The Tantalus Field

Being a lifelong trekker, I have always loved the gadgets and devices on Star Trek and other sci-fi shows, movies and in books. One episode dealt with an alien machine that could display the location of an enemy in realtime and if you wished, you could destroy that enemy.

Since Star Trek was in the early 1960’s, it was only years later that I found a connection with an invention claimed by Henry Moray. I even went so far as to buy the domain name tantalusfield.com.

I never saw any connection between this sci-fi construct and (from Wikipedia) the Greek god Tantalus was welcomed to Zeus’ table in Olympus, like Ixion. There he misbehaved, stole ambrosia, brought it back to his people, and revealed the secrets of the gods.

Tantalus offered up his son, Pelops, as a sacrifice to the gods. He cut Pelops up, boiled him, and served him up as food for the gods. The gods were said to be aware of his plan for their feast, so they didn’t touch the offering; only Demeter, distraught by the loss of her daughter, Persephone, “did not realize what it was” and ate part of the boy’s shoulder.

Fate, ordered by Zeus, brought the boy to life again (she collected the parts of the body and boiled them in a sacred cauldron), rebuilding his shoulder with one wrought of ivory made by Hephaestus and presented by Demeter.

Tantalus’ punishment, now proverbial for temptation without satisfaction (”tantalising”), was to stand in a pool of water beneath a fruit tree with low branches. Whenever he reached for the fruit, the branches raised his intended meal from his grasp. Whenever he bent down to get a drink, the water receded before he could get any. Over his head towers a threatening stone, like that of Sisyphus.

The following is an excerpt from my tantalusfield.com website;

“The Tantalus Field. Discovered by the Mirror Captain James Kirk “in the laboratory of a dead alien scientist,” the Tantalus Field is a device that granted the Captain much of his power and fearsome reputation.

The Field consists of a small viewscreen and a few simple controls. By adjusting the controls, the operator can call up a view of any point within orbital distance (up to 10,000 kilometers away).

No known screens or other technology can block the Tantalus Field’s view. This ability alone is quite useful for covert surveillance, but the Tantalus Field’s true power allows its user to “lock on” to anything in the device’s field of view and destroy it with the touch of a button.

The Tantalus Field operates on a principle of quantum interference. It disrupts the target’s normal quantum resonance signature. In essence, the target no longer “belongs” in normal space-time and instantly ceases to exist, vanishing in a momentary flash of light.

This is more than mere disintegration; the subject is banished from reality all together. There is no known defense against the Tantalus Field; once it has you in its sights, you are as good as dead.

The Moray Correlation from Alternative Science - Excerpt from “The Sea of Energy in Which the Earth Floats” by Thomas Henry Moray Sr.

[p. 114] David Gardner Affidavit: The gentleman who had invited me to the demonstration mentioned a contrivance that Dr Moray had also invented with which he could pick up sounds without them being broadcast from a radio sending station. He said that he had heard a demonstration of this device.

I asked if I might hear it also; he called Dr Moray over and asked if I might see a demonstration of the “sound pickup device”, and I was granted the privilege.

There was an old radio box of conventional design with two headphones plugged into the box. Dr Moray tuned the device by turning the knob in front. He handed me one set of headphones and one set to my nephew Mr Clark Gardner; he then arranged for three people to walk out of the house into the street and carry on a conversation to which we were tuned…

I was sure I was listening to these three men. I remember distinctly it was raining at the time and I could hear the patter of the rain on the pavement as they walked.

I remember them saying they had better hurry back into the house lest they get wet.

In the course of their return, I wondered if I might hear other people talking, and despite the advice of Dr Moray not to fool around with the tuning device, I moved the knob slowly and heard very distinctly the sounds of a railroad station: the whistle of a train, and a porter or the station master at his station saying, “All aboard”. The nearest station to the receiving set would have been a minimum of 5 miles…

I know that the people on the street had no transmitting device or any other instrument with them. They would not believe me when I told them what I had heard, but they said I was repeating their conversation.

If these claims about Moray somehow tapping into earth currents to retrieve dynamic speech are accurate, then it might also be possible to retrieve video as well.

One of Nikola Tesla’s claims was that he could create standing waves around the earth, which he could move at will to create a precise point of attack for not only detection, but destruction of missiles, planes, ships or entire cities with sufficient power. A matter of charging a standing wave and collapsing it. Here is a drawing of his Wardenclyffe Tower station which he claimed could transmit power anywhere on the planet to operate electrical devices and a drawing of him holding his ‘wireless lamp’.

Two other ‘deep’ correlations that might be of interest;

#1 - Dr. Walter Russell in his book, “The Universal One” refers to a phantom image of all masses that projects into the earth below them, as a consequence of aether/zpe and cosmic ray penetration.

#2 - Businessman Maurice Cooke was startled when he began ‘channeling’ something calling itself Hilarion. As the contacts grew, a body of information was built up which wound up with the production of a series of small books describing how the universe, life experiences, reality, dimensions, time, etc. all work. In one of them he refers to the use of the phantom image of a tetrahedron, along with the proper energy emitter, which could be used to clone an ojbect placed in the focus area of the tetrahedron. For a better understanding of how crystals and pyramid structures work, you might want to buy ‘The Physics of Crystals’ dvd. You can also view a youtube demo from this dvd.

CrossLoop Tech Help - April 2008 - Week 4

This might be a very useful service, quick, cheap and effective.

“There’s a new community of more than 7,000 helpers gathered on a web site called CrossLoop. Anyone who thinks they know their stuff can list Tech Support Kenny themselves. Some charge a dollar a minute and others offer help for free. You have to be willing to provide remote access to your computer to get this kind of Internet help. If you think there’s something wrong as you watch someone doing searches on your screen, you can disconnect at any time. YouTubeThe helpers on CrossLoop are rated by people who have used their expertise. You start out by downloading some software from CrossLoop.com. Then if you want help, click the “share” tab. That generates a number that you need to give to the helper. If you want to be a helper, you click an “access” tab and type in the code provided by the person seeking help. This feature can be extremely useful for people who do not want to become general helpers available to the whole world, but are simply willing to help a friend or relative with a computer problem. The site already has more than 600,000 users in over 190 countries and lots of people are using it. CrossLoop has advantages over other tech support services we have tried, such as YourTechOnline and PlumChoice. Those services are fine but they tend to focus on the most common kinds of problems, such as spyware, viruses, setting up networks, speeding up a slow computer, etc. CrossLoop has such a diversity of knowledgeable people that they can help with unusual problems, such as mechanical drafting or high-end photo editing. We think this is an optimum use of the power of the worldwide web: no matter what the problem, someone out there probably knows the answer.” - Source

Two things that make me proud to be an American

There is so much crap on TV, self-serving, ad cluttered or sensationalized. I find it refreshing and uplifting to see a show like ‘Extreme Makeover’ on ABC, which often brings tears to my eyes to see a needy family receive help of such magnitude!

Whoever came up with this show and to all those who make it happen, big kudos. Sure it is on a very grand scale that few individuals could sponsor but I think it shows how people and companies working together can help those in need.

Habitat for Humanity has also been doing this for years without all the fanfare and there are of course other groups and organizations who actually do good with the money and volunteer efforts. I just wanted to put in a plug for these groups and all those who help make such things happen.

Recently, American Idol showed their charitable side and raised $76 million dollars in 2007 and has exceeded $60 million so far in 2008. You can still donate here if you’d like to do your bit.

“The Charity Projects Entertainment Fund distributes the money raised to Save the Children, America’s Second Harvest, Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Children’s Health Fund to help disadvantaged children in the United States. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis & Malaria, Malaria No More, Nothing But Nets, Save the Children, and the U.S. Fund for UNICEF will receive money to fund programs in Africa.”

Imagine if all that war money (+$515,000,000,000.00) was diverted to these and other charitable groups who actually spend the majority of the money as intended, rebuilding and helping the US first, then extend these efforts to other countries. I wonder if other countries have a TV show like this? I’m sure they have charitable organizations for various purposes.

That is one of the things the rest of the world gets so upset about…that Americans know so little about them and simply don’t seem to care about their cultures or events until it somehow impacts the USA, then it becomes important. We can do much better on so many fronts but we need strong leaders to inspire and guide us to constructive collective actions.

As a side note of PISSED OFF, check out the money piles showing how much of OUR MONEY is being poured down a bottomless war for oil drain.

KeelyNet Highlights & Comments - 04/15/08

(I decided to post these since I don’t archive them on KeelyNet, you might find them of interest. - JWD)

Item #1 - Xynergy Corporation - As you can see, this company seems to be announcing amazing discoveries since 2002, most recently one about a high output hydrogen generator and another about a 75% water to 25% gas mix process. This always raises my shields when companies or people proclaim wonders for YEARS with nary a product. In my opinion, its all a ploy to troll investors.

Item #2 - 40% boost in Thermoelectric efficiencies - This is a very big deal for thermal generators and quite possibly has a connection to the Moray device.

Item #3 - Lloyd’s cool water-saving invention runs hot - With a water scarce world approaching, this needs to be installed on every home and business.

Item #4 - Money doesn’t grow on trees, but gasoline might - I hope this isn’t just hype, imagine a gasoline tree orchard.

Item #5 - The Coming Tax Bomb - Government rebate at no cost? Yeah, right, wait til the other shoe falls and we wind up paying it back many times over.

Item #6 - the Thermal Equalizer - Probably everyone knows that heat rises. So when you heat a room where is all the hot air, you got it, at the ceiling level. There have been other schemes to redistribute air such as 6″ or so PVC floor to ceiling pipes with fans pulling hot air down but this one is also quite interesting and something like it should be built into homes or retrofitted to existing ones. It could save a lot of money in energy.

Historical KeelyNet File of Interest - ‘Engineering Reality’

I’ve been experimenting with Feng Shui for the past 4 years and had some interesting results which I hope to include in a new eBook. Some background on this if you are interested in ‘engineering reality’ can be found in this old KeelyNet file explaining Gestalts and the Production of Anomalous Phenomena.

Various religions, from the pomp and circumstance of Roman Catholic rituals to the rituals of witchcraft which require the active emotional involvement of a group of people focusing their minds on a single goal. It is the function of the priest or priestess to recognize when the emotions have peaked and to direct the release of the combined emotion energies toward the accomplishment of a specific goal.

As mentioned earlier, many prayer groups and churches use this combined form of concentration in attempts to help or heal others with varying levels of success. Some people naturally have more of this ability than others.

The dark side of this energy is the release and redirection of the life force from a blood sacrifice to influence or produce a specific real world event. The Ark of the Covenant and the Old Testament required such life force sacrifices. Possibly the Ark had equipment to collect and convert these life force energies for the production of the various phenomena that it is reported to have produced.

I have seen reports of electronic devices that had an energy sapping effect. One such is Floyd Sweet’s VTA. I attribute that to the increased influx of aether/ZPE into the circuit, where the experimenter is too close to the center of accumulation, the vortex. This would extract life energy from the experimenter by aether/ZPE entrainment.

Priorities in Mexico

A small anecdote that gives a bit of insight into Mexican culture and thinking…

Miguel is a friend who works for a furniture moving company. At the time of the accident I am about to describe, he was unmarried but dating a schoolteacher who he planned to marry.

One day several years ago he stopped by my house for a visit. As I reached out to shake his hand, he kind of flinched and pulled back in pain. He pointed out his middle finger which was slightly bent and looked to me as if it had been jammed.

He said a heavy piece of furniture had hit his outstretched fingers and he was in pain. I asked if he’d had it x-rayed to see if it was a bone break or fracture. He said no, that it was just a bruise and would be okay.

I told him he needed to get that looked at as soon as possible because a break or fracture could heal stiff and make his finger or even hand unusable, but he refused to listen.

Sure enough, over the next few months, it did heal up stiff and though he can still grab things, he doesn’t have the force he had because of this accident and which he refused to have looked at due to his macho pride. Miguel is now married with a baby daughter and his wife is due for their second child, but his finger never healed properly and he I notice he is careful with that hand.

This little event came to mind yesterday when I stopped in at a favorite bar for a michelada. I knew several of the mexican customers and a gringo friend was there as well as the bar owner who I’ve known for several years. The owner is a great guy, well respected and has a wonderful family. He walked by, said hello and we chatted a bit. I noticed his middle finger was horribly bent and swollen. I asked him if he was in pain and he said yes.

So what happened? He said he was riding a horse (he has a ranch) and got thrown which damaged his hand. For the month involving Semana Santa (Holy Week) he planned to take the family to Cancun so didn’t want to have to deal with this finger problem. He didn’t consult a doctor for fear he would be given medicine and told he could not drink. Off the family goes for a month where he still didn’t see a doctor. Result, swollen and bent finger and I don’t think he has yet gone for medical help.

It’s not like he doesn’t have the money, but it just blew me away that it was more important to him to be able to drink on that vacation than to repair a damaged finger that might heal stiff or useless or even worse.

Cities Profit From Shortening Yellow Lights

What a cheap shot to produce revenue. It’s analogous to requiring cops to have a quota for tickets written during their shift.

“Short yellow light times at intersections have been shown to increase the number of traffic violations and accidents. Conversely, increasing the yellow light duration can dramatically reduce red-light violations at an intersection. Some local governments have ignored the safety benefit of increasing the yellow light time and decided to install red-light cameras, shorten the yellow light duration, and collect the profits instead. The cities: * Chattanooga, Tennessee * Dallas, Texas * Springfield, Missouri * Lubbock, Texas * Nashville, Tennessee * Union City, California.” - Source

On a side note, I’m happy to see the Mexican police force here has changed from 24 hour to 12 hour shifts. It’s much better for these very underpaid guys and their families.

The ‘We Follow the Bible’ Challenge - DARE THEM TO BET!

The ‘We Follow the Bible’ Challenge they won’t take! - About 3 days ago, I woke up to someone banging on my door about 10AM. Since I stay up working most of the night and my friends all know this, this banging better be something important. Opened the door to two older gringas.

Usually when expats come to my house I know them or they want to know about rentals in the area or they need some kind of help. I had seen these two around but knew nothing about them. Opened my iron screen door and invited them in but they just smiled, chatted a bit and handed me Jehovah Witness flyers.

A long talk explaining that I’d studied MANY religions AND CULTS and found nothing that made sense or could be proven to my satisfaction. They go into their spiel with the preface of ‘we follow the bible’…I told them I seriously doubt either of them know much about the bible and would bet them each $100 CASH that they or their associates do NOT TRULY FOLLOW the bible as it requires. That it was a horrible book serving as a guide for sociopathic behavior, etc..

Of course they said well, we don’t follow everything as some of it is outdated, never mind what it says in Revelations warning it is not a cafeteria religion where you can pick and choose what you wish to believe, but that its all or nothing!

Check out this Comment.

I went into some details which they had never read or heard about, but could easily lookup in any one of the ‘versions’ of bibles I had, IF they DARED and of course they didn’t accept my bet, being simple brainwashed robots only capable of citing rote responses given to them as ‘answers.’

Nice enough ladies but please don’t go around proselytizing and bothering people who have no interest in such idiocy.

A nearly banned video called the Zeitgeist you should check out.

Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics

Wish this skeptic mentality could be spread as a virus to cure so many of the worlds ills brought about by practitioners of intolerant religions and those who insist on trying to convert others who don’t buy into their preferred delusions.

“After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach. In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives. “I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over us,” said Sara, a high school student in Basra. “Most of the girls in my high school hate that Islamic people control the authority because they don’t deserve to be rulers.” - Source

Close call…

I could easily blame this on Mexico, but I won’t because I know there are bad people in every country who have no problems in hurting or even killing others just for money. Maybe they do it for drugs or just wanting money, who knows. But such behavior is alien to me and not in my normal sphere of activities, acquaintances or friends.

In Mexico, the cantinas can be fun so when the weather is warm, I sometimes stop in to drink micheladas (beer cocktails) or just regular local beer. Since the past 3 months have been chilly at night, I usually try to make it home before the sun goes down so haven’t done any ‘bar-hopping’ of late.

This past week, I stopped in a cantina in a small town. There were perhaps 10 people there and I knew about 5 of them and the bartender (cantinero). Lots of joking around and the bar closed at 1AM so I invited 3 of my friends and 2 new guys I didn’t know back to my house to drink beer. Not an unheard of thing, but not all that unusual and I’d done it before with no problems.

However, this night, we listened to a friends Vicente Fernandez hits CD, talked, joked and drank beer. But the two new guys, who I found were from California and only here a couple of months to visit family, were more than curious about checking out my house. I had to tell one of these brothers to sit down and mind his business. Maybe 30 minutes passed and we went back to the small town so everyone could go home.

2 of my friends went home but one wasn’t ready to go just yet. It was still 30 minutes before a favorite cantina in another town closed so it wound up that 1 of my friends and these two brothers drove over to drink beer til the cantina closed. There were perhaps 25 people in that bar and I knew about 10 of them plus the bartender.

They closed at 2AM so as we walked to my truck, my friend Carlos pulled me aside and said I should be careful as he heard the two brothers whispering plans to rob and maybe kill me. Carlos insisted on riding in the passenger seat rather than the older brother.

I drove us over the to small town and the younger brother picked up an unopened beer can and threatened to hit me in the head with it if I didn’t give him 200 pesos ($20)..I told him to eff off and he jumped out of the back of my truck and tried to open my locked door, then threw the beer can at the glass while yelling, te mato (I will kill you).

I peeled out with the older brother still in the back and Carlos in my passenger seat, then let the brother out maybe 4 blocks away and he tried to apologize for his brother. Told him I was going to the cops to report this. I let Carlos out and drove straight home with the plan to return to the police station the next day.

When I got home, I pushed the seat up to bring in items I’d bought and when I put the seat back, I saw one of my big french bread knives lying in the seat. Meaning, the older brother had stolen this and sat on it. Now things came together. That was why he asked me to drive him and his brother to Jocotepec which is about a 40 minute drive. He was hoping I’d let the other guys off and he and his brother would be alone with me, perfect for an attack.

Fortunately, my friend Carlos, who is a muscular farmer afraid of nothing, was my security, though in truth I would never have put myself in a position of being alone with these two psychopathic brothers anyway, but still, its nice to have friends who back you up.

I find it bizarre and totally sub-normal to remotely think, in the event of some attack, that the identity of the culprits would not be very easy to ascertain since not only were friends with me but at least 25 people saw us all together. At any rate, I’m still a bit stunned by the very idea that anyone would think to try something like that, but I explained it all the police and they said they’d check these two out. It would be very easy to rob and/or kill someone, then go back to the US with no chance of ever being caught.

As Bill Maher says…new rule…don’t bring anyone home you don’t know, EVEN if friends you do know come along.

A couple of other odd things…a 21 year old friend who is married with a 6 month old son was on his bike at a local 7/11 type store about 7PM. He had just got on the bike, ready to ride the mile or so to his house when a man in his early 50s grabbed his hand and pulled him, saying he was from Guadalajara. My friend asked him what was up and the guy put his hand up and grabbed my friends throat. He pushed the guys hand away and turned to ride off on the bike.

The older man then cold-cocked him on the left side of his head with a balled up fist. My friend was totally pissed now since the man wouldn’t stop or leave him alone, so he jumped off the bicycle and turned to face him.

Sizing up the situation, the man was standing in front of a banqueta (curb) which was a perfect setup to lose balance, so my friend gave the guy a push and he tumbled backward, tried to recover but tripped on the curb to land on his back. My friend kicked him once in the face and once in the stomach. He calmly got on his bike and rode home.

Another friend had a demanda (police complaint) filed against him claiming he’d stolen 5,000 pesos ($500). The report relied on two old women who wore thick glasses. They claim to have seen my friend enter the house about 2PM on a Thursday and come out with the money. Hard to believe as my friend works 6 days a week from 7AM to 7PM so was in another town with his boss, amigos and many witnesses. But here, Napoleonic rule is in place, meaning you are guilty until proven innocent. The hassle is he had to get witnesses to go dispute the demanda which of course was cancelled. I asked if he was going to file a demanda against the family for falsely accusing him and he said no.

Mexico notes…

Some weirdness here lately or at least it was news to me. The police used to come by my house as much as twice a day, either honk the horn in the daytime or flash their lights at night. I’d go out and chat with them. They are SO BORED since they work 24 hour shifts and several of them live in Guadalajara and are assigned here. I feel sorry for them as they are not only low paid but have often rough jobs so sometimes I buy them lunch or give them cokes and chips for snacks.

After letting three of them borrow movies, some SVCDs, other DVDs, which they didn’t return, now they don’t stop by (I think out of guilt) but maybe twice a week and of course none of my movies have been returned. It’s one of the weird things about mexican culture…the word for loan/borrow is presta and for gift is regalo….but here presta MEANS regalo and your chances of getting something back that you loan are super slim to none. I can’t count the number of items that I’ve had to go after or never got back.

Something I just have to mention. I’m in my 7th year here and have noted how many more cars and how many more ‘things’ mexicans have than they did before. Bear in mind the minimum wage here is less than $6 and most people make from $10 to $15 a DAY. Though I know a few who make $20-$30 a day, most are very poorly paid.  A mexican friend worked at an electronics factory in Guadalajara and made $7 a day, but he is a talented baker so now has a new job making $20 a day.

I setup a bank account with an international bank and they included a ‘free’ Visa card. I charged about $100 on it to build some credit here and noticed they charged 30% interest! So I paid it off really quick.

In a recent issue of the Guadalajara Reporter, an english weekly newspaper, there is an article entitled, “Economic growth breaks forecasts as credit card woes break dreams” (February 23-29, 2008 page 12).

Yep, many people are going crazy with all this easy credit (at super high unregulated interest rates)  and ending up with ruined credit, debt and repossession. I have noted how so many people are buying cellphones, all kinds of new electronics, new or even used vehicles, motorcycles, clothes, toys and anything else they can ‘buy’ with plastic.

And how do they hope to pay for this when they barely survive on $10-$20 a day?  Most of course have families but many adults live with their families to save money until they have enough to get married and move out on their own.

Plus the culture includes a host of fiestas, building a house for each kid, the 15 year old girl coming of age celebration and a host of other costs that make extra money very difficult to come by. So now they have all this free credit and many are going nuts to their inevitable ruination. I’ve seen this ‘plastic prosperity growth’ over the past few years and wonder when the bomb will drop on them.

In addition, Mexico is so economically intertwined with the US that the economy is hurting badly here as well. The word for volkswagon is ‘Bocho’, the word for a mexican who is native born but lived in the states and RETURNED to mexico, is a POCHO.  I see many pochos these days. Easy to spot by their dress, jewelry and attitude but broke as everyone else.

The immigration crackdown as well as depressed construction is causing many illegal mexicans in the states to decide its better to sell everything and come back to Mexico, rather than be deported and lose it all. One newspaper article here said many were coming to visit for Christmas but not going back for fear they would be sent back to Mexico and not on their own terms.

Anyway, the other day a couple of mexican friends stopped by and we drank soda, chatted and watched a movie. They told me some people noticed an old man sitting in the plaza. He was a known drunk who often passed out on one of the benches and slept so most people just walked by and didn’t pay any attention.

So about a 3-4 weeks ago, someone noticed the old man had been sitting there for about 8 hours so one guy walked over and called to the old man who didn’t answer. He touched the mans arm and he was stone cold. The doctor said his liver exploded from too much liquor and the man’s corpse, remained there for 8 hours, dead as a doornail and unnoticed.

A couple of weeks before this I was waiting for burritas at Marco’s and Estelle’s tacqueria, so we were chatting. I don’t recall how we got on the subject but Estelle said a man who lived about half a block from the plaza was found dead in his house a year ago when neighbors noticed a smell and hadn’t seen him. The guy was about 45, well known, didn’t drink or do drugs and had no enemies but lived alone.

She said when the police entered the house, they found the man lying on his back on the floor with a knife cut from his stomach to his chest, all his intestines pulled out and strewn across the floor and both of his eyes were removed from his head. They never found the eyes and the police suspect it was satanists??? They always warn me not to open my door at night and worry that someone might do something to me.

I think they are paranoid as my neighbors all watch out for me and I watch out for them. They often ask me to watch their house when they go out of town or on vacation and we have a very quiet U type of street with little traffic from people who don’t live on this street. Plus I know a lot of local people, police and people from other pueblos who stop by at random, even a few gringos drop by to visit if we’ve not seen each other in awhile. So to date, I’ve not had any reason to become paranoid or fearful.

It struck me as odd, this fear because one night about 10:30PM I accidentally locked myself out of my house so rode my motorcycle over to Rene the locksmith. I saw lights in the windows and heard his TV but no one would answer the door. I noted they turned off the TV and turned out the lights so I left thinking I had the wrong house, but no it was right so I came back and the lights and TV were on again.

THIS TIME, I called por favor Rene, Jerry necesito ayuda…and the door opened. He told me if I hadn’t called his name and he didn’t recognize me, he would NEVER have opened the door to a stranger at night. He said it could be a dangerous thing.

Peculiar, he must know something I don’t but we rode on my motorcycle over to my house where he picked the locks to let me in and only charged me 50 pesos. Good guy. I have a custom made iron screen door as well as my house steel door so that I can open the inside door and let air blow through the house. Several neighbors asked where I bought the door and they now have them on their doors at $100 custom made, painted and installed, what a deal!

A few months ago, I had mentioned here about an old gringo named Grady who died last year after a lengthy hospital stay. To my surprise, this week I received an email from a guy saying he had noticed my comment and that he had a cousin named Grady who live at Lake Chapala. Yep, same guy. He said the family wasn’t aware Grady had died so they were curious as to the disposition of his body and estate. I gave him all the info I could and will let them take it from there.

Didn’t mean for these comments to be so death centered…jajaja…just happened to be something of interest locally that I wanted to write about.

I hate cold so don’t like to stay out at night when it’s cold. The cantinas can be fun but not with swinging half doors that let cold air blow through, meaning I stay home until it warms up again. Seems like it is warming up again and I can’t wait since I’m a night guy all my life and days are for sleeping or working.

A real popular small cafe called Jose’s is very popular with the gringos. The food is pretty good and at a decent price, plus Jose and his wife Isabel get to know everyone. But lately I’ve been burned out eating there so tried the Cucumber cafe across the way.

Man, they had this Pescado Chipotle for 55 pesos ($5.50) with salad and rice. DAMN, it was excellent and so tasty that I tipped the cook 20 pesos and the waitress 10 pesos. Chipotle is like a slightly spicy cheese that is just a touch hot. It was the best fish dish I’ve had here. Have been back two other times and am working my way through their menu to find what I like best. Great prices and very tasty food so far.

There is a kind of hidden restaurant in San Antonio called Letitia’s where they sell a tempura shrimp platter for $10 (100 pesos) that includes a mango sauce to dip the shrimp. It is excellent, the mix of salt and sugar plus anything tempura, count me in. I like to cook tempura carnitas (fried pork) at home.

Another great place to eat here sells BBQ and fish and chips. The owner is from England and they have about 9 flavors of BBQ, my favorite is ORANGE BBQ…man, its the best I’ve ever had. On cable the other night, one of the food travel shows went to South Carolina and the host sampled their native BBQ which was sweet mustard. I want to try that as it looked great.

This place has been ‘discovered’ by tourists, mostly retirees and snowbirds, who are turning it into a living hell. Prices are going up, houses are RIDICULOUS, traffic and parking is horrible and the ‘newbies’ are rude and can’t drive plus they insult the mexicans without any sense of remorse.

I’ve heard so many of them say horrible things thinking the mexicans don’t understand them, well, I’ve got news for them, many mexicans, even here in central Mexico, do know enough english (if not outright proficient at it) to understand every word. It is SO EMBARRASSING that I have apologized to them for the behavior of these people.

How RUDE! And they come here touting how they hate how things are done, and what they plan to do to CHANGE these over 500 year old towns and their cultures. WTF?

Who the hell do they think they are? If you aren’t here to at least try to get along and assimilate to some degrees, STAY IN THE USA or wherever you come from. I get so pissed off when they don’t even TRY to learn any spanish saying ‘these people’ need to learn english so they won’t be inconvenienced.

The thing to keep in mind, is we are GUESTS in this country and should respect and support their culture even if it doesn’t jibe with what we believe or how we do things.

One day, I was in one of my favorite cantinas (Gavilan) run by a great guy named Alvaro. It was maybe 5PM and there were two crotchety, very loud mouthed griping old gringos, complaining about everything here.

I got tired of hearing their loud bitching even though I was at my own table fully 12 feet away from them at the bar, so I got up and played some mexican music on the jukebox. There were only about 5 people in the bar, so one of the old gringos stood up and shouted, “who played that crap?” and I said I did, don’t you like it?

He yelled at me no, saying he didn’t want to listen to that crap and was leaving. I told him he was in Mexico and should try to get along and learn something about the place.

He said he didn’t HAVE to learn crap and was leaving. I told him good riddance and keep on going til you are back in the states as he wasn’t wanted here. Alvaro grinned at me and I hope I never see the old bastards again.

It’s like people in the states bitching about foreigners who don’t learn english. I happen to agree that you should learn the local dialect, at least TRY. So I live here and try to learn spanish, though my spanish is mostly malas palabras (bad words) but I know enough others that I can communicate with most everyone.

I did take a class for 3 months to learn proper spanish but the maestra (lady teacher) died of a heart attack and I never went back. Plus many words they use aren’t in the books. Real spanish is a very dynamic language where one word can have dozens or more meanings, depending on context.

The only way to really know spanish is to hang out with mexicans and learn from them. Sure, a formal course will get you the basics but to really speak and understand the language, immersion is the way to go in my opinion. I know so many gringos who live behind locked gates with security guards and in gated communities. Their only contact with mexicans is through housekeepers, gardeners, cooks, etc…and the rest of their time is spent with other gringos. I tell them they MISS SO MUCH by not dealing and interfacing with mexicans.

If all they want are to live in gringo compounds, why not stay in the states or whatever country they come from? What is the POINT of moving to Mexico if you don’t plan to enjoy, learn from and participate with the locals?

There used to be a lot of old gringos who would hang out in the plazas and usually flirt with then senoritas. Some of them are near pedophiles who embarrass the rest by going after very young girls.

In chatting with mexicans in the plaza they call them ‘pajaros muertos’ which means ‘dead birds’ indicating these old guys couldn’t get an erection if their life depended on it or unless they are on viagra, yet IN THEIR MINDS they think they are ladykillers.

It’s very funny and I so often hear mexicans making joking comments in spanish, knowing most of the gringos won’t have a clue what is being said. They often are taken aback when I use those terms when chatting with them and they tell me they APPRECIATE that I at least TRY to learn their language and customs when so many don’t care enough or respect the local culture to even try. It is sad but so true.

For some color, I have included the cartoon of my friend Mexico Jerry which he uses for his sales of Mexican knives and other collectibles. He has some interesting things and I particularly like the obsidian sacrificial knives. I have two of them mounted and hanging on the wall in my living room. Nos vemos (seeya)!