| #701: | There is very little "clean" wealth. It's almost always made on the backs of others. You become rich by making others poor. |
| #702: | The most dangerous drivers on the road are the young. The next most dangerous are the elderly. Both overestimate their abilities. |
| #703: | "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein, via @linkibol |
| #704: | “The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well.” - Joe Ancis, via @linkibol |
| #705: | "Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly." - Anonymous |
| #706: | Most people decry the idea of censorship but practice it themselves when their own investments are at risk. |
| #707: | Product acquisition is often the easy part. Product disposal can be far more challenging. |
| #708: | Couples can fight over money, but they can fight just as viciously over what to get rid of. "You can't throw that away!" |
| #709: | Young people are usually terrified of all their freedom and are desperate to make it go away as quickly as possible. |
| #710: | A natural corollary of freedom is loneliness. |
| #711: | When buying a product, people see only the purchase price. They fail to consider the cost of maintenance, storage, protection and disposal. |
| #712: | The world cannot be saved virtually. Non-virtual intervention will be required. |
| #713: | "Write what you love, but don't be in love with what you write." @genebrady |
| #714: | No matter what you read on the internet about reality, you have to experience it non-virtually to know what it's all about. |
| #715: | Frito Lay is doing its part to help the unemployed by offering 20% more in specially marked packages of its snack food products. How noble! |
| #716: | Real estate is so 20th Century. It's totally unnecessary in the 21st. |
| #717: | In New York City, all the public schools are numbered. (Just passed PS212.) Helps prepare kids for society - as small cogs in a big machine. |
| #718: | Now installed in a hostel in Athens, much better than its reviews suggest. http://bit.ly/BUqle - I can WiFi in my bunk! |
| #719: | Apart from slight differences in hair color, the population of one European city looks pretty much like any other. |
| #720: | In Greece, I find I am TALL compared to the general population, whereas I am medium height back home. |
| #721: | English is ubiquitous in Athens. It is the second language on most public signs, and most company names are in the roman alphabet. |
| #722: | The Greek alphabet looks daunting at first, but you figure it out quickly. Each character corresponds to one in English. |
| #723: | Athens is just crawling with Greeks, most of them not ancient. |
| #724: | Friend me on Facebook for access to my latest travel photos. http://bit.ly/19nFcE |
| #725: | Here are my photos taken today at the ACROPOLIS in Athens, Greece. http://bit.ly/WPYTu - Old stuff, mainly. |
| #726: | If we flew routinely into space, most people would still prefer an aisle seat with easy rest room access instead of a window. |
| #727: | High Definition only makes my hatred of television more refined. What a life waster! |
| #728: | The sit-com is the lowest form of entertainment, competing with pornography for brainlessness. |
| #729: | I can think of no more humiliating career than "Actor". What dignity is there in pretending to be someone else? |
| #730: | Love can be wonderful at first, but we expect too much of it. It can't usually survive the weight of all we ask it to do. |
| #731: | After 24 hours in Athens, I have yet to find a single chain restaurant (McDonalds, etc). What kind of Commie place is this? HOW WILL I EAT? |
| #732: | The temptation of love is to use it as a substitute for finding our own individual identity. |
| #733: | Instead of feeding bread crumbs to the pigeons, I throw a whole piece of bread and watch 'em fight it out. (In a park in Athens) |
| #734: | There's a complex pecking order (sic!) among the pigeons and way too much strutting and posturing. |
| #735: | Some pigeons get so jealeous about guarding their bread, they chase away one intruder thereby by losing the bread to others. |
| #736: | It's all about the bread, Dude, not about your place in society! |
| #737: | Just had a "high density protein shake" (aka "milk"). A handy survival food. If it's enough to sustain a calf, it's good enough for me! |
| #738: | I'm wandering aimlessly through the streets of Athens, truly without a goal. |
| #739: | Now heading to the sea (Aegean). |
| #740: | The graffiti in Athens is so charming. It's in GREEK. And very colorful. And covering everything. |
| #741: | Found it: the Sea (Aegean). This is a good place for - um - beachcombing. |
| #742: | Ah, relief! Found a big Carrefour supermarket near Piraeus. I can eat again! |
| #743: | At every European hostel, a hyper-verbal Valley Girl, Bluetooth in ear, is relaying every excruciating detail of her trip to her parents. |
| #744: | My photos from today's visit to the ATHENS WATERFRONT http://bit.ly/aVel0 - It's good for beachcombing! |
| #745: | Money is poison to truth. In every field, you eventually have to choose between one or the other. |
| #746: | Everything "good" also has its dark side. If you can't see it, then you haven't grasped the whole picture. |
| #747: | I'm off to my first Greek island: Aegina, about an hour's hydrofoil ride from Athens. It's "proof of concept" trip. |
| #748: | Whenever you hear the term "zero tolerance" there is usually an asshole behind it. |
| #749: | In the Mediterranean, there is very little difference between "indoors" and "outdoors". |
| #750: | Graffiti may be the purest form of art, done without hope of monetary gain or fame beyond an inner circle. |
| #751: | Athens is CHEAP! €1 to go anywhere on the Metro. €13 for a hostel bed. €0 for graffiti. |
| #752: | I'm sitting on the dock in Aegina, feasting on Gummi Bears. |
| #753: | There is liability in giving advice: You're responsible if someone follows it and gets in trouble. |
| #754: | Okay, I've tired of Aegina already. My camera loved it but needs a nap. Back to Athens. |
| #755: | You can't impose advice on others. The best kind is when they ask questions and you answer, then you know they they are ready for it. |
| #756: | If you sold you're soul to the Devil, you could go into advertising! |
| #757: | Storm coming! The Aegean is angry! |
| #758: | An Egyptian guy on the dock is selling genuine Prada, Ray-Ban and Rollex merchandise for a steal! Don't know how he does it. |
| #759: | I still haven't forgiven those French bastards for what they did to MY PEOPLE back in 1066. An act of pure aggression we shall never forget! |
| #760: | Photos from my visit today to AEGINA, an island near Athens. http://bit.ly/TPwFr - Baby's first Greek island. |
| #761: | In practice, "owning your own business" usually means "owning your own prison." |
| #762: | "Wealth is the ability to fully experience life." - Henry David Thoreau - #existentialism |
| #763: | “It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things.” - Henry David Thoreau |
| #764: | “The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.” - Henry David Thoreau - #existentialism |
| #765: | When you're paying €13 for a hostel bed, it's pompous to ask to see the room first. |
| #766: | Freedom is your ability to adapt to unexpected changes in yourself and the world around you. |
| #767: | I have just released a new Homeless by Choice blog entry on DISPOSABLE CLOTHING. http://bit.ly/jtdld - Buy it, use it, throw it away! |
| #768: | I'm in a square in front of the Greek Parliament listening to a full orchestra play the greatest hits of The Beatles. Very cool! |
| #769: | Music isn't just music. It's our worldwide religion! |
| #770: | 2000 Greeks singing a Beatles song in unison. |
| #771: | Fatalism is a self-fulfilling prophesy. |
| #772: | The usual penalty for mistakes in life is some form of imprisonment. - #existentialism |
| #773: | Maturity is when you learn to not take things on faith but understand them instead. |
| #774: | In childhood, there was someone looking out for us. In adulthood there isn't. It's a difficult and painful transition. |
| #775: | On every planet in the universe there are mathematical constants like Pi and existential ones like freedom, death and regret. |
| #776: | The most important lesson you learn in foreign countries is what things are universal. |
| #777: | To walk down the street of any busy city is to witness 10,000 forms of human slavery. |
| #778: | Once you see what is really going on in the world around you, life becomes bittersweet. There is no simple happiness. - #existentialism |
| #779: | Some Greek ladies try to be blonde, but it's a difficult and expensive undertaking. Just be who you are! |
| #780: | I just spent 4 days in Athens for €140 - for EVERYTHING: food, lodging ground transportation. Thank hostels and public transit. |
| #781: | How much does new technology actually improve our lives vs just complicating things or undoing the damage of past technology? |
| #782: | Just because a little of something makes you happy doesn't mean a LOT of the same thing will make you MORE happy. |
| #783: | Youth is a period of joyously going about getting yourself trapped. |
| #784: | The Indian mother's refrain: "And STILL you don't listen!" |
| #785: | "How the Food Makers Captured Our Brains" NY Times (6/23) http://bit.ly/11Kp2x - Sugar, fat and salt tap into the brain's reward system. |
| #786: | NY Times on hearing: http://bit.ly/4eAY8U "When an Ear Witness Decides the Case" - Our hearing helps explain music. |
| #787: | "Better Performance After a Dreaming Nap" NY Times http://bit.ly/12Sd26 - Better thinking after REM sleep. Duh! (I do my best work in REM!) |
| #788: | Whenever I meet people in Europe, I say I'm from Las Vegas. That city seems to excite them like no other! |
| #789: | The most obnoxious travelers I've met in hostels are young asian women who act like they're checking into the Hilton. High maintenance! |
| #790: | Nutritionally, there is no difference between a freshly opened soda and a "flat" one a few hours old, so why must a flat one be thrown away? |
| #791: | Strange phenomenon: The more I eat, the more quickly and intensely I get hungry. If I eat less it seems to last me longer. |
| #792: | The most common addictions are caffeine, television and listening to music. Are you addicted? Try going without for a day! |
| #793: | One of the highest compliments you can pay someone is to say they have "no ego", although you are really saying the opposite. |
| #794: | When a product promises to "kill 99% of all bacteria", it's really breeding stronger bacteria (the 1% that survive). |
| #795: | When you have something someone else wants, you have the ability - indeed, the obligation - to make them earn it. |
| #796: | There is no safe haven. It is always an illusion. |
| #797: | Ridiculous scene in Las Vegas: huge cellphone towers disguised as giant evergreen trees. This is not Colorado! |
| #798: | There is nothing linking UFOs to Area 51 but a web of folklore. |
| #799: | People are asking the wrong question about UFOs: "Are they real?" The more important issue is: "Are they relevant?" I say no. |
| #800: | Whatever UFOs may be, they are not interfering in our planet in any big way, which is the most we can expect of any alien race. |