Where Was I, and How the Hell Did I Get There?

Am I a dummy? Or is idiot perhaps a better word? I mean, at the end of the day the simplest answer is that sometimes I just have no idea—or only a modicum of an idea—of what I am doing. Whether or not that makes me dumb I guess you could say is up for debate.

I will let you be the judge of that.

I had to get my camper de-winterized finally for a trip I will take for the first camp of the season at the end of the week and into the weekend. I have never done this before, mind you. After all, I just bought the camper last year around October or November. I forget exactly when, but it was definitely before Thanksgiving, let's put it that way.

In case you were wondering, I bought a 2019 39' Keystone Passport Elite MB34. It's actually a very nice camper and I have no complaints so far.

I could have taken it back to Camping World where I bought it and had them winterize it. But my entire experience with Camping World has been interesting enough to say, at least, for the time being I am not all that impressed with their service AT ALL.

But I am also cheap. Okay, frugal. Isn't that a much nicer word. Sort of like how I twisted up the word dummy or idiot at the beginning of this worthless post. So, I decided to take on the task myself. After all, YouTube has turned more than one dummy into a virtual expert and of course there are plenty of dewinterizing videos to get me on my way—and if I screwed it up, oh well. It would just make for a more interesting story-filled camp until I could get the job done properly.

I got the information I mostly needed. The most important of which was to open the panel to the water heater and make sure the valve was turned the right way to let water into the heater. Seemed easy enough, and in fact the whole process didn't seem to be all that complicated.

And really it wasn't.

I set out to remove the panel and took a quick peek at how to tackle it. Four Phillips head screws, two on each side. I got out my screwdriver and manuevered myself into position to remove the screws and was immediately dumfounded.

Holy crap! Why are they so tight? It's like they'd never come out before? But surely the damn camper has been winterized many times before I had it done. I struggled through the first screw and with some effort it did come out. On to the next one. It was at an awkward angle and just wasn't wanting to budge. It came out part way, but I was making no real progress and now the screw was beginning to strip out.

Perfect. Just my sort of luck and completely expected.

I was already forming an idea in my head, once I'd get that panel off, to concoct a new way of holding it in place that would be much easier to gain access to it the next time.

I went back and got a longer screwdriver and tried that. Nope. Wasn't helping. And that angle. It was ridiculous and very quickly I was spouting off words that would have horrified most people. 

Then suddenly something dawned on me. "Where am I?" 

For orientation purposes I was at the back end of the camper on the left side if you were looking at my behind. Well, the camper's behind. But if I am outside monkeying with the outside access to the water heater, I'd be on the right.

I'd be on the right side of the camper. Or the left side from the inside!

I looked over and sure enough there was a lighter panel on that side with two short screws and I was able to get that off in no time flat. And sure enough, inside was exactly what I was looking for. The hot water heater and the lever I needed to turn.

Call me what you want, but if nothing else matters, a complete idiot would never have had the brain cells fire at all to make the revelation I was able to make.

Just one more camping experience story to add to the annals of history. For whatever that's worth.

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Powerball Is $174 Million Tonight!

Quite honestly, let's just be real here, no one really wants to have to work our entire lives for a living, and while there are a multitude of ways to get that done, for most of us the daily grind is just going to be a fact of life no matter how we slice it.

But hey, look on the bright side. The Powerball drawing is tonight! And as I always say about the lottery...

No matter how shitty the odds my friends...SOMEBODY HAS TO WIN IT!

Tonight's drawing is for a whopping $174 million. That's a lot of loot. Taking the cash option I would estimate the take away would be somewhere around $52.2 million after taxes. My math is simple calculation of roughly half of the total, and accounting for keeping about 60% of that after taxes.

Granted, that's a really rough estimate. I mean, at the end of the day, even if the math is not exactly correct, who cares? It's close enough. I can figure out the details when I win, right?

Of course, I play the lottery very frequently and have been doing so for years, and of course I have been writing about various aspects of the lottery for years. Here's something I wrote a while back which is a bit of a tongue in cheek—okay a LOT tongue in cheek. Winning The Lottery: The Dream of the Big Win.

Do you have your ticket yet for tonight's drawing? If not all I can ask is WHY? Come on, it's only $2 to play, and you never know...you might just be the lucky one who takes home the big prize.

Just for fun, here is a set of numbers you might want to try out. Now, I am not playing these numbers so of course if these numbers hit I'd be pissed. But of course, I'd also be pissed if I had to share with the millions of readers who come here...

Okay, all TEN of you. Who's counting?

22  36  51  56  59  PB:  32

A Delicious Chicken Dinner

When it comes to cooking in the kitchen, I am always experimenting around with what I can make. Some of the time I use a recipe (although I rarely will follow it to the letter). Other times I just take a look at what I have in the cupboard and just simply throw something together.

Like I did last night.

I took out a package of chicken thighs, and simply seasoned them with a little bit of pepper and some Mrs. Dash original seasoning. I am on a salt restriction, so keeping the salt down as best I can is important—especially considering the other ingredients would have some unavoidable sodium content.

I got out a bowl and chopped up some onion and an orange bell pepper. Next I added a jar of mild salsa. Then I tossed in a can of diced tomatoes.

To that mixture I threw in a packet of mild taco seasoning—you know, the kind you might add to ground beef for taco night.

I stirred the ingredients together in the bowl.

Onto preparing the seasoned chicken thighs. I just added a little oil to a skillet and browned the meat on both sides. Then tossed those into a roasting pan. The oven was set to 375 degrees and allowed to preheat.

I poured the mixture from the bowl onto the chicken and tossed it into the oven and cooked this for about an hour.

The meal was served with boiled broccoli (which we usually serve with a dollop of Miracle Whip on top), and I heated up some leftover macaroni and cheese we had from another meal.

Needless to say, our chicken suppie was delicious, and yes, I did indeed say "suppie."

What The Hell Is The Point of this Blog?

I have been blogging for a long time. While when I started this whole thing—not here on THIS blog—it was a more "serious" approach that I took. My main blog, which gets quite neglected these days, The Springboard, centers around mostly politics, money management, the stock market, and as I like to call it, "the occasional random thought."

One of the things that began to distract me a bit from this more "serious" writing were sites like Bubblews, PersonaPaper, MyLot and others. You can even go ahead and toss in an old site I used to be quite active on that was called WebAnswers.

The thing is, these were sites where you could essentially write about nothing in particular, and yet at the same time still make a fair amount of money.

I am currently on MyLot doing that sort of writing.

What is The Springboard Journal? It's an experiment of sorts. It's a quest to identify if writing about nothing in particular can be effective to attract any sort of traffic here on Blogger. It's a quest to see if a similar amount of participation on other blogs can have the same effect on traffic to any post as it did, or does currently on a site like MyLot.

The point of this blog really is simply to carry over the idea that is the basis of any of those other sites I mentioned and see whether or not it can work in a similar way as it does on those sites, but to also determine whether doing it here instead of there can be more profitable.

At the end of the day it is true that many of us write blogs at all because we like to write. And because we like to write, writing about anything—or in this case nothing—is just an excuse to put words down and play around a bit with the whole process of it. But we also like to make a little bit of money too. Getting paid to do something you enjoy is always a worthwhile venture.

So what really is the point of this blog? Just to see what happens. To write about anything and nothing and just see where it lands.

While writing about nothing, I will do my best to at least try and keep it somewhat interesting.

Snap TWO!

It's winter time, so it does not surprise me one bit that we are getting a few mice into the house. I COULD revert back to my days in pest control and take some time to try and find out how they are getting in. There could be a MILLION different places where there may be a hole for them to escape the cold outside into my house.

But it is just as easy, especially now that the cats we had are gone, to simply lay out of a few snap traps and dispose of their presence that way.

Best bait by the way? Peanut butter. Works like a charm every single time. I used to get a kick out of it when someone would ask me what the secret ingredient was to catch a mouse that we exterminators kept in our bag of tricks...

And it always surprised my clients that it was indeed PEANUT BUTTER. 

Incidentally, it was the same golden bait to use in my traps to catch squirrels. But luckily I do not have any squirrels getting into the house.

So far I have snapped two mice. I actually need to run out and get a few more snap traps. I thought I had more in my "pest box" as I call it. And I never throw away a used trap (so I am not sure what happened to them all). Once a trap is "seasoned" it will kill time and time again.

We Are Suckers For Chinese Food

I will be the first to admit it. Despite my salt restriction, and the fact that Chinese food is LOADED WITH SALT, my wife and I just absolutely LOVE Chinese food.

And every time we order it we just go way overboard.

Usually I will get the two combo meals. I like the beef with broccoli or beef pepper steak, and usually go back and forth on those two. I get the pork fried rice and egg rolls with the meal. My wife likes General Tso's chicken, and that never wavers. So, we get that and the pork fried rice and egg rolls.

Why the egg rolls?

The place we go to for the Chinese food usually has a coupon for 8 free crab Rangoon with the purchase, and even though the combo meals offer crab Rangoon with the meals, we figure we have enough crab Rangoon to satisfy our craving.

Usually with the meal we will also get two orders of chicken teriyaki on a stick, and a quart of shrimp fried rice.

Can you ever have too many leftovers when it comes to Chinese food?

I can make other stuff with it, have snacks with it, and of course take some of it to work with me for lunch.

Those Chinese make out like a bandit. Every time my wife and I order Chinese food we typically spend about $60 when all is said and done. Plus, our delivery driver usually fares pretty well as well. I generally tip about 20% to the driver, so that's about $12 in  HIS pocket.

We get a great meal that we eat off for days and the restaurant makes a sale, and the driver gets to take home a little something nice as well.

Win, win.


 

How To Make A Million Dollars

This is it. Right here, folks. Step right up. Take notice and DO take notes. THIS is how you make your mark on the world. THIS is how you make a million dollars. A MILLION DOLLARS! Yes, you heard me right. 

You CAN make a million dollars with absolutely nothing. Think about it. One of the greatest shows in the history of television made all of its cast MILLIONS of dollars. And the show was about absolutely nothing.

Of course, I am referring to Seinfeld. And Jerry Seinfeld was the mater at making millions out of nothing.

When you think about it one step further, take a look at YouTube. Take a look at Facebook. Hell, throw Twitter into the mix. Throw in any of those other social media sites that have not just made millions but BILLIONS of dollars like Instagram and Snapchat.

Are we sharing anything of value on any of these places? No. Not really. But yet, despite all that, people come in droves. People will come here in droves as well, rest assured. They will come here and drop umpteen thousands of comments. They will click on ads and they will buy stuff, and both Google and I will make millions of dollars.

Something is BOUND to go viral folks. It is all a numbers game. It is all a game of the odds.

And of course there is the sheer entertainment value of what I post here to consider as well. I mean, people want to be a fly on the wall. They want to know what goes on in the lives of otherwise ordinary people. 

Who is this Jim Bauer? What is this foolish but catchy little album Jim Bauer has created called Pink Flamingoes all about, and why is it making so much money when it never receives airplay on the radio and people are going to in droves?

What is this book, edited by Jim Bauer under the penname Ivan S. Graves called Dark Whispers, and why does it attract such a large audience?

Jim Bauer is making MILLIONS OF DOLLARS from nothing. And so will this blog make MILLIONS OF DOLLARS from nothing.

I just have a knack, folks. But so can you. YOU TOO CAN MAKE A MILLION DOLLARS FROM DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. This is the world we live in today. The world of the Internet. And people WILL and DO come in droves to see what you have to say. To dive into the meat of what you had for dinner, what you did yesterday, today, and what you will do tomorrow. They want to know about you. They want to know about me.

I cannot tell you how many times I have cashed a check and thought to myself, how in the hell did I get this money? What in the world did I offer that was worth a dime?

But here we are talking about it, and here I am cashing in those checks.

At the rate I am going I suspect any minute Forbes is going to be knocking on my door wanting to know more. They are going to wanting to know how in the world I have managed to amass such massive wealth from nothing at all? How it is that I have created completely shit music and actually was able to give massive bands like Green Day a run for their money? How I have capitalized on the Seinfeld genius of making money from nothing?

I mean, think about it. This POST is about nothing, but isn't it interesting? Are you still reading? Why are you still reading? Are you inclined now to click on an ad just because you are thinking, man this guy needs to KEEP ON POSTING?

If you want to make a million dollars in this world, all you need to do is come up with something about nothing and people will follow you, want to know more about you, and will come to you in droves. Because again, people want to be flies on the wall. They want to know about your happy and your sad. They want to know about your trials and tribulations, and they want to know about your successes. They want to know your hopes and aspirations, and some just want to know THAT so they can knock you down. They want to know about how much of an idiot you are when you post absolutely stupid shit no one cares about to YouTube like this video.

THIS, my friends, please DO take note, is a MILLION DOLLAR BLOG. In fact, I am writing this post from my yacht as we (the wife and I) are sailing off the shore of the Bahamas. A frequent stop for us.

I'd share a picture of myself standing at the bow of said yacht, but my phone died and it is the only camera I own. But do take my word for it. This is a million dollar blog and if you copy what I do here you too can make a million dollars. 

Now, if you are really interested in my million dollar secret, I would be more than happy to send you my PayPal address. Just send me $5 and I will send you a printed copy of exactly what I have posted here, just so you have a hard copy of this secret.

I want everyone to make a million dollars. I want everyone to be successful. I want everyone to make a million dollars from nothing at all.

It is simply a matter of time before no one ever has to work the daily grind anymore and work for some unruly, asshole of a boss. We can just post nothing and live the good life. We can look out at the rest of the dumb world from the high towers of our multi-room mansions...

Well one of the rooms in MY MANSION is of course a recording studio where I am busy at work writing a follow up to my Pink Flamingoes (misspelled on purpose) album. Onward and upward to my second million dollars.

Was this article helpful? Has it caused you to find your pathway to a million dollars of your own? Do you feel enlightened? Have you fallen for any of this? Are you still reading?