Yeah it is a lot of fun, last week I was talking to a guy in Ireland just to switch bands and talk to another guy in New Zealand.

It’s actually easier than ever to get in. You can get a decent handheld UHF/VHF local rig for less than $30, and a decent QRP HF global rig runs about $225 after you upgrade your license. There’s study guides out there for $10 (and even free ones) that go over the actual questions you get on the FCC exam. The license fee has gone up to $35 from $10, but the equipment has gotten cheap enough for anyone to get in.

I always found drag to be weird and “not my bag, baby!”. But what’s even weirder is a corrupt politician thinking he can tell citizens what they can wear, how much (or if any) makeup they can use, or who they can sleep with.

But hey, you can shoot people through closed doors in other states and use Texas as your escape route to Mexico as a fugitive – Abbott won’t extradite criminals so long as your heinous crime was committed in a blue state. Extraditions only happen for members of certain political parties…

Look into WInlink. You have to have an amateur radio license, and you’ll have to choose between different software (ie: radio modem), and you’ll need an HF transceiver. Once licensed you can create a Winlink account (via radio, no web signups!), which gives you access to smtp through their gateways (which are actually owned by other hobbyists). Different towers/repeaters have different specs/protocols (PACTOR, Packet, I use VARA) but all of them allow you to send email to any domain or recipient, just like regular email. Hardest part is configuring your laptop (or even phone) to control your transceiver to send the signals out. The email you’d have is [email protected] and with HF frequencies you can hit just about any gateway listed here https://winlink.org/content/gateway_locations

Home made salsa is the best!!!

I do ham radio. Probably the coolest thing I’ve “made” is a setup where I can send email without the need for an internet connection on my end. I use a small laptop connected to a transceiver to send out high-frequency sounds (VARA) on very low power (5-10 watts) to towers around the world that will decode the signals, convert it to a regular email, and send it to the recipient ([email protected]). Then reverse the process when I check for a reply. The whole setup fits in a small backpack and I can use a piece of speaker wire for the antenna. It’s about as fast as dial-up used to be, but it works!

Yeah it’s really hard to say “this life was better than that life”. What you measure and how you measure just doesn’t “measure up”. Some would say Elon Musk has the best life, he’s the richest guy on the planet, they’d like to be him, etc. Other’s think he’s the Anitichrist.

Sorry to hear about your brother. The older I get, the more I don’t think there’s ever any “seeds of self-destruction”. I’ve seen a lot of people go down the drug road. Some you’d never guess would ever even touch a drug. But once that dopamine and endorphins hit the reward center of their brain, that’s usually it. Human beings effectively become lab rats at that point. The behavior is identical. I (like most people) experimented in my 20’s, but it was never conducive to the life I wanted to live (seeing the world). I like to sleep, I like to keep my wits about me, so anything stronger than beer was just never a good time. I have also lost friends and loved ones to the stuff, it just leaves you wondering “why”? I think for some, the feeling or high is truly overpowering and it only takes one curious moment to expose yourself to that kind of risk.

But all of that is just one of a billion different paths to go in life. Some people go to MIT and end up working at the CERN. Others go into art or music. Some become contractors, some go into politics, some fly into space. Some have kids, others don’t, some even adopt. I’m always fascinated by the “how” in it all. What lead them to choose the things they chose? What surprises came along the way that they didn’t see coming? I find out more and more, most people didn’t “decide” to be where they are. They just ended up there, in part from life choices but equally in part circumstances. The mom of three really only planned to be a mom of one. The contractor had originally planned to be a musician. Thank you for your message!

FYI my life is STILL interesting! I ain’t dead yet!!!

It really is. But it also costs a lot.

I really wish I had the “ultimate algorithm” for everyone to find happiness. Not even joking. In my 52 years on this rock we call Earth, I still haven’t found my own “ultimate algorithm”. The rules change. The situation changes. People… Change.

My life never involved the white picket fence, nice house, beautiful wife, or kids. And the shit part is, when I was young – I thought that was the ultimate weighing scale of life. Get all that or die. No room for inbetween. You’re a failure if you don’t succeed, blah blah blah.

None of that is true.

I once hopped in a car with a guy from Phoenix who “had it all”. Nice house, his wife was trophy-level, he had 3 kids all going to college. Perfect life. Showed me photos of his house. Eight hours later he was yelling and screaming about how his two boys just smoke weed, his daughter only calls when she needs money, and his wife hasn’t laid him in six months. Perfect life, huh?

I’m not saying to pack your bags, I’m not saying go get a home loan. I’m saying your life will be a different trail. Maybe you get married, maybe you don’t. Maybe you end up rich, maybe you don’t. And I really HATE to coin a phrase, but it really is about the journey.

Prepare for that as best you can. If you’re in school, finish it. If you have a job, save.

What you don’t realize is that you’re already on your own trail. You just haven’t realized it yet.

Just wait! Life actually gets worse!!!

I am making a joke but at the same time, I’m 52. I squeaked through the 70’s and 80’s with an alcoholic father who liked to beat up my mother and I. Once I turned 16, I left home. Mom committed suicide after I left.

Ended up doing some college, then computer programming after a stint in the Air Force. Spent my 20’s pretty much dizzy as hell, I loved girls and pool and darts and bars. Spent my 30’s teaching English in Asia. Had some fun and dangerous times over there, always research your destination country well before you commit to a job abroad.

I lost my passport in Cambodia, was finally medically evacuated from Cambodia via the US Embassy (I’m 5’9" and weighed 110 lbs, not good!) and was dropped off in L.A. in the middle of December with no money, no ID, and nowhere to go. I had just turned 40.

I spent the majority of my 40’s hitchhiking the USA. California to Florida and back twice, then up to Monatana, Idaho, back down through Nevada and Utah twice, then AZ back to FL and finally started hanging out near the places I liked. Eventually that became Houston in the winter and Denver CO or Bozeman MT for summer. I got into house-sitting, I don’t hitchhike anymore. I have clients primarily in Denver and Houston and friends all over.

Now I’m 52. Recently diagnosed with spinal stenosis, CES, PTSD and other health issues. It went by fast, although I would have said life moved at a snail’s pace when I was a teenager.

You will have to find the motivation to survive whether there’s music or not, that’s a fact. Life does not come guaranteed with good tunes, although we’ll both probably agree it should. Some people tell me I lived the wrong life. Others tell me it’s interesting. And some of the drivers that picked me up while hitchhiking – have told me it was beautiful.

Some rich people are bad. Some are good. Some poor people suck. Others are not. Take everyone at face value. Never lump them into groups. Never burn anyone, and never burn yourself. Watch your back. Hope my little rant helps. You have to find you. You have to decide where you’ll go. You have to choose what is important, and what isn’t.

And listen to this song regularly by Baz Luhrmann – “Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now”