Joy

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this blog post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs).

I just finished a delicious hot dark chocolate vegan mocha latte. Yum! And last Sunday, I finished an eight day bike ride across the entire US state of Iowa and half of the US state of Wisconsin. To be completely transparent, I did cheat on about 12 miles of the Iowa leg of the ride, for reasons way beyond the scope of this post.

Anyway, I am feeling a lot of joy, attributed to my recent athletic accomplishment and the completion of that hot mocha latte. Do you know who isn't feeling a lot of joy right now? The DFUs. In fact, they have never experienced joy. The best they can do is a temporary absence of existential misery. I don't feel too bad for them...because being diabolical is a CHOICE!

Fin.

September 13 is the BIG DAY

Sometimes the infamous BIKE WITH JOE annual cycling event does not take place in northern Wisconsin over the Labor Day weekend. And this year is one of those years, because this year it is being held in Madison WI on the weekend AFTER Labor Day weekend. To be precise, it will occur on Sunday September 13, with rough distance of 40 miles and a tentative destination of Mt Horeb WI (from Madison WI).

Stay tuned!

Fin.

Gearing Up

I am gearing up for RAGBRAI.

Today's training comprised a morning bike ride of about 20 miles, followed by refining the art of applying sunscreen, while sitting by the pool.

RAGBRAI will happen in under one month from now. I'm excited for it! I still need to complete my gear prep, but it's well under way and on target for completion.

Fin.

Plant Parenthood

The title of this post is a deep cut pun. There was supposed to be a Powered by Plants vegan cycling team RAGBRAI training ride this morning. I biked to the UW Arboretum parking lot, arriving at the designated time of 8:30 AM. The ride was slated to roll out at 8:45 AM. So I hit the Porto Potty in the Arb lot and then bided my time, keeping an eye out for fellow PbP Cycling folks (the jerseys are always colorful and easy to spot).

By 8:45, no such regalia of jerseys had made manifest. As it turns out, in my haste to get to the ride start on time, I had failed to check the PbPC team Discord, where team leader Beth had posted earlier in the AM that the ride was canceled due to predicted foul weather. 

I contemplated riding the 37 mile route to Oregon on my own, because despite predictions of foul weather, there did not appear to be any of said detrimental weather forthcoming. Bigger picture, the absence of predicted atmospheric maelstroms was in part due to the dismantling of NOAA by the administration of a certain twice impeached convicted felon and sex offender who shall remain unnamed, rendering weather forecasts effectively unpredictable. But that's tangential to this story.

I opted instead for a shorter ride, that would lead me eventually back home via "the scenic route," with a coffee stop at MOKA. But, long story short the PbPC RAGBRAI training ride was ABORTED. And because abortions have historically been performed by Planned Parenthood, my clever mind declared that this ride abortion was the work of PLANT PARENTHOOD. Get it???

In truth, though, my ride ended up being more of a premature birth of an undersized bike ride that eventually grew up to be a fully functional adult bike ride (aka, RAGBRAI 2026).

FIN.

Have a Great Day

Hi Dear Readers.

This one is a short one. So short that I am not even going to type my usual introduction.

HAVE A GREAT DAY!

That is all.

Fin.

A simple Cost and Benefit Analysis

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs).

I have received some pushback on my thesis that boycotting all social and mainstream media (SMSM) is a good idea for improving mental, physical, and spiritual wellness. I want to reiterate that I am not saying it is an ABSOLUTE GOOD idea. I am saying it is the LESSER of two evils...a RELATIVE GOOD. I would love it if SMSM were informative, positive, motivational, and non-addictive. But it is none of those things and is increasingly the opposite of those things. It now contains more misinformation than information. It is ridiculously negative and rife with toxic grievance that leaves you feeling empty and angry and devoid of joy. It discourages civic action by substituting it with the aforementioned aggrieved negativity (whining on social media has become the ONLY form of action people take on important civic and social issues). And if you need proof that it is more addictive than heroin or nicotine, just try quitting it for a couple of weeks, or even a couple of days. QED.

So, this is a simple cost and benefit analysis. There may have been a time when the benefits of SMSM outweighed the cost. But that time is long gone. You are now better off avoiding it completely. For one thing, it keeps DFUs largely out of your life, which by itself is a wellness advantage. It also denies the Corporate Overlords of SMSM your attention and money. Recall, the reason SMSM is free for you to use is because YOU ARE NOT THE CUSTOMER; YOU ARE THE PRODUCT. The customers of SMSM are advertisers who pay for your time, attention, and eyeballs to increase their profits. If you have any doubt about this, ask yourself why there is so much advertising on SMSM? If it were not profitable, why would companies advertise? Boycotting SMSM is a form of civic action, as you are reclaiming the commodity that is your attention and time, and you are impacting (albeit minimally) the bottom lines of big, exploitative corporations (you are very gently "sticking it to THE MAN").

Once you free yourself from SMSM, you become significantly/relatively smarter and happier (though, in absolute terms, you will still be of average intelligence and moderate mood...an improvement only in that it is a return to your baseline from a much worse off state...). This is why boycotting SMSM is a massively positive improvement in your wellness environment, akin to quitting nicotine, alcohol, and/or drugs. Add to that a healthy plant based diet and daily aerobic exercise and you will find yourself almost unstoppable, physically, mentally, and spiritually.

In quasi-related news, there will be a GENERAL STRIKE across America and the World on May Day (5/1/26). I encourage you all to participate and here is the info: maydaystrong.org.

I will be participating by avoiding SMSM (obviously), purchasing NOTHING, and closing my marriage and family therapy business for the day. Actively, I will be enjoying time with friends and family, hosting a bike ride, and generally chilling TF out.

Hugs!

Fin.

April One

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs).

It's April 1st, also known as April Fool's Day. And because of social media, this day now significantly lacks any meaning or value. With data showing that greater than 50% of everything you see on social media is AI generated fakery, it kind of makes what had been a fun day of celebrating deception and practical jocularity a rather banal and lackluster affair.

That being said, this is the one day of the year when the satirical news site THE ONION actually posts REAL NEWS. It's almost hard to tell the real from the fake/satirical anymore. Best to, as I have encouraged many times, boycott and avoid all social media (you can give the corporate mainstream media a miss too). Try getting your news and info from NPR and BBC, which are publicly funded media, less influenced by corporate propaganda.

Take care!

Fin.

It Turns Out Ignorance IS Bliss

For some weird and inexplicable reason, when I was a kid, people used to say "ignorance is bliss" in a way that suggested said bliss was an undesirable aspiration and that said ignorance was not ideal.

However, as an adult (and thanks to social media), I have learned that ignorance is indeed bliss, and it is indeed very desirable. Today's information is unfiltered poison that is transmitted into human brains, essentially rotting the mind. Ignorance has a different drfinition today. It means AVOIDANCE. If you can avoid social media, you reside in a blissful state of positivity and happiness.

Fin.

Monday Motivational

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this blog post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs).

It's Monday, and for me that means kicking off another work week of marriage and family therapy AND social and mainstream media (SMSM) fasting. I cannot fully express how AWESOME it is to be totally free from the toxicity and negativity of SMSM incursions (not excursions) into my life. The DFUs are almost totally disenfranchised from my day to day existence, since SMSM is currently the ONLY pathway the DFUs have into my (and most people's) life. I'm happier, smarter, and more productive as a result. There are myriad ways in which SMSM makes you angrier and dumber, all whilst sucking away your time - a finite resource that you cannot get back (although you can generate a little bit more of it with a plant based diet and daily aerobic exercise).

Shortly, I'll be taking the dogs out for their morning constitutional (aka, walk). Then I'll hop on the Peloton trainer for a decently long workout (ideally, 90 minutes, but probably a little less). Once those goals are checked off, the rest of the day should unfold in the typical way.

I don't have much to add to that. So, let's call it and all get back to being awesome, giving off positivity and optimism, and in so doing CRUSHING DFUs left and right.

Fin.

Thursday Meanderings

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs).

You may have noticed an uptick in posts from me this week. That's because I am on a 5-Day Social Media Fast, and when I don't have the distraction of useless social media to waste my time, I use that time for more productive things.* It feels great to be free of the negativity and toxicity of the social media. But also, it feels even better to deny the Big Tech companies from profiting off my attention. I encourage all of you to try a five day fast from social media. If enough people do it, the Big Tech companies will feel the dent in their bottom lines. Ideally, someone with some charisma and persuasion power would call for a General Boycott of social media for a day, week, month, or (stretch goal!) year. If social media wasn't so ridiculously addictive to the human mind, this might even be possible. But the Big Tech companies were ingenious in making social media both irresistibly addictive and immensely profitable.

I remind everyone again (and this is not disputed by anyone), you are not the customer of social media (that's why it is free). YOU ARE THE PRODUCT. Every time you use social media, Big Tech profits off the time your eyeballs are on the screen, to the tune of billions of dollars. And you NEVER get any cut of that pie. Your attention is nothing more than a commodity and as with any commodity, the goal is to mine and exploit more and more of it. Think of social media as an attention mining operation, and the more addictive it is, the more profitable it is. So, if you can escape the addiction (and that's no easy task), withhold your attention from social media exploitation companies until/unless they offer to pay you for the use of your attention. Remember way back in the day when people with landline phones would try to charge Telemarketers who called them for the use of their phones for business purposes? Some of those people even took the Telemarketing companies to court and WON! So, there's hope. But not much, because you are human and that means you are ridiculously bad at resisting addictive things. But...change my mind and prove me wrong. I'll wait...

I guess that's all I have. I should wrap it up, because I want to get a few minutes of mindful meditation in before I kick off an action packed morning of seeing marriage and family therapy clients. I have the afternoon off today (because when you are self employed, you can take time off whenever TF you want, albeit unpaid). I will meet my parents at the Middleton Starbucks at lunchtime for some chit-chat and the NYT mini-crossword. Then I'll come home and pound out a solid Peloton workout with intention (outcome = the demise of a certain specific DFU in the next few days).

Fin.

* NOTE: It could be debated if writing blog posts is actually a "productive thing." But that would also be unproductive because all signs point to blog posting being a far more productive pursuit than social media doom scrolling.

Overton Window Needs to be Closed

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs).

This week comprises, among other things, a five day TOTAL social and mainstream media fast. I had planned it for Monday through Friday, but I actually ended up starting it a little bit early, on Sunday night, when I actively avoided poisoning my mind with the Oscar Awards. Deborah watched them. I meditated and read a book - not unsurprisingly about the Attention Economy - instead.

I wanted to remind all my readers once again just how toxic and poisonous social and mainstream media exposure is for you these days. You can use these media quite often without any awareness of the subtle and insidious ways that they restructure your consciousness and beliefs about things in an undesirable way. If you need proof, just consider how far the Overton Window has shifted in the last decade. The Overton Window is directly correlated with Public Opinion and what is acceptable in the Court of said Public Opinion. We now openly accept racism, sexism, and pedophilia as part of normal mainstream public discourse. Think about how weird that is. But...YOU DID THAT. Not to play the blame game, but your use of social and mainstream media is what has allowed the Overton Window to shift. The good news is that you can restore your rational and critical thinking skills pretty easily, by simply ceasing to engage with any and all social and mainstream media. You will be happier and smarter if you do.

I wish that the Algos didn't bury my posts far away from public view. I understand why they do it...because these posts are directly counter to their mission of getting more eyeballs on screens. If people see my posts and realize their attention is nothing more than a commodity product, bought and sold by giant corporations, they might stop using social and mainstream media, which would impact the Algo companies' bottom lines in a negative way.

Fin.

Hunkering Down

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs). I felt SO MUCH JOY yesterday...to the point where I was concerned I might be having a hypomanic episode. I can't explain where it came from, but it felt good.

Yesterday was also ACTION PACKED. And that wasn't a cause or an effect of my hyper-joy state. Deborah and I took my parents to the Garver Feed Mill and perused the vendors at the Winter Farmer's Market, scoring a veritable bounty of goodies - some specialty mushrooms, vegan strawberry-rhubarb bars, bagels, some flowers, and maybe a couple of other things that are escaping my mind right now.

After the Farmer's Market, we cruised over the the Green Owl vegan cafe for delicious vegan lunch. Deborah and I went to the gym after we dropped my parents back at their house, and I got a decent set of weight lifting in. I also got a short Peloton workout in when we got back home (for the aerobics). I spent the remainder of the afternoon meal prepping - vegan quiche and a HUGE salad - for the week.

I was joyously spent after all of that and slept HARD last night.

This morning, I expediently got the dogs out for their morning walk ahead of the massive winter storm that is barreling across the state today. Thankfully (I think...), most of the storm will be rain for most of the day, but then the temperatures plummet and we are expecting massive snowfall overnight into Monday. So...I am hunkering down. It's a Sunday, so I am just going to chillax and enjoy myself with indoor activities, which will comprise eating a breakfast of cereal - with maple syrup, flax seed, blueberries, and nut milk - a long Peloton workout, and assorted other leisure activities as they come to mind.

Fin.

I Am on a Hardcore SMSM Fast Today

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs).

I'm on a hardcore fast today from all social and mainstream media (SMSM). As you know, one of the Tenets of the Church of BWJ is abstinence from SMSM (all of which is toxic and addictive media). As with any and all religious Tenets, it is virtually impossible for mere mortals to perfectly adhere to them. I do a fair job of it, of course, but sometimes I LITERALLY have to engage with SMSM in the course of everyday operations as a marriage and family therapist. There is networking to be done, after all. I try to minimize my time on the social media (mainly Facebook) and limit it to business operations. But the DFUs are ever present on the SMSM, trying to suck you in and redirect you toward less desirable content.

So, today I decided to rigidly abstain from all SMSM, even that required for business networking (nothing is so pressing with that that it cannot wait a day or two). It has been fine, but I can definitely feel the pull of the SMSM at times. That's part of the rationale for fasting from SMSM today. It's an exercise in discipline.

Fin.

Sunshine

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or actions steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the universe (DFUs).

I took the dogs out for a morning walk today and it was a crisp sunny and brisk early spring day. We had to push all the clocks forward an hour today, which wasn't all bad. The day will feel longer now, with it not getting dark until an hour later.

Temperatures are supposed to edge into the 60s Fahrenheit today, which bodes well for a possible mid-afternoon bike ride. I'm trying to decide what kind of a bike ride it will be, but I am leaning toward maybe trekking over to Brennan's grocery store to gather the fixings for one of my famous salads. Excited to get the bikes out and pump up the tires and generally assess their worthiness for the upcoming cycling season.

I'm doing RAGBRAI this year, because it's an even numbered year and those are the years when I tend to go. I'm once again joining the Powered by Plants vegan cycling team, who coordinate all the transportation, lodging, and meals (including bringing a vegan caterer along for breakfasts and dinners). That'll be fun. I still haven't motivated Deborah to give RAGBRAI a try. It's a bucket list challenge, but there are a lot of obstacles.

Anyway, go enjoy the day, because word on the streets is that the world may be consumed in a global thermonuclear war around the middle of next week.

Cheers!

Fin.

A Happy Day

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this post finds you and brings you joy, insights, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs).

It's a happy day. I don't know exactly why, but it is. I cannot put my finger on any underlying or causative factor. I have to work today, and although I love my work as a marriage and family therapist, it does not necessarily cause or correlate with happiness, in the truest sense of the word. It can often be satisfying and even joyful, but those emotions are not quite happiness, per se. I guess I am happy that I am in a career that aligns with my Values.

It's also not a particularly great weather day. It's a bit rainy and gray. Temperatures are above freezing, which I guess is good, but not quite in the thermodynamic comfort zone I prefer. For the weather to make me truly happy, it needs to be above 60 degrees Fahrenheit and mostly sunny. Those conditions are likely to be met TOMORROW, and so perhaps I am feeling anticipatory happiness? It's anyone's guess, but that's about as good of a guess as any other.

It's remotely possible that today will see the defeat and/or demise of one or more DFUs. I have no evidence for that, but if true...it would absolutely be a happy day. There is a retroactive happiness for future events that can sometimes be felt in the present (and past) due to quantum entanglement and tachyon particles. I'm not sure what the mathematical equation for that is, but as with most Laws of Nature, it is probably an exponential function of some kind, meaning the happiness generated increases exponentially the closer in time one is to the happiness-inducing singularity. If that's the case, then said singularity is probably going to happen soon, because the happiness vibes are quite intense.

Or maybe I'm just hypomanic today.

In any case, I hope your day is filled with happiness too (which would be another indicator of a universally experienced pending demise of DFUs).

Fin.

Fantastic

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this blog post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs). Things have been going pretty well on that front, which tells me you are all upping your game on the actions steps. For my part, I have been boycotting social and mainstream media (SMSM) with nearly 100% efficacy and the results speak for themselves. I am smarter and happier than I can remember being in quite a long while, due to completely disenfranchising the DFUs from my digital life. I have been instead focusing on curated non-mainstream media (such as podcasts) and reading more audiobooks (on the Libby app).

And my analog life is fantastic too. I get outside and take the dogs for a walk pretty much daily, unless the weather is super bad (95% of the time, it does not reach that level of awfulness). My marriage counseling practice is thriving. I manage to squeeze in a 30+ minute Peloton workout most days (excepting our tropical vacation a few weeks ago and when I was sick with RSV - I still worked out during that, but man did my lungs BURN! Probably not the smartest thing to do...). I am getting very close to my fitness goals and I am almost to the point where DFU-destroying intention is optimized. The DFU's should start feeling that in the next couple weeks.

Fin.

The DFUs Are Taking a Beating

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this blog post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs). I guess my pep rally post a few weeks ago was motivational for some of you, because the DFUs are taking a hefty beating lately. That warms my cockles. Good work!

I am still a bit discouraged by how few people are boycotting and disenfranchising social and mainstream media (SMSM) though, since these are currently some of the most toxic things that humanity has ever encountered, due to AI's involvement. SMSM makes you measurable dumber and angrier [SOURCE].

If the metric is DIABOLICAL EVIL, then SMSM scores very high. Empirically speaking, one almost has to admire SMSM's insidiousness. It simultaneously poisons and reprograms your mind while stimulating the pleasure centers of the brain that prevent you from realizing what TF is happening to you (in fact, you even feel paradoxically good about your misery!). It's like the "cocaine rats" in those old experiments that predated animal cruelty laws. These rats would drink the cocaine water vs the un-cocaine water until they died, oblivious that they were poisoning themselves because they felt SO GOOD!

Fin.

Poison

Hi Dear Readers!

I hope this blog post finds you and brings you joy, insight, and/or action steps for defeating the Diabolical Forces in the Universe (DFUs).

This is your weekly reminder to get off of social and mainstream media (SMSM) as soon as possible, because it is POISON. Exposing yourself to those media puts you into an alternate reality that increasingly no longer corresponds to ACTUAL REALITY. This can put you in real danger and make your life pretty miserable - due to the heavy bias of SMSM toward grievance, negativity, hate, divisiveness, and toxicity. There is no way I can convince you of this other than to persuade you to abstain from SMSM for about a month and notice the difference in your perception of reality and your mental state. You will see things more clearly, and you will be happier and smarter. All I am asking you to do it PUT IT TO THE TEST. 

Of course, doing so requires ABSOLUTE abstinence from SMSM. That is difficult for most people, because of how addictive SMSM is (by design). But if you successfully fast from SMSM for a month, please leave a comment and share your experience.

Fin.

The Attention Economy

How does it feel to be a product? A commodity? Bought and sold?

Because that's what you are. It's what we all are, with rare exceptions.

That's not exactly true. Your whole being is not necessarily being traded on the free market of the Attention Economy. But your attention is. And to the extent that your attention is linear and finite, you are being exploited, with zero compensation for your attention.

That's wrong. Or at least it is my thesis that it's wrong. Your attention has value and you deserve to be compensated for it. At a minimum, you should deny your attention to those who would exploit it (social and mainstream corporate media, and its neediest and most obsequious characters) until/unless you are compensated for it.

My attention costs $60/hour ($1/minute) and I will gladly sell my attention to any buyer for that price. Social and mainstream media presume to demand your attention FOR FREE! And perhaps there is value in that for you. You get to use social media applications FOR FREE because the companies that make those apps are SELLING YOUR ATTENTION to other companies (advertisers) willing to pay a premium price for your attention. But...you are seeing NONE of that monetary compensation. Does that seem fair to you?

Perhaps your attention (and the time you spend sacrificing it on the alter of the attention economy) could be better spent creating REAL VALUE for you. Here are some ideas:

Read books.

Learn a skill or hobby.

Exercise.

Go out to eat.

Make a meal at home and enjoy it.

Have sex.

Walk in nature.

Meditate.

Play board games with friends and/or family.

Learn/play a sport with friends/family.

Those are just a few ideas that popped off the top of my dome. I'd now ask/challenge you to compare those ideas with whatever value it is that you think you get from social/mainstream media. Please share in the comments.

And...GO!

Fin.

Get Off the Internet Soon

In late 2024, I reminded my readers and followers to get off social and mainstream media (SMSM) ENTIRELY in early 2025, and stay off it. While I have no idea who heeded this very timely, accurate, and real warning, I do know that those who have abandoned SMSM consistently are in a much better place in 2026.

I am now calling for people to abandon, disenfranchise, and boycott the entire Internet. This may seem like a bridge too far. It isn't. The Internet is now poison to the mind, body, and soul. It's information has been scientifically shown to be low value and of questionable credibility. You are literally smarter and happier when you are OFF THE INTERNET. Not everyone can or will get off the Internet. That is unfortunate. But those who can should and MUST if there is to be any hope for humanity going forward.

The Internet algos will work very hard to hide and bury this post so most people do not see it. Hopefully, you are not "most people" and you do see it...then also heed it. Because you future well being depends on it.

Fin.