Medical Marijuana is Part of the Problem

I live in San Francisco, a hot bed for the legislature surrounding medical marijuana. We have seen huge developments in the past ten years. In my fair city we have "medical" pot clubs all over town. There are people in the world that, one could argue, have a legitimate need for medical marijuana. I would bet that 1 in 200 users with medical marijuana cards actually "need" it. If you watch the news or take a look in one of these dispensaries, you'll quickly notice that it's mostly a sham. Many are run by thugs and a fair amount of their customers resell pot on the street often right outside the dispensary. I believe marijuana should be legal for a number of reasons. One, the fact that people go to prison for possession is disgusting. In some states you can do more time for having an ounce of pot than for robbing a Quickie Mart. This is partly why our prisons are overcrowded. Second, Pot is far less harmful than alcohol or cigarettes and it seems hypocritical that the laws allow the use of two products that are leading causes of death globally but not marijuana. Lastly, legalizing the RECREATIONAL use of marijuana will result in less street crimes. Medical marijuana damages the credibility of it's own cause by making a mockery of it's users. On the news this morning I saw an interview with a woman who was about 19 years old, smoking a huge joint in a dispensary claiming "I, umm, like have... back pains." Please! This offends me, it's an embarrassment and it will never gain the respect required to change things in a positive way. Yes, marijuana can be used medically but it's a joke to say that that's why people smoke it.

Tips for Revenge Part Two!

Here's the second installment.

Tip 2: This one is a bit more time consuming. Take a GU energy gel and replace it's contents with mayo. This can be done in  the following way. A Syringe works really well for both removing and replacing contents. After the deed is done you simply melt the hole closed. You victim will be running or cycling and go for that much needed energy packet and squeeze in a burst of warm old mayo.

Tip 3: This is too easy: Tuna Salad, preferably very old, in the air intake of your victim's car. Mmmmm, can you smell it? That's the smell of revenge.

Tip 4: Similar to tip three but this one is for bikes. Slices of cheap Bologna or another cold cut are placed into the seat tube of the bike while the seat post is out. Replace the seat post and after a few days...Mmmmmm! Again, the smell of sweet revenge.

Tip 5: This is one of my personal favorites. It's very direct so save it up for when you really need it. The neck punch, demonstrated below in the photo is very effective. Be sure to connect with the side of the neck, not the front or back. This way, your victim will wake up for several days and the first thing they will think is "damn, I got punched in the neck". 

A New Series: Tips for Revenge!

So, here is a new series. These are my tips for getting back at someone or just if you really want to be an asshole.

Tip One: "The Upper Deck" - This is pretty rough so stop reading now if you're squeamish or if you are even remotely respectable. Some of you know this one but here it is. Someone piss you off? Next time you're in there house, go to the bathroom, remove the cover to the tank of the toilet and yes, poop in the water tank. It just keeps giving with every flush.


Tip Two:  Stay tuned next week for more!!!

Music... What the Hell?

Most of us know how profound an effect music can have. I went and saw Roger Waters last night performing The Wall. The Wall has been of my favorite albums since the day I first heard it. The older I get, the more I like it. Classifying this solely as an album does not do it justice. It is an album, it's theater, it's a blood curdling dose of humanity and reality.. This was one of the best shows I've ever seen and even though there was no Gilmour, Wright or Mason, it was still very moving. The music was executed with precision and the show itself was extremely well done. Visually, it was incredible. The old animations were there but there were a lot of new effects and animations that blended seamlessly with the original visual effects. Sound was perfect of course. . If there is any complaint, it's only that listening to anyone but Gilmour play the solos, particularly during Comfortably Numb and Young Lust, was a bit difficult. David Gilmour is the only man who can do those parts period. Had I seen Pink Floyd perform this, My brain would likely have melted. If you have a chance to see this, go. Get good seats and go. All in all, this was something I'm very glad I saw. Very rarely do I leave a show speechless, I left feeling like I needed to change my life. This was one of the most powerful pieces of entertainment I've witnessed. I've listened to the album hundreds of times and I enjoy it every time. To see it as it was meant to be seen, the whole production, was something altogether different. I had trouble keeping it together.

Religion...Oh No!

Yes religion! For the record, I'm not against the idea of religion or "spiritualism" if you will. What I have real problem with is the social and political use of religion to control people. Whether it's monotheism or polytheism, for as long as history has been recorded, religion has been corrupted into a tool for those seeking power. So corrupted in fact that anyone who believes that the bible retains any remote similarity to it's original version is smoking the good stuff. I personally have a hard time believing it's anything more than good fiction. I certainly don't consider myself any kind of expert on religion but I would be willing to bet that had the crusades gone a little differently or had Rome not fell, everyone would be shoving what ever system of belief that evolved down our throats. Modern religion is nothing more than the result of countless wars and political agendas. More lives have been lost in the name of some deity or another than any plague or disease. That is the polar opposite of what religion is supposed to be about. To me it seems pretty far fetched that people believe some of this stuff. Walking on water, people turning to stone and visions of angels, Jesus and the apostles is just a little to close to an acid trip to be real. Please! If anyone comes up with that kind of crap today are you going to believe them? Nope, you're not. Why? Because it's fiction.

It's all good if you believe in any of that stuff, just don't knock on my door and try to shove your hysterical beliefs down my throat. I live in the real world.

I'm making a word! "Disappreciation".

Disappreciation of quality in our modern world

There has very likely always been cycles where this trend appears but I'm noticing it far more than ever. Perhaps it's due to the economic toilet we're swirling in or maybe it's just the fact that people simply want more stuff. I've been in retail for about 12 years now and I've seen people turn away a legitimately better product in favor of the cheaper, disposable alternative. The trend is unfortunately growing. There are several contributing factors to discuss here. Economy (as mentioned), marketing and the effect of planned obsolescence.

Let's look at the economy and it's effect on us. As we are assaulted by the media on a daily basis about how bad things are, our natural reaction is to worry. The media is good at that, that's why they will always tell us that 10 people died rather than tell us 10 people were born. It's what they are good at and that is a whole other subject. When all we here are buzz words like "job loss", "unemployment" or my favorite, "recession", we all start to subconsciously change how we see money and products. Things are bad but when someone is still making seven figures, things maybe aren't really all that bad but the mentality becomes "how cheap can I get that" instead of "How good can that be". In my niche within the bicycle industry, it was always the latter. Now, we are losing sales to massive online retailers who can undercut us by a large margin. We are still the expert from whom people seek advice but the value of that knowledge has become drastically undervalued. I have to live pretty thrifty too but I still support those who provide me with the best experience. That is what's good for the economy. Save a buck now and fuck the people who built your community?

Marketing is the other problem. Just like the media, we are saturated non-stop with marketing and advertising that tells us that the only thing we should ever think about is the low, low, lowest price guaranteed! Products are cheaper than ever and we're led to believe this is progress.  That depends on how you define progress. Remember when toys were made here and they didn't poison children? The majority of advertising today focuses purely on price instead of quality of product or service. Tell someone that a product is the best there is no matter what and chances are they will be turned off by that. It's true, I see it every day. As soon as someone hears that they cringe and assume that they SHOULD NOT pay what ever it might cost. Why? Because that's what we've been taught to do by decades of marketing and advertising.

Planned obsolescence is the ugly one in my opinion. The idea here is to create a product with a purposely finite lifespan with the intention of creating a cycle of demand. If you make a product that lasts, no one needs another one right? Let's make one that will last two years and then we get repeat sales every two years. There is certainly obvious logic to that as disgusting as it is. This has created a pattern of manufacturing that produces goods that are just plain garbage. Let's remember that all this stuff goes into landfills too. Cell phones are the best example of an industry that is just laughing all the way to the bank while they herd us along to the next gizmo again and again. (I have an Iphone). Planned obsolescence ruins quality.

What now? I live in the real world too as hard as that may be to believe given what shows up here. I do appreciate quality even though I can't always afford it. Take a second and ask yourself, Who made this? Was it some one who cares about what they made? Was it made by someone who is being exploited? This is important stuff. Buy less but buy better. Buy from independent business' because they hold this country and others up. In a word, Think.

I sell handmade bicycles. They are made by other cyclists who also ride bicycles. They care about what they make, They care about their environment, they care about me and they honestly do care about you. I sell them because I know this and I sleep well at night knowing what I sell is truly the best thing someone can buy. I have never had to lie to someone to make a sale in my life and I never will because I sell quality and everyone else should too. I would like to live in a world where the trend is to make things the best way, not the cheapest way.

Let's try and stop the disappreciation of Quality.

Please Note

Stop coughing all over the produce at my grocery store you ass.

What People Need

What do people need? Even if it can't be quantified, in tough times people need a sense of commonality. They need a release and a sense of brotherhood even if they don't know it.

I experienced something new and really interesting this week. First off, let it be known that I am not a Baseball fan at all. I don't know any of the names and in general I try to avoid it. However, the San Francisco Giants won the World Series and though I expected some craziness, this was something altogether more than that.I had been at a bar during one of the early games and total strangers became brothers during the game. As I sat there, the guy next to proceeded to high five and back slap me every time something good happened. We would never have even spoken to each other had there not been a TV with that game on. When they won the series, my entire city became part war zone, part party and part religious revival. I live far from the ball park and for hours you could not drive down the street, people were blowing things up and generally just plain raging until the wee hours. People came from all over for this too and it didn't stop there. The entire next day and night were nothing short of nuts all over town. People skipped work and school and basically reveled in the whole thing for as long as possible.I know that this is not an uncommon happening but I never had a first hand experience of it.

Here is what I think. People are desperately bored for one. Most of us live within a certain level of monotony that is, let's face it, not really natural. We work, eat sleep, repeat for most of our lives. When something like this comes along we flip out for lack of a better term. People are lonely, they go from their home to their car to their office to home everyday. This is an isolated existence going from one box to another. Even when we are forced into an environment with lots of other people we choose to put up walls in order to avoid contact. We put our Ipod on or hide behind a laptop. Cafes and public transportation used to be much more social. Outside of someone reading a book, most people went to cafes to meet people and have discussions. So, the big game broke down some of these walls for people. People opened up and let loose and hugged everyone they could. It was something to behold. I've been in other environments like this but I have never seen anything bring people together on this level. All for what I consider one of the most boring sports in human history. I do wish they wouldn't burn so many things but I still thought it was cool.

People just need something to do and they need to loosen up, myself included. I'm not hugging anyone though, I'm from the East Coast!.

"rodomontades dispositif"

Yes in a way but that's not all. You'll see. Here you will find the cerebral clutter that infests the mind of a normal American man.

Post number 1:

Category - Retail

 Quote of the day: Question, "So when you order that do you charge me your cost?"
Reality Answer: "No, we charge the retail price for that."
Fantasy Answer: "Well, we're not a social service. The concept in retail is that we buy something at a wholesale price and sell it for...wait for it because this is the mind blowing part...PROFIT."

Yes it's all true, we are here to make......A Living! I know, I know, that leaves you, the almighty, self righteous, mystically entitled CONSUMER having to support local business. That is just awful and I'm so sorry.