I like Coney island. My wife is a huge fan, but I'm less enthused. But I do like its rough charms. It's a very inexpensive place for a family to spend the day. Developers like Donald Trump would tear it down and turn it into a Hamptons West. But two things would happen if that occurred.
One--It would become Snobsville like the South Street Seaport with $10 beers. Or Two--It would be a collassal failure because people would still be afraid to make the trip into Brooklyn. And if that occurs then you've succeeded in chasing away the people who've kept the place running for the last 50+ years and made it a white elephant that rich people can point at as they steam by in their boats headed out to the island. Remember Citibank's dream for a rejuvenated Long Island City? Never materialized.
The Freditor
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Unemployment should not be a problem for long, Year 2012 will be a Bonanza
In 2012, 33% or one-third of all federal government employees will reach retirement age. The Baby Boomers will finally be stepping out of the working ranks and freeing Hundreds of Thousands of jobs for younger people to take.
And 58% of all those holding managerial positions will be eligible for Social Security. There are over 2 Million federal workers, so 33% adds up to about 670,000 new positions opening. For those who look down their nose at government jobs, the average package of salary and benefits adds up to $39.50 an hour, 51% higher than the private sector.
It took me two whole years from the time I took the postal exam until I was finally called for an interview and hired. So anyone looking to get in on any of these Federal jobs, should start testing in 2009 and 2010. Fewer native born Americans are coming into the Post Office and I'm not sure why that is. So you can sit home and try to find some work in construction, where a million guys are chasing after the same dollar or you can take something more secure that the New Americans are jumping into with both feet. Your choice.
The Freditor
And 58% of all those holding managerial positions will be eligible for Social Security. There are over 2 Million federal workers, so 33% adds up to about 670,000 new positions opening. For those who look down their nose at government jobs, the average package of salary and benefits adds up to $39.50 an hour, 51% higher than the private sector.
It took me two whole years from the time I took the postal exam until I was finally called for an interview and hired. So anyone looking to get in on any of these Federal jobs, should start testing in 2009 and 2010. Fewer native born Americans are coming into the Post Office and I'm not sure why that is. So you can sit home and try to find some work in construction, where a million guys are chasing after the same dollar or you can take something more secure that the New Americans are jumping into with both feet. Your choice.
The Freditor
Friday, June 13, 2008
How to Comment on a Story in Fred's Blog
Apparently there is some confusion about how to comment on the various "No More Stinky Monkeys" Blogs. At the bottom of every story, there is a line that reads something like:
"Posted by The Freditor at 6:15PM 0 Comments" (and then a Letter symbol)
If you would like to send me a comment, you click on the Letter symbol and a page will come up.
Next to Friend's email address, put your email address and then in the comments field write whatever you want. If you WANT me to Post it into my Blog, just mention that at the top. Otherwise it will be just for my eyes. Thanks for reading my stuff and your continued support.
My birthday is one month from today, I've had 1300 hits so far, I'd love to get to 2,000 by my Bday.
The Freditor
"Posted by The Freditor at 6:15PM 0 Comments" (and then a Letter symbol)
If you would like to send me a comment, you click on the Letter symbol and a page will come up.
Next to Friend's email address, put your email address and then in the comments field write whatever you want. If you WANT me to Post it into my Blog, just mention that at the top. Otherwise it will be just for my eyes. Thanks for reading my stuff and your continued support.
My birthday is one month from today, I've had 1300 hits so far, I'd love to get to 2,000 by my Bday.
The Freditor
Monday, June 9, 2008
Wow, did the number crunching and here are the biggest Box Office stars
Was looking up Adam Sandler's numbers to see where he lands among current box office behemoths and while he does well, these guys are off the charts. He's also been in about half the movies they've been in. Stallone, Arnold, Bill Murray can't touch these guys. When I was typing in different names off the top of my head I forgot all about Tom Hanks, but he's the leader. And I didn't think of Bruce Willis, but he's a bigger international star than anybody but Hanks. Hanks' world grosses are amazing. I didn't realize that Hanks' movies would translate so well. Eddie Murphy is helped by the 3 Shreks. Ford is helped by the first 3 Star Wars. But people still went to see those movies, partly because they were in them.
Tom Cruise has only the Mission Impossible series, but he was long established before they came out and he has no help from other box office kings (unlike Murphy in the Shreks). People went to see just him. And Tom Hanks has been making serious films for almost 20 years now, yet he's the biggest star and he rarely draws a gun or makes people laugh. Mike Myers has made just 13 movies, but his per average is by far the best. The Love Guru looks dicey, but Myers is as close to golden as anyone in Hollywood, never bet against him. Julia Roberts leads among women, but she doesn't place among these guys and gets credit for some movies like Oceans 11 that have nothing to do with her. Kind of like Samuel L. Jackson, who appears in popular movies but isn't necessarily the star (Star Wars, Coming to America). One of these days, Will Smith will blow all of them away.
The Freditor
Mike Myers: Average US gross: $140,282,107/per movie
Tom Hanks: US gross: $3,839,936,098
world Gross: $7,513,937,782
Harrison Ford--US gross: $3,561,989,506
world gross: $6,383,423,057
Eddie Murphy---US gross: $3,439,371,750
world gross: $6,134,535,458
Tom Cruise---US Gross: $3,076,936,700
world gross: $6,247,259,679
Bruce Willis: US Gross: $3,044,221,838
world gross: $6,412,660,366
Tom Cruise has only the Mission Impossible series, but he was long established before they came out and he has no help from other box office kings (unlike Murphy in the Shreks). People went to see just him. And Tom Hanks has been making serious films for almost 20 years now, yet he's the biggest star and he rarely draws a gun or makes people laugh. Mike Myers has made just 13 movies, but his per average is by far the best. The Love Guru looks dicey, but Myers is as close to golden as anyone in Hollywood, never bet against him. Julia Roberts leads among women, but she doesn't place among these guys and gets credit for some movies like Oceans 11 that have nothing to do with her. Kind of like Samuel L. Jackson, who appears in popular movies but isn't necessarily the star (Star Wars, Coming to America). One of these days, Will Smith will blow all of them away.
The Freditor
Mike Myers: Average US gross: $140,282,107/per movie
Tom Hanks: US gross: $3,839,936,098
world Gross: $7,513,937,782
Harrison Ford--US gross: $3,561,989,506
world gross: $6,383,423,057
Eddie Murphy---US gross: $3,439,371,750
world gross: $6,134,535,458
Tom Cruise---US Gross: $3,076,936,700
world gross: $6,247,259,679
Bruce Willis: US Gross: $3,044,221,838
world gross: $6,412,660,366
Sunday, June 1, 2008
WRXP-101.9: Has anyone been listening to the Best Rock Station in New York City?
101.9 RXP - The New York Rock Experience
The newest radio station in town came on the air, Feb. 7, 2008 and I have been remiss in writing about it. Finally, Finally, FINALLY a station for those of us who still wish the best for terrestrial radio.
My commute is only 1 hour round trip and I don't want to get satellite radio for my car for such a short period of time. I could get an I-Pod, but then I will only be listening to music I already own and not experiencing new stuff. And I will never hear the news or any other current events that way. I love variety on the radio, but my mainstay since 1978 has been great rock and roll radio, and we used to have it.
I didn't fully appreciate it at the time, because I was too young to notice and because it was always there, so who knew it could be taken away from us, but rock radio started going downhill around the end of 1982 and the fall has been precipitous since 1990. I won't go through an entire history, but people my age and older remember when WPLJ and WNEW were in a great dogfight for best rock station in New York. PLJ had a more commercial bent, but they were in touch with the modern listener and there was no shame in listening to them. WNEW was more avant garde, but boy did they open this young boy's ears. The punk rock scene never totally caught on in New York City, despite the revisionist history we hear on VH1 these days, but certain bands had their day in the sun on NEW and are staples today. Talking Heads, Blondie and The Ramones to name a few.
In 1982, NEW was so sure of itself that it started paying attention to the drumbeats of those who wanted to hear more black rock on the radio. They had always played Motown and Stax records, but they started looking at more modern fair and felt that Michael Jackson and Prince were making rock records. You'd hear "Beat It" because of Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo and Little Red Corvette, because of Prince's familiarity with Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix. But the corporate honchos started making their move on NEW and the experimenting was suddenly limited to Sundays and Friday afternoons with Things From England.
When K-Rock switched to all classic rock in the late '80s, New York radio started its fast swirl towards the drain. Classic rock became a code phrase for the Top 100 songs according to listener surveys beaten to death. Now many of those songs which I once loved are barely listenable anymore. And I won't even get into the fact that hardly any new rock and roll bands got a chance to find an audience during these last 25 years. U2, REM and Guns and Roses were the only new bands to find great success.
Now with so many in the New York audience turned off to FM radio by the lack of great music, a new station rises like a Phoenix from the ashes, 101.9--WRXP--The New York Rock Experience. It plays classic rock, modern rock and alternative rock. You are likely to hear in a row: Spoon, The Smiths and the Rolling Stones, but the Stones song will probably one you haven't heard on the radio in 25 years, like "Respectable" off Some Girls. Never heard of Spoon? They are a modern New York band with a fast, Spanish-flavored acoustic sound.
So basically, WRXP mixes up several genres into one cohesive rock and roll station. The punk/new wave era of late '70s WNEW, the modern hard-core rockers of '90s K-Rock, the alternative '80s and '90s records of WLIR and the classic rock that any number of stations have laid claim to since 1988. It's a lot for one station to take on, but hopefully the suits at other stations are starting to see the groundswell of support it's getting. People want to hear something both familiar and new. At most, classic rock stations will play the same five songs from an artist, RXP played the rarely heard Boogie With Stu from Led Zep III the other day. I nearly hit a tree when I heard it on the radio.
It's already starting to happen. Other stations are starting to experiment more. K-Rock is now playing hard rock back to 1970; WCBS is making more room for the '50s records they shamelessly pushed aside; the lowly "classic" Q-104.3 is at least playing something different on Two-for Tuesdays, making the second song one you haven't heard in a while.
RXP claims that they let their DJs pick the records, which might be true, but they do seem to have a bit of playlist that they choose from. Hopefully with success will come more experimentation. The afternoon DJ, Bryan Schock has become the biggest name on the station so far and he brags that he will play something you haven't heard in many years at least once a day on his show. Which is great and I hope that number grows exponentially, but the songs and groups I've heard him play on my way home is heartening. Devo's "Satisfaction" (which like Schock I prefer to the Stones version), Jim Carroll's "All the People Who Died, Died"; Sex Pistols "Anarchy in the UK"; Ian Hunter's "All the Way to Memphis"; Husker Du; The Replacements; and several more I'm not remembering.
Unfortunately, this should not be such a tremendous event. Rock and Roll is 54 years old, there is so much great and wonderful music out there just waiting to be heard. But suit and ties who probably listen to John Tesh make the decisions for what you can hear and like lemmings we listen to stations that long ago gave up any connection to what we want. It has fueled the alternative ways of hearing the music you want from satellite to I-Pods, but how stupid is it for companies to chase away radio listeners who care about what they listen to. I'll keep listening to a station if it's playing a song I don't like, if the promise is there that I will like the next song, but how horrible is it that I am forced to change the station because they've made me sick of a song.
I hope 101.9-WRXP continues to experiment and I hope the New York audience makes them a rousing success.
The Freditor
The newest radio station in town came on the air, Feb. 7, 2008 and I have been remiss in writing about it. Finally, Finally, FINALLY a station for those of us who still wish the best for terrestrial radio.
My commute is only 1 hour round trip and I don't want to get satellite radio for my car for such a short period of time. I could get an I-Pod, but then I will only be listening to music I already own and not experiencing new stuff. And I will never hear the news or any other current events that way. I love variety on the radio, but my mainstay since 1978 has been great rock and roll radio, and we used to have it.
I didn't fully appreciate it at the time, because I was too young to notice and because it was always there, so who knew it could be taken away from us, but rock radio started going downhill around the end of 1982 and the fall has been precipitous since 1990. I won't go through an entire history, but people my age and older remember when WPLJ and WNEW were in a great dogfight for best rock station in New York. PLJ had a more commercial bent, but they were in touch with the modern listener and there was no shame in listening to them. WNEW was more avant garde, but boy did they open this young boy's ears. The punk rock scene never totally caught on in New York City, despite the revisionist history we hear on VH1 these days, but certain bands had their day in the sun on NEW and are staples today. Talking Heads, Blondie and The Ramones to name a few.
In 1982, NEW was so sure of itself that it started paying attention to the drumbeats of those who wanted to hear more black rock on the radio. They had always played Motown and Stax records, but they started looking at more modern fair and felt that Michael Jackson and Prince were making rock records. You'd hear "Beat It" because of Eddie Van Halen's guitar solo and Little Red Corvette, because of Prince's familiarity with Sly Stone and Jimi Hendrix. But the corporate honchos started making their move on NEW and the experimenting was suddenly limited to Sundays and Friday afternoons with Things From England.
When K-Rock switched to all classic rock in the late '80s, New York radio started its fast swirl towards the drain. Classic rock became a code phrase for the Top 100 songs according to listener surveys beaten to death. Now many of those songs which I once loved are barely listenable anymore. And I won't even get into the fact that hardly any new rock and roll bands got a chance to find an audience during these last 25 years. U2, REM and Guns and Roses were the only new bands to find great success.
Now with so many in the New York audience turned off to FM radio by the lack of great music, a new station rises like a Phoenix from the ashes, 101.9--WRXP--The New York Rock Experience. It plays classic rock, modern rock and alternative rock. You are likely to hear in a row: Spoon, The Smiths and the Rolling Stones, but the Stones song will probably one you haven't heard on the radio in 25 years, like "Respectable" off Some Girls. Never heard of Spoon? They are a modern New York band with a fast, Spanish-flavored acoustic sound.
So basically, WRXP mixes up several genres into one cohesive rock and roll station. The punk/new wave era of late '70s WNEW, the modern hard-core rockers of '90s K-Rock, the alternative '80s and '90s records of WLIR and the classic rock that any number of stations have laid claim to since 1988. It's a lot for one station to take on, but hopefully the suits at other stations are starting to see the groundswell of support it's getting. People want to hear something both familiar and new. At most, classic rock stations will play the same five songs from an artist, RXP played the rarely heard Boogie With Stu from Led Zep III the other day. I nearly hit a tree when I heard it on the radio.
It's already starting to happen. Other stations are starting to experiment more. K-Rock is now playing hard rock back to 1970; WCBS is making more room for the '50s records they shamelessly pushed aside; the lowly "classic" Q-104.3 is at least playing something different on Two-for Tuesdays, making the second song one you haven't heard in a while.
RXP claims that they let their DJs pick the records, which might be true, but they do seem to have a bit of playlist that they choose from. Hopefully with success will come more experimentation. The afternoon DJ, Bryan Schock has become the biggest name on the station so far and he brags that he will play something you haven't heard in many years at least once a day on his show. Which is great and I hope that number grows exponentially, but the songs and groups I've heard him play on my way home is heartening. Devo's "Satisfaction" (which like Schock I prefer to the Stones version), Jim Carroll's "All the People Who Died, Died"; Sex Pistols "Anarchy in the UK"; Ian Hunter's "All the Way to Memphis"; Husker Du; The Replacements; and several more I'm not remembering.
Unfortunately, this should not be such a tremendous event. Rock and Roll is 54 years old, there is so much great and wonderful music out there just waiting to be heard. But suit and ties who probably listen to John Tesh make the decisions for what you can hear and like lemmings we listen to stations that long ago gave up any connection to what we want. It has fueled the alternative ways of hearing the music you want from satellite to I-Pods, but how stupid is it for companies to chase away radio listeners who care about what they listen to. I'll keep listening to a station if it's playing a song I don't like, if the promise is there that I will like the next song, but how horrible is it that I am forced to change the station because they've made me sick of a song.
I hope 101.9-WRXP continues to experiment and I hope the New York audience makes them a rousing success.
The Freditor
Monday, May 26, 2008
Traffic lights are holding up traffic on Juniper Valley Rd.
Today at work, my friend Ernie and I had a very interesting discussion about the new traffic light they put in on Juniper Valley Road in Middle Village, Queens, NY. It used to be a great road to drive down, since there were no traffic lights or stop signs between 80th Street and Penelope Avenue. Now I understand they are putting in another light at the corner of 79th Drive. Who's responsible for this? I want names.
I hear people talk about air pollution and maker a greener world, well how about eliminiating some of these unncessary traffic lights which cause drivers to sit still with their engines running in perfectly quiet residential neighborhoods. The same city planners destroyed a great route of travel in Cooper Avenue with an onslaught of traffic lights. I've heard Kathy Nolan was responsible, but I will not blame her without proof.
People in a hurry to get from Brooklyn to Forest Hills had a fast way of getting there using Cooper, but now that is destroyed. And people who wanted to avoid the congestion and filthy air quality of Metropolitan and Eliot Avenues used Juniper Valley Rd. are now stymied.Very unfair.
The Freditor
I hear people talk about air pollution and maker a greener world, well how about eliminiating some of these unncessary traffic lights which cause drivers to sit still with their engines running in perfectly quiet residential neighborhoods. The same city planners destroyed a great route of travel in Cooper Avenue with an onslaught of traffic lights. I've heard Kathy Nolan was responsible, but I will not blame her without proof.
People in a hurry to get from Brooklyn to Forest Hills had a fast way of getting there using Cooper, but now that is destroyed. And people who wanted to avoid the congestion and filthy air quality of Metropolitan and Eliot Avenues used Juniper Valley Rd. are now stymied.Very unfair.
The Freditor
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Marshmallow Sidewalks--The Caffeine Junkie Blues
Two separate friends in two weeks have suggested I start a Blog, so I guess that's a sign I should do it.
I've been very lax about writing the last few months. Mostly due to the lack of caffeine. On Dec. 21, I went to the movies with my brother and drank a large Cherry Coke with a chocolate bar. My blood pressure rose as it will do with large amounts of caffeine, sodium and sugar, (which Cherry Coke has in abundance) and I started getting dizzy. Real dizzy.
Walking on a marshmallow sidewalk dizzy. If you ever got hit in the head with a 2 by 4 (which I have) you know this feeling. Except I was having this feeling quite a bit in the last year. So rather than continue feeling this way I figured I better cut out the one thing my doctor was adamant about. Caffeine.
He said that the heart palpatations I was having off and on would not got better if I drank or ate caffeine (chocolate has plenty of caffeine). I asked what's the worst thing that could happen if I continued on my Pepsi ways? He said the palpatations wouldn't stop. That was not a good alternative.
As you know I love Pepsi, but I hate feeling nauseous, breathless and sweaty or being unable to speak and walk with confidence even more. If you ever want to know what it must be like to be a stroke victim or have Alzheimers for a short time, get into one of these dizzy spells. One thing is that your mind can't recall simple multi-syllable words that you've used thousands of times.
Two, it takes too much effort to tell a long story, so you wrap it up quickly to preserve your breath. I am very talkative, so this is a sure sign that I'm not feeling well.
Well, Dec. 21 I decided I am going to stop making myself feel this way. For all intents and purposes I stopped using caffeine that day. But the dizziness didn't stop. I started worrying after about 10 days that it wasn't the caffeine causing it at all, that it was something in me maybe. So I spoke to a Health Food/Vitamin lady. A tough older German who doesn't mince words. Doctors know about the body and medicine, but they really don't know about nutrition. I found out there are no nutrition courses in medical school.
Frau Vitamins told me that my body was trying to readjust itself after years of living off caffeine. My whole energy level was dictated by a foreign substance. Now it was trying to reacquaint itself with its own natural energy. So I was bound to feel bad/out of sorts for a while, maybe even a few months until everything was back in line. MONTHS!!!
It makes sense because since I was 18, my first year of college in 1984, I have been using Pepsi for a boost. Any time of day. For years I drank Pepsi with my breakfast. On Fridays, when I worked at the bank, I treated myself to Dr Pepper and bagels with thick cream cheese. Then after work (around 11AM, I worked the early walk-up window) I'd lay on my bed and watch my whole body pulse as my blood would try to metabolize that winning combination. At 22 I thought it was funny. I never find it funny now.
So 22 years of this abuse had to take more than 10 days to reverse itself. Then a friend of mine and a different friend of Barbara's separately told us about Apple Cider Vinegar. Both are champions in their physical endeavors and have fantastic bodies. These are people you listen to.
They both said a tablespoon of this vinegar into a glass of water in the morning will even out your blood sugar and help clean out the toxins/poisons in your body. This was on New Year's Eve and we soon went to Whole Foods (an organic supermarket chain) and bought the Vinegar. We both started drinking it every morning and while the results for Barb were minimal, for me they were astounding.
Suddenly the marshmallow sidewalks became hard again. The dizziness stopped. My energy level increased and within a couple of days I was back to my old self. No more drowsing off at 8PM on the couch. I even felt better than I had before the caffeine caused the palpatations. For years I would be drowsy around 11AM and get a Big Gulp Pepsi on my way to walking my route. Now I feel fine at 11AM. I would drive home from work and literally doze off in traffic. Now I'm alert from the moment I awake until a half hour before bedtime.
The caffeine was not only keeping me alert, but was causing my energy level to drop at different parts of the day. Having lived like this for years I never realized that it was UnNormal. Now even after a long Game Night, when I sleep only 3 hours before going to work, I don't have that crash. Sure I'm slower on my route, but I don't need that boost that I would before. I just work my way through it and manage to stay alert until I go to bed when I get home.
But one change for the worse has occurred with the lack of caffeine. I always heard about performers worrying that they would lose their creative edge if they stopped drinking or taking drugs. And I always dismissed it. Wouldn't Jimi Hendrix still be as great without the heroin? Now I realized, maybe not.
I found my writing started to become very ordinary. I would begin an email to you people and it would start boring me. Who wants to read this?, I'd say to myself and I'd delete it before finishing it. Now I realize that with the caffeine crash comes a period of depression and believe me I went through that. And with depression comes a lesser sense of self-worth, which could play into the "who wants to read this anyway" mentality. But then those feelings go away and you are your old self. And you can better judge the quality of your own work.
The best art I believe is the kind that entertains the artist themself. My favorite writing is the type that I smile about it after I send it off. The type that makes me stay up in bed and rethink the phrases that I was most proud of.
So I started to see that Pepsi or caffeine probably had a hand in tapping my creativity all these years. Perhaps caffeine released another chemical in my brain that opened my mind and let the words flow through. That chemical wasn't releasing these last few months, I know that. Maybe it's something like Robin Williams said. When asked how he can be so free on stage, he said that other people have a self-edit button in the brain that stops them from going to that next level.
The self-edit button that says "I won't do that because I will look foolish." Robin said that maybe his brain doesn't have that button.
Well maybe caffeine makes that button useless. Now I'm less animated when I'm telling a story in person and my writing is less colorful. That damn self-edit button is allowed to work now. I hope I can somehow struggle through that and make my mind work without the caffeine. Maybe this Blog will be a way to help me through it. I hope so. I won't lie. I'm a ham. I love to perform. For friends, for people who enjoy it. Writing is another kind of performing and it feeds my soul. I'd hate for the palpatatations and marshmallow sidewalks to steal that from me.
Well, I hope you've enjoyed this first taste of the New Millenium's "Crazy White Boy Blues". The caffiene bronco knocked me off the saddle. I hope I can get back on and tame this horse.
The Freditor
I've been very lax about writing the last few months. Mostly due to the lack of caffeine. On Dec. 21, I went to the movies with my brother and drank a large Cherry Coke with a chocolate bar. My blood pressure rose as it will do with large amounts of caffeine, sodium and sugar, (which Cherry Coke has in abundance) and I started getting dizzy. Real dizzy.
Walking on a marshmallow sidewalk dizzy. If you ever got hit in the head with a 2 by 4 (which I have) you know this feeling. Except I was having this feeling quite a bit in the last year. So rather than continue feeling this way I figured I better cut out the one thing my doctor was adamant about. Caffeine.
He said that the heart palpatations I was having off and on would not got better if I drank or ate caffeine (chocolate has plenty of caffeine). I asked what's the worst thing that could happen if I continued on my Pepsi ways? He said the palpatations wouldn't stop. That was not a good alternative.
As you know I love Pepsi, but I hate feeling nauseous, breathless and sweaty or being unable to speak and walk with confidence even more. If you ever want to know what it must be like to be a stroke victim or have Alzheimers for a short time, get into one of these dizzy spells. One thing is that your mind can't recall simple multi-syllable words that you've used thousands of times.
Two, it takes too much effort to tell a long story, so you wrap it up quickly to preserve your breath. I am very talkative, so this is a sure sign that I'm not feeling well.
Well, Dec. 21 I decided I am going to stop making myself feel this way. For all intents and purposes I stopped using caffeine that day. But the dizziness didn't stop. I started worrying after about 10 days that it wasn't the caffeine causing it at all, that it was something in me maybe. So I spoke to a Health Food/Vitamin lady. A tough older German who doesn't mince words. Doctors know about the body and medicine, but they really don't know about nutrition. I found out there are no nutrition courses in medical school.
Frau Vitamins told me that my body was trying to readjust itself after years of living off caffeine. My whole energy level was dictated by a foreign substance. Now it was trying to reacquaint itself with its own natural energy. So I was bound to feel bad/out of sorts for a while, maybe even a few months until everything was back in line. MONTHS!!!
It makes sense because since I was 18, my first year of college in 1984, I have been using Pepsi for a boost. Any time of day. For years I drank Pepsi with my breakfast. On Fridays, when I worked at the bank, I treated myself to Dr Pepper and bagels with thick cream cheese. Then after work (around 11AM, I worked the early walk-up window) I'd lay on my bed and watch my whole body pulse as my blood would try to metabolize that winning combination. At 22 I thought it was funny. I never find it funny now.
So 22 years of this abuse had to take more than 10 days to reverse itself. Then a friend of mine and a different friend of Barbara's separately told us about Apple Cider Vinegar. Both are champions in their physical endeavors and have fantastic bodies. These are people you listen to.
They both said a tablespoon of this vinegar into a glass of water in the morning will even out your blood sugar and help clean out the toxins/poisons in your body. This was on New Year's Eve and we soon went to Whole Foods (an organic supermarket chain) and bought the Vinegar. We both started drinking it every morning and while the results for Barb were minimal, for me they were astounding.
Suddenly the marshmallow sidewalks became hard again. The dizziness stopped. My energy level increased and within a couple of days I was back to my old self. No more drowsing off at 8PM on the couch. I even felt better than I had before the caffeine caused the palpatations. For years I would be drowsy around 11AM and get a Big Gulp Pepsi on my way to walking my route. Now I feel fine at 11AM. I would drive home from work and literally doze off in traffic. Now I'm alert from the moment I awake until a half hour before bedtime.
The caffeine was not only keeping me alert, but was causing my energy level to drop at different parts of the day. Having lived like this for years I never realized that it was UnNormal. Now even after a long Game Night, when I sleep only 3 hours before going to work, I don't have that crash. Sure I'm slower on my route, but I don't need that boost that I would before. I just work my way through it and manage to stay alert until I go to bed when I get home.
But one change for the worse has occurred with the lack of caffeine. I always heard about performers worrying that they would lose their creative edge if they stopped drinking or taking drugs. And I always dismissed it. Wouldn't Jimi Hendrix still be as great without the heroin? Now I realized, maybe not.
I found my writing started to become very ordinary. I would begin an email to you people and it would start boring me. Who wants to read this?, I'd say to myself and I'd delete it before finishing it. Now I realize that with the caffeine crash comes a period of depression and believe me I went through that. And with depression comes a lesser sense of self-worth, which could play into the "who wants to read this anyway" mentality. But then those feelings go away and you are your old self. And you can better judge the quality of your own work.
The best art I believe is the kind that entertains the artist themself. My favorite writing is the type that I smile about it after I send it off. The type that makes me stay up in bed and rethink the phrases that I was most proud of.
So I started to see that Pepsi or caffeine probably had a hand in tapping my creativity all these years. Perhaps caffeine released another chemical in my brain that opened my mind and let the words flow through. That chemical wasn't releasing these last few months, I know that. Maybe it's something like Robin Williams said. When asked how he can be so free on stage, he said that other people have a self-edit button in the brain that stops them from going to that next level.
The self-edit button that says "I won't do that because I will look foolish." Robin said that maybe his brain doesn't have that button.
Well maybe caffeine makes that button useless. Now I'm less animated when I'm telling a story in person and my writing is less colorful. That damn self-edit button is allowed to work now. I hope I can somehow struggle through that and make my mind work without the caffeine. Maybe this Blog will be a way to help me through it. I hope so. I won't lie. I'm a ham. I love to perform. For friends, for people who enjoy it. Writing is another kind of performing and it feeds my soul. I'd hate for the palpatatations and marshmallow sidewalks to steal that from me.
Well, I hope you've enjoyed this first taste of the New Millenium's "Crazy White Boy Blues". The caffiene bronco knocked me off the saddle. I hope I can get back on and tame this horse.
The Freditor
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