Ludicrous

Remember in the good ol' days when people who were seen clutching their "flip phones" all day long were ridiculed? Now, I observe people clutching huge "smartphones" (aka "phablets") all day long, but there's no ridicule. The damned things are larger than my old Nexus 7 tablet computer. How much more ridiculous is that?

What's really sad is the sheer number of children who are now tethered to "smartphones." The indoctrination commences at a ridiculously young age. By the time they reach adolescence, their "smartphones" will literally become a permanent appendage. I am hardly a "technophobe," by the way. I am an engineer as well as a computer nerd. Well, I am less of a computer these days. As I grow older, I have less need to be "connected."

The foolish part, of course, is that I have elected to keep my cheap "smartphone," the new one that has yet to be activated. The goal is to divest the iPad® as soon as I am confident that it is not needed. I have yet to use any of the services of my no-contract plan. I am only maintaining the cheap "smartphone" and its associated service plan because of the pending homeless decision.

My continuing observations have verified the previous thesis that a large number of the homeless, at least on the streets, are elderly (i.e., age 50 years old and up). In other words, there is a proliferation of homeless senior citizens. Even at the gym, I have observed that most of the homeless members who stop in during the day are elderly. My guess is that many of them cannot afford housing, rental or otherwise, with what little retirement income they receive. Or, they may have been forced out of the now-disappearing affordable housing. Or, they may have been terminated from a wage slave job.

To put everything into perspective, affordable housing in Hawai'i is a joke. A two-bedroom condominium selling for $349,000 is considered to be affordable. And, believe me, there are few condos selling for that low price. Real estate valuations will continue to rise, thanks to the asset price inflation problem created by the global central banks. The affluent class are able to purchase the overpriced property, which drives the prices up further. Then, the rental housing market inflates proportionally.

The homeless could be alleviated in Hawai'i, but there's not much impetus to find solutions. On one hand, I can understand why solutions are not forthcoming. Increasing shelters and services will only encourage more and more homeless people to migrate here. On the other hand, the homeless migration appears to be increasing anyway. I could go on and on about the problem. What good would that do?

The day? We already know the drill. No evening outing in Kahala. Once again, I returned to Waimanalo early again. Naturally, there was nothing for me to do except to waste time on the Net. Of course, that begs the question ... what would I do without Net access? Nothing?

The "blog" is becoming extremely difficult to manage. Lack of content leaves me with no option to create filler material. Once the archive of pictures of hotties is depleted, I will have to rethink the "blog." My commitment to it is ludicrous.