On March 27, 2014 this website was created to help guide those who follow.
 It is dedicated to those who have helped by leading. 
I hope to be a small piece of this chain.
Thank you all.
Jou Baur

"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic." Benjamin Franklin

Second Hand Life is for those who may finally get a 'Second Hand Life.'

I'm one of those people,

I didn't get a first hand life.
My life was never normal.
Was Yours?

I grew up in a very definitely unstable, dysfunctional home; when we had a home, that is. We moved a lot; different step-dads, different states, different places within any city every few months.

Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Wisc., Denver, and then back to St. Pete, and environs. And when I left home, I went to see the world, well, the USA and most of Canada anyway. Never more than 6 months in one place. 

When I hit 17, and left home I really started traveling. AWOL from the US Army as a Vietnam War resister, I hitchhiked the USA and Canada many times, and later drove them too. I've hitchhiked both continental divides in mid-winter, (not the same year!) and done gazillions of other cool things, but stay in one place and have a normal life?

Nope.
Never could manage that.
Not even close.

I lived in N.C., NYC, Iowa City, Iowa; Toronto, Ont. Canada; New Orleans, La; Houston Tex.; and Denver again, several times each.

Then the woods in Santa Cruz where I spent 7 years.
Those were wonderful, magical years, I learned so much magic, that still serves me so well. True magic is higher consciousness. I'm not very good at it, probably never will be, but I strive. That's all you can do.

As I got more into hard drugs, I moved to the bay area; Berkeley, to be precise. I knew it somewhat, and knew some people here from my acid-selling days back in Santa Cruz. I wasn't some big seller, I just dabbled in it for a little while, but I knew a few people.

More importantly, I knew some good speed here!
I ain't hurting my nose by snorting it. 
I really ain't wasting it by smoking it!* 
Slam it, baby! Get it all now.
"Hit the ground running!"

Snorting it, you get high. 
Smoking it, it's like you're dreaming you're getting high.
Shooting it is like you, "hit the ground running!" 
You're just going full-speed instantly!

Well, this one dealer I knew and had had problems with often over the years, ripped me off one time too many and kept smirking in my face about it. He dared me to light him on fire and smirked, that I wouldn't do shit, and when I poured a quart of camp fuel, (gas,) in his tent and held my lighter over it and asked him did he want me to light it... he said, 'Fuck yeah, I dare you, punk! You ain't gonna do shit!"  

Well, long story short, I went to prison for the next 8 years (at 85%, PLUS a Strike.) 

Man! 
Do tent's ever burn fast!

I decided that's enough!
I want a real fucking life!
And I'm going to get one, too!
If I have to build the damned thing from scratch!

And, I've got 6 years, 9-1/2 months to get ready. 

The question now is "How?"
Although the question, 'What exactly is a real life, anyway?' seems pretty important, too. I mean, after all, how am I going to know if I've got one, if I don't know what I'm looking for.
What's it going to it take to make a 'real life' for me?

I've got to have a stable place to live, which also implies a stable job situation. This necessitates a good job market, and it has to be a market that hires ex-felons. It has to pay me a living wage, (more would be nicer, obviously!) but enough to at least live on and pay my modest bills.

I have to get a decent place to live, and I have to have some leisure time, and learn to do something with it! 

Leisure time is a necessity of trying to live a real life, a life that is somewhat in balance. 
You work / you play. 
Period. 
Right?

But, what to do with that leisure time?
Oh wow, what a major, long-term question.*
You have 'energy' to use, that must be channeled into a new direction!
This is the time, and the energy, that you used for your bad habits.
This energy flow will defeat you, if you do not channel it properly.
Fact.

Everything in your life has life-force in it.
This is the very energy of the amount, and the intensity, of the focus that you put in it.  

I'm reminded of the old Buddhist saying about the two monks who come to a river where there is a woman who needs to be helped across. 
The one monk carries her across and puts her down.
As they go on down the road the second monk goes on and on about the first monk laying hands on a woman, or something liker that.
Finally, the first monk turns to him and says, "I put that woman down back at the river. When will you?"

He was still carrying her and spending his life force on her.
If you're living in your memories, you are NOT living in the NOW!
And now is all there is!

You must have different places to put this energy; to 'turn your attention,' so to speak. These use up energy and time, and they give back energy and self-centeredness.

Well, I decided going in that I was going to have a new life when I got out. Things were going to be different. I was going to have a real life, even if it is kinda second hand. So I decided to build one from scratch. If you wait on this until you get out it's too late! all that time is wasted. 

 I spent my time inside designing it, to make it work. You have to work hard to make it, but that also means you have to play hard, so you have to have hobbies that are different than work, and you must make time for them, even if you are busy.

This is the story of discovery, and design; an attempt at a balanced life, for a guy who's never actually been in balance.
So far, it's working.

So, that's what this is about.
My Second Hand Life.
You want one too?

Follow me.

Jou Baur
March 27, 2014

* See the sidewalk poem.

Program Yourself!

You have to be programmed to function!
FACT!

In the early days you programmed yourself!
(I want to be like Uncle Dave!) 
You also used discretion on your programming, because you understood even then that you can't just randomly accept ALL programming from ANY source.
(I want to be like Uncle Dave and go on Safaris to Africa, etc... EXCEPT, he's always with all these yucky girls. I'm not going to do that!)
(Admitted that's not the best example, but it should be understandable.)

Your computer has to have a program to function.
So does pretty much everything else, especially humans!

It's time to reprogram yourself, EXCEPT, instead of following someone else's program, (EVEN MINE,) you need to learn how to take control of your programming for yourself. I don't want you to follow me! I want you to learn enough from me, and others, to follow your own self and fulfill your dreams, (what you can of them at this late date.) 
How much time you got left? It may not be much, but trust me, it's enough! You're still breathing, aren't you?

ALL of your programs are on the table. 
If you want to make it, that is!

If you don't live NOW, 
you've missed it!
Bye!

Basically signed and sealed, (except for minor editing,) this 27th day of March, 2014 at 11:53 pm by Jou Baur.
The birth day blast is over.
WOW! What a day!

A thought:

Nobody is going to put into a society 
that isn't going to give back!
Help them have a good life 
and they'll do for you, too.

And another thought:

Start some kind of room where parolees can have long-time access to online computers to study for things like the app academy? Wouldn't it be a great opportunity to get on their feet if they could get that education while they were there with their bills paid?
They could become supporting members of society and have much better lives for themselves in the process, and put back into making society work instead of costing society.

And more:

A person who is working full-time deserves a living wage!

It doesn't matter if they are a high-school student or not!
A person who works full-time deserves a living wage!
Now if they want to earn more than just enough to live on, they need to get more education.
AS to their not being worth the money, don't hire them if they're not.

P.S. A living wage is not all that much!
It's not like the $9,000 hour that some CEO's earn!

WOW!
Isn't it funny how all of these ideas point out that people who get nothing out of society don't have any reason to put anything back?
Isn't is nice though, that they also show how you can get more out of society by putting back the proper way?

Go back to fucking school!

Especially if you just got out of prison!

I know you heard the bullshit 'yard-rumors,' "When you get out, schooling is FREE! You're now a disadvantaged minority!"

"BULLSHIT!"
(Excuse the plain English.)

However: You do qualify for not having any income last year, (or more?) This means that you may be acceptable  for lots of grants towards your schooling. 

BECAUSE you had no income, not because you are part of some fictitious group of 'disadvantaged minorities.'

Take advantage of this!
I sure as hell did!
(Story to follow.)

(See my section on what to do to prepare for things. I don't know what I'm calling it yet, or where it's going to be. I'll get back to you on that later.)

An important question about your attitude?

If we're all sitting here playing poker and you join us at the table...
How much money are you going to win by playing rummy?

I've been in many neighborhoods where it is common the hear, "I ain't playing white-man's game! Don't need no white-man's education!" 

I've worked on carnivals where the mark is the mark, and we all cover each other against the outsiders, where a guy told his boss, (as he was running past,) "See you next stop, boss. Gotta go right now."

I've been lot's of places, and done a lot of things, and if there's one thing I've learned it this:

It all comes down to the rules. 
Play the game, and know the rules.
Luck's hella cool, too, but she don't hang out.

So,
Stop playing rummy!
The world's playing poker!
Don't let your prejudices make you a loser!
Play the game that's dealt.

What constitutes a 'Real Life' anyway?

Well, let's make a list of things that count:
1)You have a steady place to live.
2) You have a (reasonably) steady job.*
3) You have hobbies or leisure-time activities.**
4) YOU DO SOMETHING!***


Join Second Hand Life.ORG 
and help make this list work for everyone.



*A skill, or license, or something, that makes you repeatedly employable, and pays you at least a minimum living wage. Jobs will most likely come and go. Don't be a one-hit wonder! Hand-skills are always good, carpentry, plumbing, cement, mechanic, etc...

**If you don't learn to develop some proper use of your leisure-time, you are going to fail! It's as simple as that. Trust me. Develop some leisure-time activities, and make time for them, at all costs! 

*** Get out and do something! Every week, if possible! If only for a few hours, go process some recreation. It's necessary for your mental  and physical health, and let's face it right here.. if you ain't mentally healthy as you can manage, you ain't gonna make it, period. 
MAKE some time for yourself and use it. 
Do the stuff of your dreams.

JUMP!
You know you want to.

This video is about getting out and doing those thing's that will make your life. Live those dreams you once had, or create new ones, or, die trying. Get out and do it now! There is no such thing as later! Next week you're going be dead! Or, back to prison, or in a wheelchair, or something!
Get the fuck out there now!
Take your kids to the zoo, jump out of that plane, or whatever!
Whatever it is, do it before it's too late.
Re-kindle those dreams you had when you were a child, or else create new ones.
After all, "What's on your Bucket List?" 

*This video is my cut, of the 15 minute boring video I received from my jump.
I especially like the music's ending... after the credits and everything.
Wait for it. 
(The music was my choice when I made the remake. It is off of the Deep Breakfast album by Ray Lynch.)
This is just one more example of 'getting out and and doing it.'

BOOKS, 
that you absolutely, positively must read!

These are going to come in categories, (eventually,) including my well-loved SF, but for the moment let me put up books of more immediate need.
I don't want you to be a wage-slave forever, so, we're going to explore things I've learned, paths that might have done me better if I knew them sooner, or paths that might do someone else quite well now; good paths that will work with a little effort.
Could one of these ideas work for you, or do they give you ideas of your own?

$100 Startup *

This book is awesome!
If you know someone inside who is going to get out, or even has the possibility, get them this book!
For that matter, get this book for yourself, and anyone you really care about.
(For interests of disclosure, I am not associated with this book, etc, in any form other than having read it and think that it really helps realign you thoughts to make it. Jou Baur)
It helps to learn how to intersect your interests with customers interests. 
It also gives details how to design your business model to start from $100 or less!
This is based on multiple interviews with a very large group of volunteers who had to be making it this way themselves, and were willing to totally open their books to prove it.

I'm not too good at this yet, but I'm working on it.
You could easily be better.
Do NOT miss this book!

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