Virtually Homeless

Life on-line can also be hard. Our home on TinCan.media is taking a siesta for the month of August, so we’re going to publish some of our podcasts here for at least the month of August (2018) and possibly longer.

Since we are living in a world where the cost of housing keeps going up and we have a very limited budget here at the Life Is Hard production facility, there is no telling when we might get evicted from any of our satellite hosts. For that reason, you should bookmark this site and check here whenever you need to find us. This is our headquarters … our home base … the place we crash after a hard night, so you’ll always find us here, even if you do find us draped over a sofa or chugging Excedrin to quiet a roaring hangover.

We knew life was hard before we started this podcast (hence the name), so don’t worry about us. We’ll find a way to patch up the window that someone threw a rock through, and we’ll keep selling aluminum cans we pick up on the roadside to bail Doug out of jail, so we can bring you our unique insights into current events, science, and the military industrial complex, with an occasional public service announcement to show that we care.

Podcast: Guns, Guns, Guns

Recorded on July 24, 2018. This podcast got off to a rocky start. Doug questions whether you should have a round in the chamber at all times, and who does drive by bicycle shootings? Of course there is more, but I don’t want to give it away.

Reference links:

Bicycle drive by shooting (bike to bike!)
More people “standing their ground” in Florida
An old “stand your ground” story
Homicide rates increase in Florida after Stand Your Ground law enacted

Podcast: Books are Bad, m’kay

This podcast was recorded on July 17, 2018. In 100 years historians will be listening to this podcast to help them understand what life was like in the early 21st century.

In this podcast, we determine that reading books may be bad; especially if you plan to see the movie. Doug talks about the Martian Chronicles by Edgar Rice Burroughs and contrasts the books with the John Carter movie based on the books. We talk about unsustainable growth and Mr. Faulkner’s Old Fashioned hot dog stand. We manage to go off on tangents … surprise! Draconian, allegorical, and other big words get bandied about.

Margaret Atwood (the author’s name Doug can’t remember)

How much is one billion dollars?

… or one billion of anything, for that matter. For the sake of this discussion, I’m going to talk about one billion dollars, so you can get some idea of what we’re talking about when we’re talking about the 1%, and billionaires.

First, lets forget about investment income, or interest on your $1,000,000,000 dollars. Let’s say you have 70 years to spend the principal, with no interest. In 70 years, there are about 25,550 days, not accounting for leap years (365*70), so you would need to spend $39,139/day, or about $1600/hour, 24 hours/day, 7 days a week.

However, you’d be kind of stupid if you didn’t put your money into an interest earning savings account, while you’re busy spending $40k/day. It turns out, that you’ll end up leaving more than a billion to your heirs, because, at a meager 2% interest, you’ll earn $54,794.52/day. Yes, I said “per day”. If you go back to your ambitious goal of spending $39,139/day, you won’t actually be spending the interest, and your account balance will continue to grow, earning even more interest, as the principal accumulates.

So, if you’re a reasonable person, with reasonable needs, you couldn’t even spend the interest on a billion dollars unless you took on some very expensive hobbies, like colonizing Mars.

In case those numbers didn’t sink in, a billionaire makes more in a day on interest than the average American makes in a year. It’s no wonder they find the spare change to wine and dine your government representatives and convince them to cut them a break on their taxes and take away Medicaid from millions of struggling Americans. Because, well … they really need a tax break.

Don’t forget to find us on Tin Can Media. We’re as snarky as ever.

The Tin Can Era

The Life is Hard Podcast has moved! You can find our older stuff here, but for the latest, newest, hippest, greatest, unbelievably awesome new stuff, check out our new home at Tin Can Media!!

Thanks for your continued support. We love you although we have no idea who you are!

P.S. You can change that by interacting with us. Leave a comment, sometime.

We’re Not Dead, Yet.

Wow, we’re really missing out on a golden opportunity for podcasting about the state of things in general! Rob has been working 6 days a week on a new job, but someday, he’ll return and he’ll be better than ever. I have no excuse for being absent. My life is always chaotic, but I’d make time for the podcast if Rob were not so busy. I can’t do the podcast alone, because I have such a dry sense of humor, I need someone like Rob to keep the audience from sinking into a coma.

I can’t tell you when we’ll start podcasting, again. It could be a month or three. Rob is talking about moving a few hundred miles away, so we’ll be recording in Google Hangouts, Skype, or something similar. I will be sad to see him go, but he is going where there will be much more opportunity for him to prove to me that life isn’t so hard, after all. Who knows? Maybe he’ll find someone close to his new home with whom he can record, and he won’t need me anymore.

Life really is hard when your friends keep moving away. I guess it could be worse. 😉

Thanks for dropping by.

A Different Approach

Life really is hard these days. We had to record our podcast on Google Hangouts, because we couldn’t find a way to rendezvous somewhere where we could record. As a result, I (Doug) was driven to drink throughout the “Hangout”. There will be no MP3 from this episode, as it was all done on-line. Google Hangouts is a great convenience when you can get it to work, but you get what you get.

So, I hope you enjoy this week’s “podcast” on Youtube. We’re not really configured for this sort of recording, and it shows, but it could be worse.

Fox News vs. Donald Trump

It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of Fox News, or Donald Trump, but when Donald Trump butted heads with Fox, I found myself taking his side, inasmuch as it served my personal agenda.

Is Donald Trump a Democratic Trojan Horse? Will this be the end of Fox News? What happens when Donald says “April fools!”, and drops his campaign while laughing hysterically for days?

What if that theory was put forth by Democrats who didn’t want Republican voters to take Trump seriously? Wow! This is like looking for the end of a circle.

Life has gotten even harder since our last episode. We need patrons more than ever. If Rob can’t get his car repaired, we’ll have to record the podcast over Skype. Personally, I hate that option, and technically, it will be inferior. It may be too late, since all of our serious fans are now in a coma because of our drinking game, but even a token of support from those of you who are still conscious would boost our spirits!

You can download the MP3 file, or view/like/subscribe on Youtube.

Serial Tweeting

How to use Twitter to tell a cliffhanger! Twitter games? We talk about the basketball playing police officer in Gainsville, Florida and other friendly law enforcement officers. Tweet us your cliffhangers at @lifeishardpodcast! (is that redundant?)

Rob kindly pointed out that these posts are funny, when I’m in a “decent” mood when I write them. Well, if you must know, I’m not in the best of moods, tonight, but I’d like to think I’m still funny, at least in my sinister, dark, moody way. Life is hard, you know. I can’t always be in a “decent” mood.

Become our patron to show your support for Rob’s presidential bid.

You can download the MP3 file, or view/like/subscribe on Youtube.