After the long delays getting on to the plane in Perth International Airport the flight to Paris was quite entertaining.

I lost my passport at the Singapore airport. We walked the ~1500m to the transfer desk when I suddenly realised I didn’t have my little documents bag around my waist. I distinctly remember putting it into the pocket oh the chair in front of me so that I wouldn’t lose it and in the rush to get off the plane (hey, it was the first time I had made a connecting flight, I have everything else on me!) I just didn’t put that bag on. It must be said that I did have three items of carry on luggage [laptop bag, back pack and document bag] and I think I was hoisting D’s bag at the time so I counted three attached items.

I ran back to the gate that had finished disembarking, of course, and was not starting to admit the passengers for the return flight. I jumped the queue, nearly starting a riot or anti-terrorist action, to explain why I was acting so agitated. Eventually the security people passed me on to someone who spoke a larger degree of english and I was able to get to the plane. It was being cleaned and from the way the security guard was talking, there wasn’t much chance that my bag would be there. I’m still not sure if he was trying to say the cleaning crew steal everything they find or if they tag it and bag it. It didn’t matter. The bag was exactly where I left it.

Grabbed it and ran back to the transfer desk. Got the boarding pass but there were no more pairs of seats left, so D and I had to sit apart. It wasn’t that bad actually. Well, for me. I got to talk to these two brothers from Sydney who have, among many other businesses, a surf shop on the east coast () we had a great time. D had to sit next to some over-weight guy who was intent on sleeping the whole flight. We visited each other though the flight and it flew by (ha!) in no time at all. Well, it did for me!

We trained it into Paris, quickly found the hotel and dropped the bags off. Breakfast in Paris! Quick and simple. Whatever they were selling. Pastries with meat and cheese. There goes my “try not to eat too much dairy on the holiday” idea. It hasn’t even been 24 hours yet!

We took a brisk walk to Notre Dame and, because it was raining, took refuge in a place called Au Vieux Chatelet where I had my first real French Coffee. It was a cappuccino, apparently, but it looked more like a Vienna to my Perth Coffee Connoisseur’s eyes. The cream was amazing! Then came the Creme Caramel and that was divine too. So much for No Dairy.

Back to Notre Dame, the outside this time, and then continued along the Sienne, meandering here and there as the muse took us. Eventually wound up at La Petit Palais, which was housing a free-to-the-public gallery. It was here that I saw the painting La Bon Samaritain. This is an amazing painting. From the angle that I initially saw it the man on the horse looked real, I really thought I was looking at a real person. The rest of the picture was fantastic too, but that guy on the horse, that’s exactly what he looked like in real life. Possibly more so. I don’t understand how that works, but I was stunned. I can’t for the life of me remember the artists name. Damn.

The Louvre was closed. It was a Tuesday.

That’s twice I’ve been to Paris and both times the Louvre was closed to me.

Fine.

We saw three scams today: The Gold Ring, Save Africa and Do You Speak English.

The Gold Ring - the guy seems to pick up a ring from the floor in front of you, gets excited about finding it and then attempts to sell it to you, because it would be too much trouble for him to take it to the jeweller. He might be accused of stealing it. How about 10 Euros?

Save Africa - Get a bunch of your black mates and some sheets of paper with Save Africa on them. Add a few lines of name, country, date, amount and then accost people with excitement and exuberance and get them to sign the petition. Once they agree to put their name down, get the details and start demanding the 10-20 Euros from them. Right now. (I suddenly realised why those people who legitimately do this wear all those ID badges)

Do You Speak English - Old woman with crumpled (but plastic covered) piece of paper asks no one in particular “Do you speak English??”. Anyone who says yes gets treated to a confusing blast of misery and pointing at the paper. While they are trying to figure out what is on the paper, the lady picks their pocket.

I’ve never seen such blatant theft. Incredible. Obviously they pay better than a job. There were quite a few people running them (not all in the same place though).

I have put up the final month of my old, original blog from back in the day.

It’s a little scary to think that I can almost remember those days after reading through the diary again, but I suppose that is the whole idea of a diary. If only I had realised how well it worked I might have continued further with it.

I remember having most of the “actors” in it reading it at the time, occasionally commenting here and there on following days. The site was nothing like this one though, where there are sign ups, comments, tracking and all that jazz. This is a much more polished package.

Anyway, it was fun reliving the past and now that it’s back out there I hope to continue to add articles to this blog. On a more regular basis than I have been, but not daily, that might be too much for the world to handle.

Here’s the link to the January 1999 archives. Enjoy!

After spending a reasonable amount of time trying to express how I feel about something I was unable to come up with The Right Sentence.  And while reading the response to the wrong sentence, it occurred to me that:

1. It is difficult enough to make an I statement about myself, but it is impossible to make one about someone else.
2. We are all at varying degrees of development the myriad of different facets of ourselves. Adulthood is a label conferred by others to allow them to treat you as they wish so that they might continue to believe that they themselves are adults.

In all of the challenges I face while continuing to remain alive - having to deal with other people is the hardest and most common point where I come unstuck. Why the hell do you people do those things and what’s wrong with doing it my way, really?

I admit that it would be better if we all just got along, but who really gets to decide what’s best for all of us? And until they can explain themselves in perfect Ben-language, how do I know that they know what they are asking? If communication is a two way street then not being understood means that I can’t possibly understand. Where do you go from there?

I recently found my old online diary from way back in 1998. Do you remember 1998? I don’t. Not particularly anyway. Good thing I wrote down my day to day life in an electronic format that I can now reproduce here for your entertainment/morbid curiosity.

I have finished putting up the December content. There are some links and references that won’t make sense that I have left in for archival purposes (i.e. I don’t want to start adding things to the entries 10 years later, seems a little dishonest)

It is interesting to me to see how I have or have not changed in the way that I talk and think about what is happening to me at the time. In some areas I feel like I was having more fun than I am now, but at this moment in my life I feel like I have more direction. And that’s a little scary as the direction has only really started in the last few months.

Still, better to have started doing something now than to wait another 10 years thinking that everything is going well. Having said that, it can be argued that I am only at this point in my life because of the path that I travelled to get here. It’s that kind of thinking that makes me see how it took so long to get motivated.

I’ve just finished watching this video about The Money System.

It’s jaw dropping.

We’re all on a giant pyramid scheme, hoping to find an extra layer of “members” to fill up our down lines. The horrible horrible thing is that the only people who can do that will be our children. And their children.

I understand that no one wants to deal with this problem unless they really really have to. Why remove the system that you know for one that you don’t, why remove a system that you might be winning in? Because you aren’t really winning. It will never stop. Paper isn’t very palatable and eventually there won’t be enough trees to pulp anyway. Digital bank balances are even more nutritionally deficient. What kind of revolution is going to be required to change the current system? Will the Peak Oil problem be the beginning of the purge?

It’s time. It’s time to cast a vote for ourselves.

What ARE we waiting for? I mean, seriously, when do you expect to actually stop working and live your life without owing more than you can possibly produce.

I need to get out of debt and then I need to start building The Bunker. Then, once I’m almost completely self sufficient, I’ll come visit the rest of you with $70 apples.

After my first visit to see Jeremy Hill at Essential Health I went back for a 2 month check-up and he was ecstatic with my results!

Body Composition	Current	Previous	Change
Ideal Weight (kg)	88.64	88.64
Weight (kg)	78	78
Skeletal Tissue (kg)	10.64	10.64
Ideal ECW (l)	17.73	17.73
Frame Size	Medium	Medium
Body Mass Index	20.51	20.51
Fat Mass
Fat (kg)	11.89	12.02	-0.13
Ideal Fat Mass (kg)	15.95	15.95
% of Total Weight	15.24	15.41	-0.23
% of Ideal Fat Mass	74.52	75.35	-0.83
Difference from Ideal (kg)	-4.06	-3.93	-0.13
Active Tissue Mass
ATM (kg)	36.58	35.87	0.71
Ideal ATM (kg)	44.32	44.32
% of Total Weight	46.89	45.99	0.9
% of Ideal ATM	82.53	75.35	7.18
Difference from Ideal (kg)	-7.74	-8.45	0.71
Fluid Balance
Total Body Water (l)	46.94	46.84	0.10
Total Body Water %	60.18	60.06	0.12
IntraCellular Water (l)	27.07	26.40	0.67
IntraCellular Water %	57.68	56.36	1.32
ExtraCellular Water (l)	19.87	20.44	-0.57
ExtraCellular Water %	42.32	43.64	-1.32
Optimal Health indicators
Phase Angle	6.39	6	0.39
% of Avg. Phase Angle	88.72	83.28	5.44
ATM Quality Index	0.81	0.76	0.05
Cellular Fluid Balance	14.85	21.27	-6.42
Patient Age	33	32	1
Biomarker Index	30.84	30.69	0.15
Fat Distribution Index	Normal	Normal
Fat Muscle Ratio	0.33	0.34	-0.01
Basal Metabolic Rate	1885.20	1892	6.8

And the most amazing thing is that I had a birthday during the last two months and my biometric age has only increased by 0.15 of a year (It should have gone up a whole year because of the birthday, so I have effectively decreased my age by 0.85 of a year in the space of 2 months!)

The levels of histamines in my blood has decreased dramatically, last time there was hardly a screen that didn’t have any of the little cells pushing out histamines and this time Jeremy had to search around for quite some time before he could find one - and it wasn’t active, it was just minding it’s own business. Also the shape of my blood cells was significantly improved, pretty much all of them looked nice and round and plump. All in all, my blood looked healthy healthy healthy!

I have also started to convert fat to muscle, my weight hasn’t changed, but I have 700grams more muscle than I did before. This should continue while I put on some weight, so the process of filling out my frame has started already. I’m really pleased with that idea, it will be great to get off 78kg after all these years.

So I have decided that this was a brilliant idea and I will continue to take The Pills at the same rate as I have been taking them. Who knows, in two months time I might be 28 again!

I want Dana to hug me more, so I needed to figure out a way to get her to do it. Without telling her what she was doing wrong, what needed to be changed or that I wanted to be hugged “right now!”.My solution? I will hug her more. I will hug her the way I want to be hugged. I will do it because I want to hug her, not because I want her to hug me. It suddenly made perfect sense. I can only change myself. Well, I can’t get people to change by forcing them, I can’t expect them to want to change because they want to change when I am forcing them to change because I want them to change. It’s not the same. So, if I want something to change, I need to change it.

So, I’m on the Hug Program.

It’s working great. I get more hugs and we are both happier already. It’s only been 2 days and the difference is great.

This is just the notorious First Post.

I have changed to a new server and in that change I have moved from TextPattern to WordPress. It may be that I change to something else, or back again, in the future, but for now I’m going to give this one a go.

I will add some of the better old posts into this system, but the original dates will be discarded to make the transition easier. It’s not like millions of people are reading this just yet!

I went to a Naturopath today, in an effort to find out 1) if I really have a gluten allergy 2) what vitamins/minerals I might actually be deficient in and 3) what I can do to make my body healthier.

So, off I went to see Jeremy Hill at Essential Health.

Here are the results:

Body Composition
Ideal Weight (kg)	88.64
Weight (kg)	78
Skeletal Tissue (kg)	10.64
Ideal ECW (l)	17.73
Frame Size	Medium
Body Mass Index	20.51
Fat Mass
Fat (kg)	12.02
Ideal Fat Mass (kg)	15.95
% of Total Weight	15.41
% OF Ideal Fat Mass	75.35
Difference from Ideal (kg)	-3.93
Active Tissue Mass
ATM (kg)	35.87
Ideal ATM (kg)	44.32
% of Total Weight	45.99
% of Ideal ATM	75.35
Difference from Ideal (kg)	-8.45
Fluid Balance
Total Body Water (l)	46.84
Total Body Water %	60.06
IntraCellular Water (l)	26.40
IntraCellular Water %	56.36
ExtraCellular Water (l)	20.44
ExtraCellular Water %	43.64
Optimal Health indicators
Phase Angle	6
% of Avg. Phase Angle	83.28
ATM Quality Index	0.76
Cellular Fluid Balance	21.27
Patient Age	32
Biomarker Index	30.69
Fat Distribution Index	Normal
Fat Muscle Ratio	0.34
Basal Metabolic Rate	1892

So I’m pretty skinny (low fat), kinda scrawny (low ATM), youngish and well watered. All in all, roughly where I thought I would be. Although having to put on ~4kg of fat was surprise.

I also have a heart beat, 54 bpm, and blood that is 97% oxygenated. Which is really good.

I guess I am not a Vampire after all :(

When are you happiest memories?

The majority of people would say, “When I was a kid!” or “Back in the Old Days, when things were good.” And what is the primary objective of childhood? Growth. What is the harbinger of the end of childhood? Adulthood.

• You’re old enough to know better.
• You’re not a kid any more.
• Congratulations! You graduated top of the class!

In other words, celebrate! The learning period is over! You no longer need to grow! Your knowledge of the world is enough that you will be able to live like the rest of us! Welcome to the ranks of Adulthood - Where you’ll be too busy worrying about dying to think about living.

The last time I remember being fantastically happy was when I was learning a language. It was amazing, nothing was too much trouble. I made changes to my work regime, I changed my spending habits so I could afford to go to class, I fantasised about travelling to the country in which the language was spoken. It was a blast. Until I started telling people about it.

• You’re doing what?
• Why would you want to do that?
• Isn’t it expensive?
• When would you ever need to use it?
• I could never find the time to do that!

You get the idea. I bet you could even add some to the list that you are thinking right now! If you’re an adult, chances are you have Adult Thinking Technology. It’s what you get when you are exposed to masses of adults who already have ATT. It’s the worrying. It’s the Competing with the Jones. It’s the continual focus on the financial difficulties of living as an adult. It’s believing that the world is actually like the TV news - that thieves and brigands are waiting just around the corner with a picture of you in their pocket and it’s only a matter of time before they find you.

It’s how we kill our children. Somewhere along the line something happens in all of us, something sinister. We start to force children to change into adults. Santa-Claus isn’t real. The Tooth Faerie is really your mother. Life is serious, stop fooling around and pay attention in school. You don’t want to be like uncle Jeff do you? And the clincher, - If I had the opportunities you have I could have done so much more with my life. (This last one is just so damn evil in so many ways it defies logic that a loving parent would even contemplate saying it at all) What is happening is that the adults need to convince the children that the growing period is coming to an end. That resistance is futile. That there is no better way.

The reason adults do it is because they themselves don’t want to know that they have given up. The idea that life plateaus in adulthood is comforting. It’s nice to know that you can take it easy. That your situation is not your fault. Those people who keep succeeding; they’re just trouble makers, they never grew up like we did, they are only able to do it because they had rich parents, went to the right schools or were just lucky in life. What a load of tripe! Life is hard because adults make it so. They create situations for themselves that very neatly fit into their perception of reality. More importantly they do it without realising it, without wanting to know they are doing it, and consequently they congregate. Little groups are formed, they grow and before you know it, you have an entire community ready and willing to accept and convert new arrivals. Can anyone say: Caste System, Socio-economic grouping,  Target Audience.

It works for the successful ones too. There are all kinds of ways to work within your own limits, just think of your best friend. But whatever you do, don’t think about yourself.

Those of us with ATT have just shut off.

It’s ok, they might join us later, then again… they might not.

keep looking »

Recently Written

• Off to Paris
• January 1999 flashback
• I’m sick of this crap
• Old Diary - Dec 1998
• How the Money System works
• Naturopath Visit #2
• I’m on the Hug Program
• New Server, new software
• Naturopath Visit #1
• Resistance is futile

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