Author: Rob Says

A man who loves and likes women.

Honor, Virtue, and Chivalry

Rob SaysLeave a comment
knight in front of woman in green dress
Bending The Knee For M’Lady.

The definition of honor according to Webster: A good name or public esteem.

The definition of virtue according to Webster: Conformity to a standard of right.

The definition of chivalry according to Webster: Literally, mounted men-at-arms. Or, a gallant or distinguished gentleman.

These things all sound great don’t they? Sure they do. They all sound great on paper and in theory. However, honor, virtue, and chivalry are nothing but “container” words. What is a “good name?” You get to decide what that is. You get to put that meaning in the container. What is a standard of right? Again, you get to put that meaning into the container. Same with a gallant or distinguished gentleman. As a bonus, gallant and distinguished are also container words.

They are vague. They are “hypnotic.” What they have in common though, is expectations. When you throw around words like honor, virtue, and chivalry, what you are really doing is telegraphing your expectations. Your expectations of you, and most likely, other people. News flash: You are setting yourself up for disappointment. People are going to do what they want to do and rationalize it and justify it after the fact, but they are still going to do it. Meanwhile, you are going to be disappointed because they didn’t live up to that expectation of your definition of honor, virtue, or chivalry. But hey, you get to burn.

I’ve had a problem with honor, virtue, and chivalry because they are going to mean something different to everybody. Sort of like the word, love. We all “know” what it is, but it’s going to be different for everybody. I have a problem with honor, virtue, and chivalry because more likely than not, your definition of these words are going to differ from mine. I know I’m not going to hold you to my definition of these words, and that’s because I don’t “deal” in them. I guess I’m not “honorable, virtuous, and chivalrous” like “everybody else.”

I would rather deal in “what is,” instead of what was, or even better, what ought to be.

To me, talking about honor, virtue, and chivalry is mostly mental masturbation. We are jerking off over definitions of something that is vague and is out of reach. It’s an ideal. Philosophers both recent and long deceased have argued the merits and terms of these words, and that’s fine. I don’t care. I’m just going to live my life and “do me.”

I would rather choose to live for experiences than argue or discuss what is or isn’t honorable or virtuous. I would rather feel the burn of a good scotch going down my throat than talk of the mythical days of yore.

I would rather feel the sting of cigar smoke in my eye, especially if it brings a tear. That’s an experience.

Here’s a fun experience I had recently:

Me: “Mmmm…You are salty!”

Her: “My attitude or my skin?”

Me: “Yes.”

Massive amounts of laughter ensued.

That’s the kind of shit I live for.

Maybe my lack of interest in honor, virtue, and chivalry may make me “immoral” in some people’s eyes. I don’t care. I don’t consider myself moral or immoral. I guess I’m amoral. I do what I want to do for the experience that doing whatever it is, brings. I try not to infringe on other people and what they are doing, because I don’t care for it when they infringe upon me.

I guess I spent so many years in my head, talking about ideals and codes and what ought to be, and ultimately ending up miserable, that now as I’ve gotten older, I realize that ultimately, nobody gives a shit, and that set me free. For the most part, I can do what I want. If people don’t like it, nobody gives a shit, especially me. As long as I’m not putting you in harm’s way, I’m good.

If you want to wax poetic about honor, virtue, and chivalry, that’s totally fine by me. You do you. You do your thing. I’m not interested in those subjects though, and frankly, I don’t think I would have anything to add to it, other than what I’m saying about it right here, right now.

I’ll be over here, feeling the burn of booze in the back of my throat, smelling the sweet smell of a good cigar, tasting the spice and heat of some good food, and enjoying her salty attitude and her salty skin.

Cheers.

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In Perpetuity

Rob Says1 Comment

fire in fire pit

In perpetuity: endless or indefinitely long duration or existence; eternity. i.e., forever.

One of my patrons reached out to me on Patreon the other day with a link.

It states that: “YouTube may terminate your access, or your Google account’s access to all or part of the Service if YouTube believes, in its sole discretion, that provision of the Service to you is no longer commercially viable.”

My patron asked me:

“How are you preparing to [deal with] google [and] of you tube terms and conditions 10 december?”
The short answer I have right now is this.
I’m slowly loading videos from YouTube to there as a sort of alternative or backup. The question remains, what do I do about my live streams? And what do I do in the “long run?”
There are no easy answers to this question. Shortest answer to that is that I do nothing. I’m a writer (according to Vince) and I’m an entertainer. I run my mouth is what I do. I get people to laugh, sometimes. And sometimes I guess I drop little nuggets and jewels out of my mouth. Don’t ask me how or where they came from, they just do. I guess it’s my observations and my life experiences driving the bus when it happens. My inner idiot must go somewhere else when it happens.
Like I’ve seen said somewhere before, “Whatever drunk me did, take it up with drunk me. Sober me wasn’t a part of the shenanigans.” Or something like that. Nugget dropping Rob is his own dude. Shit talking Rob is usually at the helm.
Anyways, where was I? Oh yes. Me backing my shit up to another service in the event that YouTube and/or Google decides to pull the plug on me.
I could back it up to a whole bunch of places I’m sure. I could even host it on my own computer and set up a streaming server or something like that I imagine. I’ve heard block-chain whatever it is, could be another alternative.
Guys, I’m not a coder. I don’t have the time, inclination, nor the know-how. I write and I talk shit. I’ve got enough shit to do let alone “learn to code.” There’s only so many hours in the day to do the shit I want to do, and coding ain’t one of them.
So there’s all of these alternatives…The underlying problem, the elephant in the room, remains.
It’s still someone else’s platform.
YouTube, Bitchute, Anchor, Patreon, Soundcloud, even my e-mail list, whatever. It’s still someone else’s platform. They all can pull the trigger for any reason at any time. Maybe it’s advertisers putting pressure, maybe it’s funding. Maybe it’s the guys running it got tired of doing it. It doesn’t matter.
Short of me coding my own shit, or paying someone to do it, and then running it out of my own home, from my own computer, it’s someone else’s platform. Besides that, computers die. All the time. Hard drives die. All the time. External drives die. All the time. Same with flash drives, thumb drives, tape drives, and stick drives. Ask me how I know.
While I would love to have my stuff “out there” forever, odds are it won’t be. I’m just another voice screaming into the void. There are far bigger and better voices that are saying the same things I’m saying, and they are saying it better than I ever could. I’m okay with that. I’m not here for the preservation and archiving of my stuff. That’s on someone else if they so choose to do it. I’m here for the laughs, the beer, and the shit talking.
Any of you guys that guy? A preservationist? An archivist? A “keeper of the records?” Reach out to me, let’s talk, seriously. Until something like that happens, I’m not going to worry about it too much.
When I thought about the “preservation” of my stuff, it got me to thinking about something else as well. Specifically, how long do I plan on doing this stuff? I haven’t really given it any proper thought before. Right now, the short answer is, “I’ll do it for as long as I want or can. Or I’ll do it until I no longer want to do it. Or I’ll do it until I’ve said all I need to say.” So yeah, I’m not going anywhere any time soon.
Do I honestly want to be doing this in say, 20 years? Like Rollo? God bless the Man for what he is doing. I think he’s truly doing God’s work and he’s proven time and time again that it’s about the message, not the messenger. But is that me? No. It’s not. In 20 years, if I happen to live that long, I’ll be almost 68 years old. I’ll be my Dad’s age. I hope to God that I’m doing something else by then. Maybe sitting on a beach sipping Tequila, or having Vince fly me around in a private airplane or something. I honestly hope I’m still not yelling at a computer screen. Why?
Because then I will have failed.
If you guys out there, aren’t getting what you need from me, or my interpretation of the message, then somehow I have failed you. More importantly, YOU have failed you. I can’t sit here and spoon feed this stuff to you for the rest of your lives. At some point, you’re going to have to jump off into the deep end and swim. You’re going to have to join the club. You’re going to have to commit to it too. You will be initiated. Whether you want to be or not. Whether you are ready or not. Your own futures depend on it.
Somebody is going to have to pick up the torch and carry it, just like I’ve been doing. Somebody is going to have to do the work once I’m done and all the other guys who are doing it, now, are done.
Somebody out there is going to have to preserve it. I just know that that particular part isn’t mine, and maybe my take isn’t worth preserving. I’m okay with that. Like I said, I’m just here for the laughs and the occasional take on things. I’m just here to run my mouth.
Whether my take on things stands the test of time or not isn’t my concern. I’m just concerned with saying it. It’s on you guys out there, reading this, watching it, listening to it, to decide if you want to do anything with it and use it or not. And it’ll most likely be up to you if you decide it’s worth preserving for the future or not.
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I Do It For The Memories

Rob Says1 Comment

bonfire

Here’s a little fun fact you may, or may not know about me:

I’m a photographer. Not professionally mind you, but I’ve spent a lot of time behind the lense. My favorite type of photography has been landscapes, but I also love taking pictures of people. “Portraits.” I don’t do it for money because then it’s work. And I definitely won’t ever do wedding photography. I’ve seen what a nightmare that can be for the photographers who do it. Nope, not for me.

Why haven’t you seen any of my photos here or on any of my other platforms? Because I realized something critical a while ago. While I love shooting photos and being behind the lens, I also realized that I wasn’t “in the moment” during those shoots. I was too busy composing shots, making sure the lighting was what I wanted, getting whatever subject I was shooting exactly where I wanted them, etc., I wasn’t “a part of it.” I was missing out. I was missing out on that particular moment and on life in general. I was observing but I wasn’t participating.

I figured out my mission a while ago, but I didn’t have the words to describe it or label it. I have that now. My mission is to fully live, enjoy my life, have a variety of experiences with the people I engage with, and suck the marrow out of life.

Yes I know that’s vague in many ways. It doesn’t have that “I will make a million dollars by October 3rd of 2020” feel that many people will encourage you to have. You know, get fucking specific and all. The thing is, life is funny. You make all sorts of plans, set all sorts of goals, and life does what its going to do whether you like it or not. “Men plan. God laughs.”

What made me bring up my photography? A friend invited me to go camping and kayaking with them this last weekend. I thought about breaking out the camera gear and taking it with me. I got everything out, charged up all the batteries, brushed up on a few things that I had forgotten about my camera, did some test shots to make sure everything was going to work as planned, packed all that gear into their respective bags, set it all out to load in the truck, and then left it all home.

I really thought about bringing all that stuff, I really did. And part of me really wanted to bring it along, but I didn’t. I decided at the very last minute to leave it all home. I used the camera built into my phone instead. Getting behind the lens puts me out of the moment, I’m not “there,” not really. I’m not in my body, but in my head. I’m not living my mission. I’m not truly living if I’m not there.

I’ll figure out a way to integrate my photography and my mission, and when I do, I’m sure I’ll bore you all to tears with photos of me doing my thing with the people that I meet and the places that I see and go to. Until then though, I’ll just have to be satisfied with sucking the marrow out of life, living it fully. And you guys will have to read or hear about it after-the-fact, here, or on one of my other platforms. Better yet, we will be able to say to one another, “You remember when we did that shit?!” “Yeah man, that was fucking awesome!” That’s alright with me. I can do that. I can live with the memories even if I don’t have the photos to go along with it.

At least I can say that I lived and was fully present in that moment. And that’s enough for me.

I’m doing this thing called “life,” for the memories, the friendships, the experiences, and the connections. That’s my mission. That’s my goal. Care to join me?

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