My Journey

My life's journey:

1. Idealist
2. Optimist
3. Pragmatist
4. Skeptic
5. Cynic
6. Misanthrope
7. Stoicist

Once you've accepted that humans are flawed, and "it is what it is" as your mantra, where do you go from there?  Nihilism?

Goals, Adventures, and Accomplishments

This started as a simple bucket list, but has since grown to include both open goals and past accomplishments (in no particular order):

• Outstanding and Ongoing Goals:
• Live with an Attitude of Gratitude.
• Seek inspiration, embrace challenges, and continue learning. 
• Be someone who will be missed and fondly remembered.
• Build a Real Estate Portfolio that generates >$25K/year in passive income.
• Build "side-hustle" businesses that generate >$10K/year in part-time income.
• Build a retirement portfolio that generates >$10K/year in dividends.
• Retire in good health by age 65.
• Die before I become a burden.
• Bucket List of Oustanding Adventures:
• Visit Yellowstone.
• Raft the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
• Swim in a bio-luminescent surf.
• See the Aurora Borealis.
• Sail the Mediterranean, from Athens, Greece to Alexandria, Egypt.
• Tour Paris, including the Louvre and the Eiffel Tour.
• Tour London, including Buckingham Palace and the London Eye.
• Tour Amsterdam, including the Red Light district and the Van Gogh Museum.
• TBD...
• Accomplishments, Achievements, and Unlocks:
• Barefoot waterski.
• Hike Halfdome in Yosemite
• Bungie jump off a bridge.
• Raft a Class V Rapid.
• Achieve >$100K/year income.
• Party on Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
• Drive the Pacific Coast Highway in a Convertible.
• Earn a blackbelt.
• Skydive.
• Tour New York City, including Wall Street and Broadway.
• Pilot a helicopter.
• Sail and Scuba dive in the Caribbean.
• Become proficient with firearms.
• Visit Australia, and see the Sydney Opera House and the Southern Cross.
• Marry someone I love who loves me in return.
• Tour Washington DC, including the Smithsonian and the various Memorials.

Updated:  2023

Some quotes that I've accumulated:

Quotes that speak to me:

"Stoicism is about the domestication of emotions, not their elimination."

~ Nassim Taleb

"Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist."
~ George Carlin

"Among those whom I like or admire, I can find no common denominator, but among those whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh."

~ W. H. Auden

"The illiterate of the future are not those who can't read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

~ Alvin Toffler

"Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn."

~ C. S. Lewis

"I wholly disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it."

~ Voltaire

"Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand."
~ Putt's Law

"No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean, for words are slippery and thought is viscous."
~ Henry Adams

"Any clod can have the facts, but having opinions is an art."
~ Charles McCabe

"Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit, but the highest form of intelligence."

~ Oscar Wilde

"No man is exempt from saying silly things; the mischief is to say them deliberately."

~ Michel de Montaigne

“Associate with people who are likely to improve you. Welcome those who you are capable of improving. The process is a mutual one:  men learn as they teach."

~ Seneca

"A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool."

~ William Shakespeare

"A 'Jack of all trades' is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one."

~ Robert Green

"Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night."
~ Edgar Allan Poe

"When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him."
~ Thomas Szasz

"I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow."
~ Woodrow Wilson

"When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be disappointed to discover they are not it."
~ Bernard Bailey

"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."

~ Susan B. Anthony

"Every improvement in communication makes the bore more terrible."
~ Frank Moore Colby

"I don't know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve."
~ Bilbo Baggins

"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something."
~ Thomas H. Huxley

"If you're not scared or angry at the thought of a human brain being controlled remotely, then it could be this prototype of mine is finally starting to work."
~ John Alejandro King

"In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.  And that makes me happy.  For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there's something stronger - something better, pushing right back."

~ Albert Camus

"He who builds a better mousetrap these days runs into material shortages, patent-infringement suits, work stoppages, collusive bidding, discount discrimination - and taxes."
~ H. E. Martz

"If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten."
~ George Carlin

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
~ Ronald Reagan

"Omnia Vincit Amor; Et Nos Cedamus Amori!"

("Love conquers all; let us too surrender to love!")

~Virgil

"There are two things to remember in life:
1) Don't sweat the little shit, and
2) It's ALL little shit!"

~ D.L. Roth

"We have thoughts, but thoughts are fluid. Then we assign a word to a thought and we’re stuck with that word for that thought — so be careful with words."

~George Carlin

UN Voting by US Foreign Aid Recipients

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AND CIRCULATED IN 2003:

The United States gives $13.3 billion tax dollars in direct Foreign Aid annually. The United States is above and beyond the single most generous benefactor of the United Nations, donating $2.4 billion dollars of OUR money, to primarily third-world dictators.

This amount is 25% of the United Nations budget. In addition, the United States also gives another $1.4 billion tax dollars to United Nations' programs and agencies. The American taxpayers fund more for the United Nations than ALL of the other 177 member nations COMBINED.

What most Americans do not realize is that the vast majority of the recipients of US Foreign Aid routinely vote against the wishes of the United States in the UN at an average rate of 74%. In other words, of the $13.3 billion tax dollars invested in direct Foreign Aid only about 26% or $3.5 billion went to support people who endorsed American initiatives or causes. A staggering $9.8 billion tax dollars went to causes and people who were and are in open and direct opposition to the United States' interests and objectives.

Below are the actual voting records of various Arabic/Islamic States which are recorded in both the US State Department and United Nations records.

Kuwait votes against the United States 67% of the time.

Qatar votes against the United States 67% of the time.

Morocco votes against the United States 70% of the time.

United Arab Emirates votes against the US.. 70% of the time.

Jordan votes against the United States 71% of the time.

Tunisia votes against the United States 71% of the time.

Saudi Arabia votes against the United States 73% of the time.

Yemen votes against the United States 74% of the time

Algeria votes against the United States 74% of the time.

Oman votes against the United States 74% of the time

Sudan votes against the United States 75% of the time.

Pakistan votes against the United States 75% of the time.

Libya votes against the United States 76% of the time.

Egypt votes against the United States 79% of the time.

Lebanon votes against the United States 80% of the time.

India votes against the United States 81% of the time.

Syria votes against the United States 84% of the time.

Mauritania votes against the United States 87% of! the time.

US Foreign Aid to those that hate us:

Egypt, for example, after voting 79% of the time against the United States, still receives $2 billion annually in US Foreign Aid.

Jordan votes 71% against the United States and receives $192,814,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

Pakistan votes 75% against the United States receives $6,721,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

India votes 81% against the United States receives $143,699,000 annually in US Foreign Aid.

Perhaps it is time to get out of the UN and give the tax savings back to the American workers who are having to skimp and sacrifice to pay the taxes.

CautiousOptimist -> Validated by Snopes as "True."
(http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/unvote.asp)