Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

Oct 152012
 
Greg JUSTIN

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You look back on the year that was, and realize that another post about what will be going on in this next year is probably pointless and will do nothing for your blog.  I tend to look at the new year as a time where I can make outlandish and unreachable plans that I can fail with and call resolutions.

That said, I have a (choose your explicitive here) load of stuff I would like to do this year.  The first is writing more consistently.  The next is podcasts but I haven’t figured out where or when to record them without screaming or arguing in the background.  Maybe that is could be the charm of the podcast, kid noises in the background.  Maybe not for this site though.

That is another thing, I would like to do some podcasts with others.  if you are interested at all, email me at justin@cantankerousoldcoots.com and we can discuss it.  I would love to have a partner to bounce ideas with that is not Bob or Ralph.  They will come in and argue it would be great.

anyway, 2012 is here and the Coots abound.  There will be things happening.  There will be products.  There will be donation buttons.  There will be amazon.com links for you to click through and help me pay for hosting.  There will be spirited political rants.  There will be Cantankerous news.

So stay tuned Boys and Girls, this is going to be a wild ride, we may let you breathe a couple days a week.

And now they have the audacity to release another update to wordpress.  I just got the last one completely sorted out.

Have a good weekend.

-Justin

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Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Sep 202012
 

Hello out there!  I hope that you are having a great Saturday today and the rest of the weekend is looking up.

Today’s question comes to us from “Jane” in Phoenix, AZ.  I do have to apologize to Bob for not getting this question to him sooner, he will have to have a cantankerous response in the comments.

“Jane” writes,

“Dear Cantankerous old Coots,  I just read your Friday column about Black Friday and I had to ask a question.  I just got back from a madcap day of shopping and spending way too much time and money for way too little items to hold.  I have seen that Bob likes to make his gifts and Justin will be doing similar things, so when is the right time to say goodbye to the shopping and spending hamster wheel and give homeade items?  And, If I give homeade stuff, will my family be mad that I didn’t spend money on them?  Just wondering, “Jane”.”

Well “Jane” as usual this is not a question that is easily answered.  Bob will probably have a better take on it in the comments.  I for one like to spend money on my kids.  I like to give them toys.  I like to give fun things for Christmas.  But, the past couple of years there has been so many toys that they don’t care about at the end of the season that we are scaling back.  We are having each of the kids make presents for their siblings instead of picking up the first thing that they see in the store that is in thier price range.  They are very excited about it.  As for other family members, (extended) it just gets to be a silly hassle trying to find gifts.  My parents don’t need anything, I don’t have the money to buy all of my nephews presents as well as my sisters so they get a family gift.  And this year family gifts are baked.  We are going to make cookies (from Bob’s shortbread recipie check it out at juicy maters.com) and these cookies will also be given to the neighbors for the holiday on fancy paper plates.  We may even spring for some colored plastic wrap but it is not likely.  So if the family doesn’t like the fact you are not going to spend money on them tough.  Maybe you should have that talk with them now, the we can’t afford much, let’s just do family presents talk.  That should help.  if not, screw ’em. –Justin

Ralph chimes in:

Dear Jane,

As you think about making your own Christmas gifts, I suggest that you keep this in mind.  When was the last time you received a homemade gift and how did it make you feel.  For me, it brings back all the Christmas gifts my kids made for me over the years.  Were they great gifts?  I have to say no.  Did I use them?  I have to say no.  Did I like them?  I have to say no.  What I can say is that I pretended to like and use them because I loved my kids.  So my advice to you as you consider giving something homemade for Christmas is that you ask yourself if the recipient will love the gift because it is you that is giving it.  If you have a speicial relationship then it won’t matter what you give and homemade is ok.  Otherwise, I suggest going to the store.

Ralph

Thanks for the question “Jane”!  If you have a question that you would like a cantankerous take on email us at askacoot@cantanerousoldcoots.com or leave it in the contact form to the right.  Thanks for reading!

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Sep 202012
 
The unsustainable geometric progression of a c...

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All of this talk about the sheep and the training of such is, well kind of disheartening.  It looks like the readers of Cantankerous Old Coots are willing to be led along and prodded once in a while.  So Ralph, Bob and I will just have to play the shepherd and *MAKE* you go in the directions we want you too.

The biggest problem I can see is that Cantankerousness should be voluntary and not forced upon you.  It is a choice and to do otherwise would create a dictatorship that would end badly in a few years with, quite possibly, a world war.  So here is my proposal.  Everyone go out and recruit 2 friends to come to the next meeting of the coots and decide for themselves.

When those 2 friends bring 2 more and so on we will either have a great selection of people to mine comments from, or we will have a pyramid scheme.  Note: there is no promise of money involved.  We get some decent traffic here on a daily basis, but I keep wondering how much of that is bots and search engines.

We need people here, real people with intelligence and the brains to make comments meaningful and worthwhile.  So, seriously, get 2 friends to read this site next week.  Ralph will have another great news day on Sunday and we will go from there.  Lets get some community going and lose the sheep mentality.

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Aug 302012
 

 

United (States) Parcel Service.

Advice is like crap, everyone has some and wants to get rid of it.  Why should I be your toilet?

I am inundated every day with globs of crap on how to do this better, how to live better, how to write better, how to get people to buy your crap, how to take a crap, and how to make the crap more lucrative with marketing techniques that are stale and, well, crap.  Admit it, you didn’t know this would be a scatological post when you started.  Well it really isn’t.

What it is is a study of where we are in America.  It seems we can’t look at things and figure out how to make our own way any more.  Sure there are some things out there that I would be lost without learning, such as how to get a blog going, or keep it going.  But do I really need to have 47 emails a day about it?

Do I really need pharmaceuticals from Canada or Mexico that cure everything from baldness to impotence?

Continue reading »

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

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Aug 292012
 

English: Right of way The formal line of the r...

You know what I am getting sick of these days?  Me.  That’s right, Me.

I am getting sick of myself and telling myself that I am too tired or too old or…well just too full of shit to do what I should be doing.

This summer has been a disaster and it is no ones fault but mine.  Why didn’t I get more posts done?  Ehhh…. just didn’t.  That is the worst excuse in the world.

How can any of this online stuff survive with such namby pamby crap floating in my blogs?  It can’t.  So, now I am not going to try any more.

Continue reading »

Justin

Justin is the young Coot with a Cantankerous Soul who continues to be educated by older, more cootish Ralph and Bob. His Cantankerosity is his own.

More Posts - Website - Twitter - Facebook