down their throats, packed into their heads like sand into a rat hole, poured into their stopped up ears and then hammered. And still they refuse to think about what they’ve (not) “learned”.

I think that’s a large part of the political and societal mess we’re now in: a large population of sheeple who have a hard shell of stupidity wrapped closely around a cotton candy fluff of contrafactual “truths” they’ve been drip-fed, NG-tube-fed, by the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind after long and careful enstupiation (with the sheeple’s mostly willing cooperation, of course) by Academia Nut Fruitcakes’ and remote educrats’ Prisons for Kids, enstupiated parents (yes, it’s a generational thing, now), “edumacators” and real teachers who’re trapped in the machinery of “public schools” and dumbed down colleges, forced at every turn to surrender teaching to “edumacating” (lobotomizing) young minds.

What to do, what to do?

1. Don’t attack directly. Chip away at the hard shell stupidity covering the cotton candy ignorance with humor, ridicule. When the enemies of The People are shown to be fools, the sheeple may be open to being fed real food. Dennis Miller’s biting sarcasm comes to mind. Oh, you’ll not be able to reach a True Believer in Leftardism with Miller’s material, but those who are just among the common enstupiated sheeple might find a bit of the hardshell stuidity eroded by his ridicule of Leftardism.

2. Once you find any crack in the hardshell of stupidity, start pouring facts through the cracks. Facts are stubborn things. Amazingly, once facts can be brought into juxtaposition with the “reality-based fantasies” of Leftardism’s many lies, the lies begin to unravel. The difficulty is in finding the cracks in the hardshell of stupdity into which one can pour a bit of the antidote.

Lather, rinse, repeat. Unceasingly.

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More beer notes

Update to the recent note about brewing: brewed up some molasses beer last night and got it all started in a new primary fermenter (For the tightwads out there, a PET plastic fermenter, complete with airlock and spigot: $10–33% of its already low $15 price. Enables making another batch of ultra low cost, drinkable beer, as opposed to buying the overpriced stuff obtained by draining horses that is foisted off on stupid beer drinkers by most large American brewers). It’ll take a minimum of 24 of the swingtop bottles (or 32 12-oz regular bottles I could use my new bottle capper and regular caps to bottle) when it reaches time to bottle condition it. Oh, molasses beer? Essentially just use molasses in place of unhopped malt extract or brewing up some wort from scratch, add some ginger, cloves and lemon zest. Oh, and (this time) I “hopped” it twice–once while boiling the wort and then a dry hopping after pitching the yeast to the wort in the primary fermenter. Easy-peasy.

Oh, I’d forgotten to get some fresh beer yeast, soooo… I could have used bread yeast. After all, the earliest known beer recipe used bread soaked in water. But, nah. I’d just bottled a fresh batch of wheat beer the day before and saved the trub. Revived the yeast in the trub and used that. Result? It’s bubbling happily away today. Nanny-nanny-boo-boo to any snooty beer mavens out there who think a new batch of yeast every time is absolutely essential.

Of course, that does mean I didn’t get to use the trub to make a batch of bread with. Oh, well.

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“Time keeps on slippin’… into the future… “

Where has the week gone? Seems like my last post was just yesterday… but it wasn’t; it was Monday. Oh, well.

Semi-randomized thoughts from The Voices in My Head…

File under Life’s Little Disappointments:

So I’m starting another brew season. Thought to myself, “Self, why not pick up a few more swingtop bottles, since you’re going to be making lotsa different kindsa brews?”

Okay, answered I.

So, picked up a few Grolsch swingtop bottles. No, not empties, silly. With beer in them. After all, it’s cheaper buying swingtop bottles with Grolsch beer in them than it is buying empties, for some reason (and not because the beer in them is bad. Usually. I have had skunky Grolsch, just not normally).

Filed under Life’s Little Disappointments: Grolsch has changed their swingtop bottles. Oh, functionally they’re still the same, but I miss the four large “medallions” featuring barley and hops formed into the sides. Now, it’s just couple of itsy-bitsy “almost can’t see it” (3/4″?) substitute cartouches, the name, “Grolsch” on the side and some weird hash marks. What? Somebody wanted change just for change’s sake? Dumb. Oh, well.

Been finding some neat accessories to make modding the lil XBox I got recently a bit more fun (Son & Heir reads here every now and then, so I’ll hold these close to my vest for now *heh*). Pretty soon I’ll have to just block out some time, gather the materials I’ve researched/bought and jump right on just doing/installing the thing as a media server. Get it set up in the etertainment center in the main room and all set to serve up media from the various computers on the network. Cheapo media server; fun lil project. Time.

Right after I TS and repair the weird coolant issue on my car. *sigh* Just got Son & Heir’s car back from the shop. Next day: my lil econochamp loses a ton of coolant. No time/energy to deal with it right away, so parked, did a quick checklist and have just driven another car while mulling over my plan of attack… tentatively scheduled for Saturday. Fun. (Yeh, I could get it to the mechanic, but after what I poured into Son & Heir’s car this week, I’d rather spend my Saturday instead. See: “Tightwad, one of”. *heh*)

Speaking of tightwaddery, I decided that spending $15.39 for The Complete Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn was a Good Thing to do. I’d read an earlier edition about a decade ago and found quite a few things I was not already doing to improve my tightwaddery. Yeh, since the price I mention above includes my shipping charge, I may have gotten one of the last really cheap copies, but if you can buy it for $20 or so (including shipping) you’ll likely recoup your cost in your first few pages of reading the thing, unless you’re already a Master Tightwad. Really. Seriousy good stuff.

Bought a buncha beer making supplies. Forgot to get more yeast. Hmmm, think I can revive some from filtrate ff my most recent batch? Could be… We’ll see. Of course, ancient beer makers called beer “liquid bread” because that’s what they made it from: bread soaked in water. The wine I made using bread yeast turned out OK, so maybe… Nah, I’ll try reviving some.

Oh, crap. I just opened my eyes to the mess that is my desktop. *sigh* I thought I had that thing completely cleared off in October?!? This is getting ridiculous. I need room to set up a new printer, build some shelving to stand ON the desktop, etc. Saturday, after the car? Hope so. If I really wanted to put the pressure on myself, I’d take a pic of my desktop and post it, but I’d never. Coward, that’s me. *heh*

*yawn* Can’t keep eyes open. Clocking out, folks.

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The Road Ahead, 1.4

This might almost be “TRA, 3.2,” because controlling personal debt could easily be seen as a citizen’s duty… at least modeling the concept for our wonderful Triumvirate of Greed and Envy and the rest of the little piggies in Congress…

Fred Reed proves once again that anyone can say something of profound wisdom. Talking about recent news:

One story says that Americans owe some bizarre sum on the credit card and god knows how much on the McMansion and on the five-hundred horsepower riding mower with a mini-combine, backhoe attachment, and satellite GPS for mowing the half acre. I think I’m supposed to feel sorry for them. Actually I think they are a persuasive argument for eugenics.

I don’t get it. What is wrong with these idiots? Debt is easy to avoid. Herewith some blinding wisdom: If you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it.

“[O]we some bizarre sum on the credit card”? If you’ve begun implementing a frugal, tightwad lifestyle, then you’ll have a lil extra at the end of every month to stock your pantry, add to your collection of silver (or some other form of savings) and pay down your debt. If we pull through the next four years and emerge bloody but unbowed, well and good. You’ll be in better financial shape than your neighbors who kept trying to ride the credit gravy train.

But, IF (and it’s still a remote “if”) the SHTF and we find ourselves facing TEOTWAWKI (Ragnorak, Armagedon, whatever), you might think owing big bucks to your credit card companies would be no big deal. The big reset button will have cleared all your debt.

Bum thinking, dude. It’s all about owning up to personal responsibility. Surviving with integrity. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul,” as someone once said…

Think of it this way: pay down/pay off your debts and there’s no TEOTWAWKI event, you have the monkey off your financial back and you are an honorable person. Pay down/pay off your debts and TEOTWAWKI does happen, you can start over knowing you satisfied your honor and are free of the moral debt you owed to pay your financial debts. Both good things.

Individuals practicing personal responsibility: essential for victory over The Triumvirate of Greed and Envy*.

*What?!? No one commented on “Triumvirate” referring to “Greed and Envy” (just two things)? The “triumvirate” of greed and envy resides in… the third part of the equation: the person who allows them living space.

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The Road Ahead, 2.1

Note, the 2.X volume of The Road Ahead will briefly touch on the politics of idiots, and what we can do to provide remedial education for such self-handicapped voters.

The schizo voter:

Even as black voters overwhelmingly backed Barack Obama — a homosexual-rights supporter — in the presidential race, about seven in 10 of them voted against same-sex marriage, compared with about half of white voters.

Denise Fernandez, a 57-year-old black woman from Sacramento, said she voted for Obama and Proposition 8. “I believe a Christian is held accountable,” she said.

Let’s see, she–along with over 70% of blacks who voted for California’s Proposition 8 (marriage=heterosexual, monogamous union)–saw no problem with asserting that “I believe a Christian is held accountable,” was a valid reason to vote for Prop 8, but voting for a man for the presidency who is an ardent supporter of Black genocide is completely disconnected from accountability because… he’s supposedly “Black”?

WTF?!? “Black genocide”?!? Yep. Aborted babies are disproportionately “Afro-American” babies. Black women are only about 17% of the oopulation, but abortions of Black babies runs at about 35% of abortions. Obama supports open season on babies in utero, therefore he supports killing off Black babies at twice the rate of Whites. Heck, this doesn’t even fit well with his “blame Whitey for everything” past, but there you are.

How to reach people with such a disconnect?

Well, for one thing, we can’t tell them to their faces that they are racist idiots, though they are. What we can do is constantly, unremittantly, without ceasing (what I say three times I really, really, really mean :-)) shine the light of truth upon what The Triumvirate of Greed and Envy says and does, because the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind won’t. In our every contact with others–especially The Others who hypocritically voted against their self-proclaimed “principles”–we must firmly press the truth into theiur hands, clearly funnel the truth into their ears and carefully point their eyes to revelations of the record and current behaviors of The Obama-Pelosi-Reid Triumvirate of Greed and Envy.

Without ceasing.

But. Couple such firm, continual truth feed with offers of genuine help–however small–in dealing with the woes brought about by The Triumvirate of Greed and Envy. Only by demonstrating a genuine concern (genuine concern offers genuine help) to individuals who are negatively impacted by their creepily hypocritical votes against conscience and even against their own UNenlightened self interest can we make genuine converts to the idea of genuinely voting ones principles.

It’d be a start.

Next up: what are genuine conservative principles… and genuine liberal principles? Given the state of current public discourse, Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind propaganda and Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakery “education” you might be surprised to find how close real liberals and real conservatives are.

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The Road Ahead, 3.1

In The Road Ahead, “3.X” series, I’ll be looking at our responsibilities as citizens.

Romans 13:1Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. 4For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience. 6This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. 7Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.

If you are not a Christian, then the passage quoted above has no power for you. But if you are, mark well: you are enjoined to obey the law and to show respect to civil authority. Peter makes clear elsewhere (I Peter 2:13-20), that obedience to civil authority extends even to abusive civil authority.

If you don’t find those scriptures and others persuasive, let me make an appeal to conscience. Our society owes a deep debt to a tradition of the rule of law. While we see that tradition widely abused nowadays–often by those charged with enforcing the law–that does not render our obligations null and void. People of good conscience will obey the law and seek to change bad law by good conduct, working within the system to make changes as much as humanly possible.

Praying meanwhile for divine intervention in the cause of justice.

But more, it is our duty as citizens in a representative republic too much tainted by a legal fiction of democracy and dominated by a political elite and their bureaucratic leeches, to work, to strive, to peacefully militate for good law, justly enforced.

To that end, I am asking for contributions–through comments or guest posts (contact me via email or in comments if you wish to guest or cross post on this subject matter) dealing with, “What I can do to make our government, our laws and their administration, more just.” Anything from the nuts and bolts of building a precinct structure to effect political change to pressuring congresscritters and others to Do the Right Thing–and any other common sense actions that common citizens can take–is welcome.

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The Road Ahead, 1.3

Sometimes, the bravest, most patriotic thing you can do is just mind your own business. By that I mean simply live your life as best you can, providing for your own, saving for the future, preparing for foreseeable disasters.

On that last point, make no mistake that I believe The Trimvirate of Greed and Envy (Obama-Pelosi-Reid) has plans in store for you that are not for the good of you and your family, but only good for the advancement of their Marxist-socialist political power plays. Raid/nationalize 401Ks? In the works. It may not succeed, but expect/prepare for a negative impact on YOUR financial future. Artificially raised energy costs via depression of development of oil resources at home, encouragement of inimical foreign powers in holding us hostage with their oil, extortion of coal-fired electrical plants (thus either forcing them out of business or forcing higher electricity pricing… or both)–and more coming from The Trimvirate of Greed and Envy. The policies of The Trimvirate of Greed and Envy are designed to squeeze the little guy past all endurance… and falsely point the finger of blame at “the evil corporations” forced by their policies to raise prices, cut down on (or cut out) 401K participation, etc., etc.

Standard Saul Alinsky “community organizer” strategies.

So, in the face of these and other pressures to knuckle under and say “Uncle Sam!” what is a patriotic American to do?

First, make sure your own affairs are in order. I made a few modest suggestions in “The Road Ahead,” 1.1 and 1.2. Do those. Find another job or start a small business you can (for now) run from home. If you have a hobby or outside interest that can be made into a money-maker, try making money with it, for heaven’s sake! Take ALL the tax advantages you can of such a business, and sock away all you make from it into precious metals, your home, a sound mutual fund or other relatively safe (there is no safety in investment, only relative degrees of risk) investment, and…

Disaster preparedness. Seriously. Treat preparing for the next few years of rule by The Trimvirate of Greed and Envy as you would preparation for a natural disaster. Build up your pantry with long-term and medium-term food storage. Make what preparations you can for power outages and brownouts. Learn first aid (or brush up on your first aid skills) and stock medical/health supplies. Stock up on clean water. Make sure you have basic hand tools and the skills to use them. Just basic disaster preparedness.

Check your self-defense measures. I’ll leave those up to you, but think about the topic carefully. Do you really want to be dependent on your local cop shop if/when the SHTF?

Make necessary home and car repairs NOW. Take care–as much as possible–of ongoing health/dental issues, NOW.

For worst case scenarios: have a “bugout bag” for every family member and SHTF bags in your cars–AND plan a place to go and several routes should things become untenable where you live.

Being paranoid, any? Nope. Just thinking ahead to possibilities and measuring them against straws in the wind.

And besides, any stockpiling of goods you do in preparation for emergencies will ALWAYS be useful. Food and water pantry? Use and replenish on a regular basis. Heck, if you experience a natural disaster (the TWC Great Ice Storm of 2007 comes to mind for me–no power, and mostly no water for a few weeks can lend a little perspective, eh?) you’ll be able to be “Warm and fed, nice and toasty” w/o any sweat. And if The Trimvirate of Greed and Envy takes your job through their shenanigans, your savings and your food pantry and your part time job/hobby business may just pull you through all right.

Don’t be a crackpot survivalist; be a survivor. Your country needs you more now than ever before.

A few disaster/emergency preparedness links:

http://cdtactical.com/survival-guide/
http://survivalism.blogspot.com/
http://areyouprepared.com/554845-554511-66551/guidebook.pdf
http://theepicenter.com/information.html
http://www.homeandhospicecare.org/disaster/home.html
http://www.ahrimangate.com/freePDFpage.htm

A simple web search will turn up many, many more in depth sites, but these are some places to start.

Trackposted to The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary’s Thoughts, McCain Blogs, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Celebrity Smack, Democrat=Socialist, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Just an Observation

“News” the last couple of days about “McCain aides” anonymously “smearing” Sarah Palin? Keep in mind: this is Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind claims that anonymous McCain aides are smearing Palin. With no direct attribution, all we have is some pseudoreporter pods of the Hivemind making unsupported claims designed to stir up trouble in a camp opposed to Hivemind views. You trust these Hivemind pseudoreporter pods any more now than during all its lies, half truths and coverups for Obama during the campaign?

Where did you leave your brains, people? Wait for something that approaches a credible report before jumping on this. Hivemind pseudoreports have NO credibility. As in a big zero with the rim kicked off. Wake up and sniff out the bullshit, OK? There could be some truth to these pseudoreports, but so far, all we have is Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind fakery, lies, and bullshit to back them up. Wait for some verifiable facts.

Let me repeat: so far, all we have is Mass Media Podpeople claiming that “anonymous McCain aides” have said some nasty things about Palin. *feh* That doesn’t even qualify as juicy gossip.

IF we ever have credible, verifiable reports of actual McCain staffers making remarks such as have been pseudoreported by Mass Media Podpeople, THEN it’d be time to get out the tar and feathers, but until then, ask yourself, who benefits from this lil tempest in a teacup?

Trackposted to The Virtuous Republic, Woman Honor Thyself, McCain Blogs, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Cao’s Blog, Democrat=Socialist, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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The Road Ahead, 1.2

I’ve pretty well settled on the 1.X series of “The Road Ahead” posts dealing with simple things the average Joe and Josephine can do to deal with the financial impact of rule by the Trimvirate of Greed and Envy. Now, a disclaimer: I’m not a financial expert, and anything I suggest is simply common sense, not advice from a competent financial advisor. If you can find some such person and are able to afford consulting with them, you might be well served to do so.

How to cushion the blows of a government ruled by he Trimvirate of Greed and Envy? One obvious route for common folks is to focus on real wealth: precious metals, ones home, etc. If you’ve already been setting aside resources in precious metals, good on you. Gold is good, but perhaps significant investment in gold is a bit beyond your means. If you need to start really small and build up, try collecting–or even small-time buying–pre-1964 US silver coins as a decent place to start. Even if all you do is keep an eye out for them in your nightly change, pretty soon you’ll have a small collection of coins that are worth more for their metal than for their face value. You might even find a few collectables that are worth more to a collector than their silver content. Cash those in for more silver–or even gold–coinage that’s not worth as much to collectors and keep on growing your precious metals pot. Silver and gold aren’t the only choices for precious metals, but they’re a very smart place to start as you climb the learning curve.

Another obvious place to build and/or protect real wealth is your home. Look around. Are there maintenance things that you’ve put off? Do them as soon as possible! Any capital improvements that have a good ROI prospect? Do them as well, as soon as you are able. Money–and especially sweat–spent here are better than money in the bank, even in a market of housing price downturn, especially if you intend to make your home yours for a long time. (Here at twc central, for example,we don’t plan on moving, and the bank won’t even own a piece of us after next year–but our “payments” will mostly continue in maintenance and improvements that have good ROI prospects.) Even at “depressed” real estate pricing, compared with other homes in our area that are selling, our investment in this house has a value that well exceeds inflation over the term of our nearly-retired loan. But do look very, very closely at potential ROI on further investments in your home.

Another way to improve your home investment is to accelerate your loan payoff. Look at how your loan is structured and find a way to pay a little extra on the principal with each house payment. Really own your home sooner. Sure, you’ll lose an interest deduction on your income taxes when you pay your home off early, but there are ways to deal with that, too, and if the SHTF and a really big financial collapse hits, you’d have only maintenance and property taxes to deal with–a Good Thing.

What? You don’t “own” your home (aren’t buying it)? If you’re single, consider this: we “talked” our single adult children into moving back in and saving the money they were throwing away every month on rent, etc. But do NOT just spend any money saved. If your parents are amenable to the idea, use the opportunity wisely. Learn what it is to truly live frugally. Become a tightwad and ELIMINATE every single solitary luxury item you can. SAVE every single penny you can and put it to work making money, so you can pay OFF any debt you may have accumulated, save for a home of your own, emergencies, etc. Learn to forgo that cuppa humongously overpriced Starbucks coffee, etc., and really save every red cent you can against future need. Learn to effect delayed gratification.

Of course, those same principles can be wisely applied by anyone.

Married and renting. Learn to live cheaply and save for a wise investment in a home you can afford. Dream home? Don’t count on it, and DO NOT PUSH YOURSELF into a home you cannot REALLY afford.

Simple things, eh? I’ll talk further on things like this as time goes on, but for a tip to a frugal living blog, just CLICK HERE. You’ll find further links there. Start your research going for tips, tweaks and principles of the tightwad living style. Prepare for the worst in the coming days of rule by the Trimvirate of Greed and Envy, or be expect to be caught with your pants around your ankles right when you need to move quickly.

Not a happy thought.

Do note: my lil automated “scripture of the day” feature on my right sidebar notes Matthew 6:19-21 today. Ironic? Not really. I’m not advocating, here, “lay[ing] up treasures on earth” but simply taking prudent steps to protect ones finances and provide for ones family, instead of relying on a fickle government run by people who do not know you and do not give a fig for you and yours. Do what you will.

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