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	<description>own less, live more - how to apply minimalism and demonstrate value in order to achieve freedom</description>
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		<title>Ikea is a Nightmare:  Why You Should Quit Buying Stuff</title>
		<link>http://kriskemp.com/ikea-is-a-nightmare-reasons-not-to-buy-anything-in-2012/</link>
		<comments>http://kriskemp.com/ikea-is-a-nightmare-reasons-not-to-buy-anything-in-2012/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:11:41 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kris Kemp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[achieve freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[becoming minimalist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[demonstrate value]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[chronicle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[furniture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ikea]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ikea stores]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[live more]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[live simply]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[live with less]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[minimalist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[minimize]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nightmare]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[own less]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[shopping]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Are you really satisfied by the things you buy?  Why Ikea is a nightmare.  Why you should quit buying things.  The benefits of owning less and becoming a minimalist.]]></description>
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<p>I saw &#8220;Chronicle&#8221; last night, an interesting movie about high school kids who get superpowers. It&#8217;s clever and unexpected, not your typical teen flick.</p>
<p>Afterward, I was talking with David, my friend who I went with, and he told me a funny story about his experience at Ikea in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;You ever been to Ikea?&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;No.&#8221;  (I had been to an Ikea in France but I forgot about that.)</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;I went there yesterday, right.  It&#8217;s in Fort Lauderdale.  It&#8217;s this big building that sells furniture and all sorts of household items.&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;Okay.&#8221;</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;I was planning to get some furniture.  I go inside and look at some stuff.  I sit down and I&#8217;m just watching people, right.  I was thinking about that scene in Fight Club and I just couldn&#8217;t buy anything.&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;Classic.&#8221;</p>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0zGeS8OFjEs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>source:  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zGeS8OFjEs&#038;feature=related" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zGeS8OFjEs&#038;feature=related</a></p>
<p>David:  &#8220;And there&#8217;s all these people shuffling around looking at furniture, buying shit they don&#8217;t need.  And I&#8217;m like what the &#8230; right?  Ha ha ha.&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;I hear you.&#8221;</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;It was just depressing.&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;Shopping usually is.&#8221;</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;I was thinking, all these people who buy stuff&#8211;furniture, dressers, tables, that stuff keeps them stuck in one place.&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;It traps them.&#8221;</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;Exactly.&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;To the inevitable maintenance, upgrade, repair, warranty, insurance.&#8221;</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;They can&#8217;t leave because they&#8217;ve got too much stuff.  They worry about losing it.&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;The only thing they lose when they own too much stuff is their minds, and their time trying to maintain it.  It&#8217;s a lose lose situation.  When the credits of the movie of their life roll up the screen, they&#8217;re no longer the main characters, they&#8217;re only supporting roles.&#8221;</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;So then I tried to leave Ikea and I couldn&#8217;t get out.&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;What?&#8221;</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;They have these arrows on the floor that lead you around the store.  It&#8217;s like a haunted house.  It&#8217;s like a labyrinth.  I couldn&#8217;t find the exit store.&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;Nightmare.&#8221;</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;It took me like a half-hour to find my way out of there.&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;At least you got out.  People who are bored have to spend a lot of money on things in order to make themselves feel more alive.  But the irony is that the things, the material acquisitions they collect, end up keeping them stuck.&#8221;</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;Yeah.&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;All you need is a backpack, a laptop and some clothes.  <a href="http://www.howtotraveleuropecheap.com" target="_blank">We traveled Europe for 4 months that way.</a>  Everything else is just an anchor that keeps you in one place.  Or keeps you from meeting people.&#8221;</p>
<p>David:  &#8220;How do you mean?&#8221;</p>
<p>Me:  &#8220;If you have everything in place, a car, a house, then you don&#8217;t have to rely on anyone for anything and this keeps you isolated.  If you need things, like a ride or a place to stay, this requires you to meet people, to use your wits and demonstrate value in order to get what you need.  Even if you&#8217;re hitchhiking, it helps if you&#8217;re a good listener and have a sense of humor.  People can afford to be jerks in this world when they&#8217;re insulated by what they own.  But at the end of the day, what you own owns you and if you&#8217;re not careful, will kill a part of you that longs for adventure.&#8221;</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2LAuzT_x8Ek" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>source:  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LAuzT_x8Ek" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LAuzT_x8Ek</a></p>
<p>source:  <a href="" target="_blank"></a></p>
<p><strong>Own less, live more</strong><br />
The less you own, the more free you can become, free to have more time to do other things than maintain the stuff that surrounds you.  You know this.  I&#8217;m just reminding you of it.  It&#8217;s up to you to do something about it, right now, by taking action. </p>
<p>Here is what I want you to do:</p>
<p>1.  Put everything you don&#8217;t use into a box and take it to the nearest thrift store or give it away to someone.</p>
<p>2.  If you think you can get some money for it, sell it.  Then use that money for an experience, like traveling or buying some cool teddy bears for some anonymous people at nursing homes, or for music lessons so you can learn how to play an instrument.</p>
<p>Keep your life simple.  Live with less.  Own less, so that you can live more.</p>
<p><strong>Share this</strong><br />
If you&#8217;ve been inspired by this blog, leave a comment using the FB comments below.  Share it on FB or Twitter or other social networking websites.</p>
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		<title>Confessions from suckword:  Why every disaster is an invitation</title>
		<link>http://kriskemp.com/confessions-from-suckword-why-every-disaster-is-an-invitation/</link>
		<comments>http://kriskemp.com/confessions-from-suckword-why-every-disaster-is-an-invitation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:11:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kris Kemp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[achieve freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[being dumped by a girl]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[driver's license suspended]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Europe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[florida]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[focus]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[france]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[getting cheated on]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inspirational blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[kris kemp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[losing a job]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[motivation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[overcoming challenges]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[perspective]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[seeing what really matters]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[west palm beach]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kriskemp.com/?p=3104</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sometimes in the midst of loss, it's important to see what really matters.]]></description>
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<p>Look, I have to be honest with you.  If you&#8217;re reading this, and you know me, you&#8217;re probably making certain assumptions about my life.  I have so many interests, it&#8217;s gotten far past the point that I don&#8217;t even know how to define myself anymore.</p>
<p><strong>A plethora of interests</strong><br />
Some people know me as a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZWNsZll0fc" target="_blank">dumpster diver</a>, some as <a href="http://www.dumpsterdivermusical.com" target="_blank">the guy who wrote a musical</a>, some as the guy who <a href="http://www.outofthewilderness.net" target="_blank">runs a Christian music ministry to support the persecuted church</a>, some as <a href="http://www.bicycledays.com" target="_blank">a writer and ebook author</a>, some as a <a href="http://www.flipfloridaland.com" target="_blank">real estate investor/writer</a>, and others as <a href="http://www.howtotraveleuropecheap.com" target="_blank">a traveler</a>.</p>
<p><strong>A common theme</strong><br />
All of these interests, no matter how seemingly disparate, share the common theme of freedom&#8211;time freedom, health freedom, financial freedom.  And once I learn how to do something, whether it&#8217;s playing a song, writing a story, I feel compelled to create something with that and put the creative output&#8211;ebook, song, story&#8211;out there.  And out there, in this case, means putting it online, sharing with it with others.</p>
<p><strong>Confessions from suckworld</strong><br />
Recently, however, my life has been entering suckworld.  In a major way.  Here&#8217;s what happened.</p>
<p><strong>1.  Got driver&#8217;s license suspended</strong><br />
I got pulled over for an illegal u-turn and the cop said my driver&#8217;s license was suspended.  She cut it in half and gave it back to me.  &#8220;That&#8217;s so you can have some form of identification.&#8221;  She said.  Wow, thanks, I felt like replying, a half-a-driver&#8217;s-license.  Greeeeaaaaaaaat.  Turns out that when I let my insurance expire, since I did not own a motor vehicle, I was expected to send a statement to Geico stating as such.  I didn&#8217;t know this.  When I did not send the statement, they contacted DMV and my driver&#8217;s license was suspended.  Getting it un-suspended requires paying $250 a month for car insurance, since the suspension is on my history.  No thanks.  I&#8217;ll take a bike.  The world looks better from a bicycle, even if you&#8217;re dodging honking cars and shattered-glass streets of West Palm Beach, Florida.  At least it makes you feel alive.</p>
<p><strong>2.  Got cheated on</strong><br />
Got cheated on, then left, a few days before Christmas.  Had to drag around ex-girlfriend like a corpse, like a ghost attached to me, as everyone asked what happened.  It got tiresome explaining that &#8220;she cheated&#8221;, &#8220;she left&#8221;.  What made it worse is that I lost a best friend, and everywhere I bicycled around, all the places we&#8217;d been to reminded me of her.  Her residue was almost everywhere.  Meanwhile, she&#8217;s off with the guy she cheated with.  Suckville.com  FML.</p>
<p><strong>3.  Got fired from job</strong><br />
A few weeks before Christmas, I got a job working at a catering company that provides meals for private airlines.  My job was to prepare boxed lunches&#8211;salads, sandwiches, and platters (meat, cheese, fruit), as well as basic prep duties (cutting fruit, making tuna salad, chicken salad, slicing meats, cheeses).  Because of the sadness I was going through, I had difficulty remembering the exact specifications of each platter.  To make matters worse, the supervisor would play these pop love songs on Pandora and I wouldn&#8217;t be able to focus on work at all, I would just be sad.  One day, I called into work to see what time they needed me and the manager said, &#8220;I know you&#8217;re going through some personal stuff, but it&#8217;s not really working out with you, so why don&#8217;t you just keep your shirt and we&#8217;ll get the check deposited to your bank electronically&#8221;.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve been going through for the last 6 weeks.  These are my confessions from suckworld.  Almost everything in my life that had given me security and freedom (freedom to travel, earn money, love) was being ripped out of my life.  In six weeks, I lost the ability to drive a car, a job to earn money, the girl who I was dating.  Why was this happening?</p>
<p>It was as if the carpet supporting any confidence in my life had been violently pulled from under my feet.  And I hadn&#8217;t even hit the ground yet.</p>
<p>Why was this happening?</p>
<p><strong>Every disaster is an invitation</strong><br />
I talked with a good friend Adam and he said, &#8220;When something bad happens in your life, ask God &#8220;What are you inviting me to do?&#8221;  He went on, explaining that when things go bad in your life, look for the opportunity.  &#8220;Ask yourself, what door is being opened?&#8221;</p>
<p>So, that&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve been pondering:  What is God inviting me to do?  What is my next opportunity?  </p>
<p><strong>Why did all this happen?  Is it really that bad, or is just an invitation for something better?<br />
</strong></p>
<p>Thinking about the car, well, I&#8217;d rather bicycle.</p>
<p>Thinking about the relationship, well, she&#8217;s inconsiderate, a liar, a cheater, and I deserve better.</p>
<p>Thinking about the job, I hated it, so I&#8217;m glad I got fired.</p>
<p>So, I might be alone sometimes, without a car, without a job, but you know what, I&#8217;m totally free.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll get stuff done.  I&#8217;ll finish the 2nd part of the photo ebook for <a href="http://www.howtotraveleuropecheap.com" target="_blank">How to Travel Europe Cheap</a>.  I&#8217;ll make plans and take action.</p>
<p><strong><br />
Seeing what really matters</strong><br />
Maybe all that stuff, the car, the job, the girl, were just crumbs in my eyes, preventing me from seeing the important stuff.  And now that everything has been stripped away, I&#8217;ll be able to see what really matters.</p>
<p>Perhaps that&#8217;s the takeaway.  For you, too.  When things fall apart in your life, ask yourself, What&#8217;s the opportunity?  What&#8217;s the invitation?  Once you find out, walk through the rubble towards that door.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/17-2.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/17-2-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="kris kemp, lucy, yvignac-la-tour, france, europe" width="300" height="225" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-3118" /></a></p>
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		<title>How to Let Go:  What I Learned from being cheated on</title>
		<link>http://kriskemp.com/how-to-let-go-what-i-learned-from-being-cheated-on/</link>
		<comments>http://kriskemp.com/how-to-let-go-what-i-learned-from-being-cheated-on/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:11:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kris Kemp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[achieve freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bar]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[punk house]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[Ever been cheated on before?  Discover how to let go and move on.  This is a manifesto for everyone that's been cheated on before.]]></description>
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I wanted it to work.  I was desperate.  Raegan Test wasn&#8217;t just my lover.  She was my best friend.  Over the course of months, <a href="http://www.howtotraveleuropecheap.com" target="_blank">during our travels abroad</a> and even when we had returned to this peninsula, I had ignored all of my friends and poured everything into this one girl.</p>
<p>Instead of having the decency to tell me she was starting to like someone at her work, Burger Bar, she cheats on me, then lies about it.  Why, Raegan Test, why?</p>
<p><strong>The most dangerous person in the world</strong><br />
She didn&#8217;t know what she wanted.  That is the most dangerous person in the world&#8211;the person who doesn&#8217;t know what they want.  Why?  Because they&#8217;ll lead you in circles and complain while going in circles.  Then, when they arrive at the same spot they left, they&#8217;ll blame you for it.</p>
<p>At this point, I was hanging onto crumbs, pretending they were a full meal.  But it was already over.</p>
<p>She had cheated on me, then lied about it.  I bluffed, telling her that I know she had cheated on me, via text messaging, until finally she caved in and admitted it.  </p>
<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re right.&#8221;  She texted.  &#8220;I&#8217;m a mean horrible person so you shouldn&#8217;t be talking to me.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Cheated on, but still wanting to hang on</strong><br />
How right she was.  Instead of going NC (No Contact) I wanted to desperately hang on, to have her provide a balm for the pain that she had brought into my life.  How foolish.</p>
<p>Why, when a relationship ends, do we think that the person who caused us all this pain, can provide relief?  That&#8217;s the irony in relationships&#8211;that the person who can give you so much pain seems to be the only person who can give you so much relief from that pain.</p>
<div id="attachment_3081" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 630px"><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/009.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/009-1024x768.jpg" alt="Raegan Test and Kris Kemp" title="Raegan Test and Kris Kemp" width="620" height="465" class="size-large wp-image-3081" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Raegan Test and Kris Kemp in Paris, France</p></div>
<p>It took time, but I finally learned how to let go.  To forget her.  After her lies and infidelity, I realized that all she brought to the table was pain and chaos.  Even thinking about her brought a stomach ache.</p>
<p>I would work on myself, my own dreams and leave her be.</p>
<p>We would never be friends because after what she did she didn&#8217;t deserve my friendship.</p>
<p><strong>Raise the standards</strong><br />
I would raise the standards.  From this point on, I would raise the standards.  If anyone wants to enter my world, I&#8217;m going to qualify you.  Not the other way around.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t care how pretty you are or how pretty you think you are.  Because if you&#8217;re an ugly person on the inside, it will eventually surface on the outside.</p>
<p>I don&#8217;t care how nice you think your legs are or how nice you think your boobs are.  Because, at the end of the day, gravity wins.  </p>
<p><strong>Forget the paint job, look at the engine</strong><br />
I don&#8217;t care how good the paint job is, because if the engine&#8217;s broken, the car &#8220;ain&#8217;t going nowhere&#8221;.  </p>
<p>And that&#8217;s how she was, broken from the inside out.  Despite that fact, she refused help and disdained advice, especially from those who she considered authority figures since she resented her dad so much.  While we were together, I offered help, but she refused it.</p>
<p>With her, it was beyond repair.</p>
<p>With her, I had fallen in love with the paint job&#8211;her physical shell, her beauty&#8211;and ignored the engine.  By the time I looked under the hood, I saw rust, decay, abuse, all sorts of problems.  </p>
<p>Thinking about it now, maybe the relationship was doomed to fail, to collapse under the weight of incompatibility.</p>
<p><strong>Being cheated on 4 days before Christmas</strong><br />
But finding out that I had been cheated on, 4 days before Christmas?  Then, being left on my own while you go with the guy you cheated on?  Then, having to drag you around like a corpse, like a ghost, and explain to all my family members who were hoping to meet you over the holidays that &#8220;you&#8217;re gone&#8221;, &#8220;she cheated on me&#8221;, &#8220;it&#8217;s over&#8221;.</p>
<p><strong>The worst thing about being cheated on</strong><br />
That&#8217;s the worst thing of being cheated on:  You drag around the past relationship like a corpse.  You have to explain to everyone what happened, while the cheatee is off living in a world of lies and illusion with their flavor-of-the-month.  It&#8217;s insanely inconsiderate.</p>
<p><strong>Losing your best friend</strong><br />
When you get cheated on you just don&#8217;t lose your girlfriend or boyfriend, you lose your best friend.  Someone who you once trusted is gone forever.  They&#8217;re dead.  And, essentially, you have to pretend like they&#8217;re dead because everything you knew about that person is no longer there.</p>
<p><strong>Recovery:  Trust the process</strong><br />
I&#8217;ll recover.  You, the reader, if this has happened to you, you will recover, too.  We&#8217;ll all recover.  Trust the process.  Be thankful for what you have.  Be thankful for what you got saved from!  Be open to the invitation that awaits for greater things to happen in your life.</p>
<p>Once my surprise turned to disbelief, once my anger turned to disappointment, once the love-that-I-once-had-for-you turned into apathy, I would recover.</p>
<p><strong>Quit venting and start focusing</strong><br />
In the meantime, I learned to quit venting and airing out my frustrations about you to anyone that would listen because, after a while, they tired of them.  And no one wants to be in the vicinity of a hot air balloon that&#8217;s constantly deflating.</p>
<p>Instead of venting, I would focus all that anger, sorrow, and disappointment, all that negative energy, into completing creative projects.  I would write 2 songs, complete another ebook, chew up the landscape with a ferocious grin, hang out with friends and meet new friends who actually cared about me, and meet other girls who appreciated me and treated me with respect.</p>
<p><strong>You&#8217;ll remember me</strong><br />
You&#8217;ll always remember me as &#8230;<br />
&#8220;the best boyfriend I ever had&#8221;<br />
&#8220;I&#8217;ve officially dated you longer than anyone&#8221;<br />
&#8220;too good to be true&#8221;<br />
&#8220;smokin hot&#8221;<br />
&#8220;the most handsome and cutest man in the whole world&#8221;<br />
&#8220;I love you more than anyone I&#8217;ve ever been with&#8221;<br />
and other comments that are far too explicit to leave here.</p>
<p>And anyone who comes after me will never experience <a href="http://www.howtotraveleuropecheap.com" target="_blank">the things that we did in France and Germany</a>, Paris and Berlin, working on farms, hitchhiking, black riding (taking trains without paying), making love in a 500 year old building, getting drunk on Ricard, bicycling in Berlin.  No one.  Ever.</p>
<p>You, Raegan Test, will always be looking for me in every single person you date from now on but you&#8217;ll never find me, because you destroyed the best relationship you will ever have.</p>
<div id="attachment_3089" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/041.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/041-300x225.jpg" alt="punk house in berlin, germany" title="punk house in berlin, germany" width="300" height="225" class="size-medium wp-image-3089" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">punk house in berlin, germany</p></div>
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		<title>A poet &amp; recovering heroin addict:  Adventures from Clematis Street, downtown West Palm Beach, Florida</title>
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		<pubDate>Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:22:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kris Kemp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[achieve freedom]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[It smells like someone farted in here. Maybe it's a ghost. More than likely, some swamp creature has scaled an oak tree up to my roof and has relieved itself to the sound of crickets.]]></description>
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<p>Another thing, if I had a girlfriend or gal pal to share this trailer with, then I could justify it. But, by myself, living here alone, I cannot. By girlfriend, I don&#8217;t mean sex partner either. I&#8217;m talking about something more real, a good friend, someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to be there for, to help, someone that will care about me and help me and need me. That&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve been missing&#8211;someone that needs me.</p>
<p>For the most part, most of my girlfriends have been good friends. Relationships sometimes befuddle me. I usually gravitate toward girls with problems.</p>
<p>&#8220;You have a messiah complex,&#8221; my sister Kim says. Maybe she&#8217;s right. I&#8217;m always looking for someone to help. At the same time, maybe I&#8217;m looking to control someone by finding people that are needy. Maybe I want to feel superior to them, because they have problems that are foreign to me.</p>
<p><strong>A girl at the restaurant</strong><br />
One of the last girls I slept beside was a recovering heroin addict who worked at America Restaurant. I don&#8217;t think I ever told you this story, so I&#8217;ll tell it now.</p>
<p>I worked as a cook there, running the kitchen on the late shift, from 9pm or 10pm &#8217;til 3am or 4am. One night this new girl walks by, a leggy, attractive girl with big eyes, a nice smile, and curly hair. She had an ethnic look about here, maybe she was Jewish or Israeli or part Commanche Indian, or all three or pick your favorite two, I don&#8217;t know, and she had a wild look in her eye, full of heat and life, like a propane stove that&#8217;s left on medium-high, waiting for something to cook. Maybe someone to cook.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s late and I&#8217;m stocking the kitchen, walking from the walk-in (cooler) to the line (kitchen area consisting of different stations&#8211;sautee, grill, broiler, fryer, pantry) when I see her approach.</p>
<p>&#8220;Hi,&#8221; I say politely as I pass her. She continues walking, without a word.</p>
<p>&#8220;Hey,&#8221; I comment to her. She turns around.</p>
<p>&#8220;You are rude,&#8221; I admonished. &#8220;I walked right by you, said &#8216;hi&#8217;, and you didn&#8217;t evensomuch as say &#8216;hi&#8217; back.&#8221;<br />
I pause for effect.</p>
<p>&#8220;Whatever,&#8221; I shrug.</p>
<p>She looked at me with patient eyes. Those eyes, whoa, big brown eyes, with dabs of yellow and green that flickered with intensity.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry,&#8221; she burst out in a sincere tone. &#8220;I wasn&#8217;t even paying attention. I&#8217;m sorry,&#8221; she repeated.</p>
<p>&#8220;Okay, let&#8217;s do that again. Go back there and walk by me and I&#8217;ll say &#8216;hi&#8217;.&#8221; I instruct.</p>
<p>She backs up in front of me about ten feet, then starts walking in my direction.</p>
<p>&#8220;Hi,&#8221; I greet as she passes by me.</p>
<p>&#8220;Hiiiiiiiiii!&#8221; She responds enthusiastically, her eyes melting into copper pots of chocolate love mixed with drops of golden wild honey and sprigs of fresh green mint.<br />
I approach her and give her a big hug. She responds in kind, hugging me. I lean in to kiss her and kiss her on the teeth and gently on the upper lip.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s so good to see you,&#8221; I exhale, absorbed in those giant brown eyes. &#8220;You too,&#8221; she replies. We unglue ourselves, chuckle, and return to work.</p>
<p>It turns out she was the hostess, and that was the first, maybe second or third time I saw her. That was a bold move on my part. Usually, I&#8217;m terribly shy and hate myself as I can&#8217;t even bring myself to talk to a girl that I&#8217;m attracted to, even remotely.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/The-Smiths-There-Is-A-Light-110401.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/The-Smiths-There-Is-A-Light-110401.jpg" alt="" title="The-Smiths-There-Is-A-Light-11040" width="299" height="304" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3041" /></a></p>
<p>That&#8217;s why I&#8217;ve always related to the song &#8220;There is a light that never goes out&#8221; by The Smiths. There&#8217;s probably a million-or-so kids of all ages that relate to that song, trapped by shyness, snails in their own shell, anonymously writing love letters to faceless strangers in chat rooms over the internet, scribbling poems to future husbands they hope to meet, tapping the keys of a piano as they pour their longing into a instrument of wood and strings.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/202.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/202.jpg" alt="" title="clematis street downtown west palm beach florida" width="576" height="432" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3042" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Walking home on Clematis Street</strong><br />
Later that night, I walked the girl home. We walked side by side, talking about her past, her poetry, and life in general. She lived in The Strand, a fancy apartment building on the corner of Olive and Datura, a block from Clematis, and about 150-200 walking steps from America Restaurant. Nothing was weird as I waved to the desk clerk, and we walked into the elevator, ascended to the 14th floor, and walked her to her apartment.</p>
<p>Inside, the place was a mess, strewn with beer cartons, clothes, plates. Empty liquor bottles and beer cans crowded the kitchen table. And inside, we continued talking.</p>
<p>For the most part, she talked. I listened, saying stuff like &#8220;yeah&#8221; and &#8220;I know what you mean&#8221; and going through the entire wheel-of-answers common to a one-sided conversation.</p>
<p>You spin the wheel and arrive at answers like &#8220;yeah&#8221; and &#8220;I know what you mean&#8221; and &#8220;really?&#8221; and &#8220;no kidding&#8221; and &#8220;huh&#8221; and &#8220;so, what happened?&#8221; and &#8220;wow&#8221; and &#8220;are you serious&#8221; and &#8220;right, right&#8221; and &#8220;did you call the cops?&#8221; and &#8220;that takes courage&#8221; and common verbal grenades detonating among the silence or following some confession.</p>
<p>As the conversation continued, it didn&#8217;t grow toward a fond conclusion for a hopeful answer. Instead, it became more sad. A cave looks beautiful until you&#8217;re lost inside it.</p>
<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s go on the porch. It&#8217;s not as hot,&#8221; she said. She lit cigarettes and brought out her journal, a book of poetry and thoughts, her musings about life. She brought me a glass of wine.</p>
<p>&#8220;Read it. Tell me what it means,&#8221; she asked, handing me her book.</p>
<p><strong>A balcony in downtown West Palm Beach, Florida</strong><br />
I read it while she looked out over the balcony, relaxing to her cigarettes. Outside, the air was humid, and the view consisted of 5-story buildings, empty and forlon, jutting up like tombstones over the washed yellow of the street lamps, solemnly guarding the empty streets of downtown West Palm Beach. In short, the view was uninspiring, and served to match the lonely melancholy that had the atmosphere between us.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/smoking_on_the_balcony_by_maanuu.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/smoking_on_the_balcony_by_maanuu.jpg" alt="" title="smoking_on_the_balcony_by_maanuu" width="300" height="200" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-3043" /></a></p>
<p>As she stepped outside with her cigarettes, handing me the glass of Merlot, and putting the pacifier to her mouth, she looked sexy. Silently, she inhaled, her lovely cheekbones pursing, the cigarette glowing brightly, her eyes becoming squinty. Her uninhibited nature was attractive to me.</p>
<p>&#8220;I think what you meant by this line &#8230; &#8221; I rambled, piecing her puzzled words together. By the end of 30-to-45 minutes, I was exhausted.</p>
<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m tired, can I crash here?&#8221; I asked.</p>
<p>&#8220;Sure. You can sleep on the floor, or you can sleep in the bed, if you don&#8217;t mind sleeping beside me. But you have to sleep on the wall side.&#8221;</p>
<p>&#8220;Okay,&#8221; I replied drowsily. I stepped inside.</p>
<p>She closed the sliding glass doors to the balcony. I stepped inside, took off my chef pants. Then, I take off my shirt. Standing there, in boxer shorts, I slipped under the covers of her bed, with my back toward the wall.</p>
<p>To continue reading, <a href="http://kriskemp.webs.com/confessions%20of%20a%2035%2Dyear%20old.pdf" target="_blank">click here</a>  (This journal gets kind of racy.  You have been warned.)</p>
<p>To read my other journals, <a href="http://www.bicycledays.com" target="_blank">click here</a></p>
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		<title>Quote:  Never Hang Your Hopes Onto One Star</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:54:04 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kris Kemp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[achieve freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[constellation]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[A quote:  Never hang your hopes onto one star.  ]]></description>
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<p>Never hang your hopes on one star.  Because if you do, and that one star falls, your world will fall with it.  It may turn out to be a shooting star or it may turn into a collapsed star, a black hole, that sucks the life out of everything in its path.  Instead, spread your hopes over an entire constellation.  Then, once you connect the dots, you can make a picture of how you want your life to be.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/night-sky-2.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/night-sky-2-1024x682.jpg" alt="inspirational quotes, quotes to live by, motivational quotes, overcoming depression, depression remedies, cure for depression" title="night sky 2" width="620" height="412" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-3018" /></a></p>
<p><strong>For more of my writings</strong><br />
Check out <a href="http://www.bicycledays.com" target="_blank">http://www.bicycledays.com</a></p>
<p><strong>For more quotes</strong><br />
Check out <a href="http://kriskemp.webs.com/bookofquotes.doc%20%28WP%29.pdf" target="_blank">http://kriskemp.webs.com/bookofquotes.doc%20%28WP%29.pdf</a></p>
<p><strong>To listen to some songs that God has given me</strong><br />
Check out <a href="http://www.nimbitmusic.com/outofthewilderness.1/#outofthewilderness.1" target="_blank">http://www.nimbitmusic.com/outofthewilderness.1/#outofthewilderness.1</a></p>
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		<title>How to Drive without car insurance and without tags:  Right to Travel</title>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:16:36 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kris Kemp</dc:creator>
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		<description><![CDATA[Is it possible to drive a car without a driver's license and without car insurance?  The answers to these questions might surprise you and, if you put them into action, save you thousands of dollars that you can use for something fun.  Warning:  Reading this might make you very angry so read at your own risk.]]></description>
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<p>Is it possible to drive a car without having <strong>car insurance</strong>?  Is it possible to drive a car without a driver&#8217;s license?  Is it illegal to drive a car without car insurance and without a driver&#8217;s license?</p>
<p>And why would you want to do either of these anyway?  Aren&#8217;t both of these requirements necessary to ensure that safe driver&#8217;s are out there and, that if you get into an accident, both parties are enabled to exchange <strong>car insurance information</strong> in order to resolve the situation?</p>
<p>I&#8217;m going to start by telling you a personal story that led me to get an interest in this.  Then, I&#8217;ll give you some interesting information, valuable website links, and videos that are worth watching.  </p>
<p><strong>You have the right to travel</strong><br />
I believe that you can drive a car without a driver&#8217;s license and without car insurance.  I believe this enough that I&#8217;ve gotten all my paperwork, my driver&#8217;s information, in order and even notarized.  The reason why I have not put this into practice, however, is because if I get pulled over for not having a license by a well-meaning, but unknowing police officer, and if I get issued a court date, that takes a 3-4 hour chunk out of my day somewhere down the road.  And I&#8217;m not interested in having my life swallowed up by the court system and the merry-go-round of being issued tickets and court dates.</p>
<p><strong>Getting a ticket for an illegal u-turn</strong><br />
About two months ago, I got a ticket, for $166, for an illegal u-turn.  It was a ridiculous ticket because it was around 1:30am, there was no traffic around, and there was no &#8220;injured party&#8221;.</p>
<p>Then, the cop runs my license, returns with it, and tells me that it&#8217;s suspended.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/stop-lead.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/stop-lead.jpg" alt="" title="cop traffic stop " width="533" height="429" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2974" /></a></p>
<p><strong>cop:</strong>  Your license is suspended.</p>
<p><strong>me:</strong>  What do you mean?  How is it suspended?</p>
<p><strong>cop:</strong>  I don&#8217;t know.  You&#8217;ll have to call your insurance.  Have you been paying on it?</p>
<p><strong>me:</strong>  No, because I have not owned a car for months.  </p>
<p><strong>cop:</strong>  You have to contact your insurance company and go to the DMV.  Then you have to go to court.</p>
<p><strong>me:</strong>  Uhhh. </p>
<p><strong>Geico cancels car insurance</strong><br />
It was a few weeks before Christmas, and my life was about to enter suckworld.  The next day, I contact my former insurance provider, Geico, and explain what happened. They send me an email informing me that when I no longer operate a motor vehicle, I have to send a notice, stating such.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/geico.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/geico.jpg" alt="" title="geico car insurance sucks" width="420" height="403" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2973" /></a></p>
<p>I e-mail them asking why this is necessary?  If I do not own a car, then I do not need to have car insurance.</p>
<p>They reply, saying that I have to send in a statement, with a power of attorney or some legal bs that proves I no longer own a car.  Technically, the Geico rep says, they do not have to give notice.</p>
<p>I visit the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and they run my license and then mention that Geico informs the DMV when you no longer pay for car insurance.  At this point, the DMV suspends your license.</p>
<p><strong>Procedures for letting car insurance expire</strong><br />
So, even though I do not own a car, unless I send in this legal statement proving I do not own a car, then my license will be suspended.  What a racket!  This is extortion.</p>
<p><strong>Turning in my driver&#8217;s license</strong><br />
It was a few days before Christmas that I&#8217;m in the courthouse for two hours waiting to see the judge.  The fees for illegal u-turn and suspended driver&#8217;s license was around $450.  What a waste of money.  I had to turn in my license, too.</p>
<p>Why did I turn in my license?  To get it reinstated would have cost more money, and the cost of my car insurance, even after I get it reinstated, since it has been suspended, would go up from $40 a month to $200 &#8211; $250 a month.</p>
<p><strong>Bicycling instead of driving</strong><br />
Forget that.  I&#8217;ll bicycle.  The world looks better from a bicycle.  Even if you&#8217;re riding around the buckled sidewalks and broken-glass-strewn streets of West Palm Beach, Florida.  Bicycling puts you in a better mood.  I&#8217;m convinced that if everyone in Palm Beach county had to bicycle for one entire month, they would be happier, healthier, and would meet a lot more people.  Cars are like living-rooms-on-wheels, especially now that they have TVs in them.  They don&#8217;t give you a chance to meet your fellow travelers.  With bicycling, you can at least say hi to them as you ride by.</p>
<p>I started doing some research on driving and found some interesting videos, posted by people who drive without a license and without car insurance.</p>
<p><strong>Is it possible to drive without a driver&#8217;s license or car insurance?</strong>1</p>
<p>It turns out that car insurance and insurance for motor vehicles is only required for those operating in commerce and for those who are government officials.</p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/p1B45HPp06g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>source:  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1B45HPp06g&#038;lc=MZBpUOX82H_TWb2zcti3TJW6TzcBoGGVJDqpfz6u0D4&#038;context=G2e6efbfFAAAAAAAAAAA&#038;feature=g-all-c" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1B45HPp06g&#038;lc=MZBpUOX82H_TWb2zcti3TJW6TzcBoGGVJDqpfz6u0D4&#038;context=G2e6efbfFAAAAAAAAAAA&#038;feature=g-all-c</a></p>
<p>Technically, you do not need a driver&#8217;s license or car insurance to drive a car.  You just need a receipt proving you own the car, and some paperwork that is &#8220;driver&#8217;s information&#8221;.</p>
<p>The only people required to have a driver&#8217;s license are government officials and those &#8220;operating in commerce&#8221;, meaning they are delivering goods or services to people via their motor vehicles.  Most of us do not fall into that category, therefore most of us are not required to have car insurance or a driver&#8217;s license.</p>
<p><strong>Cops are revenue collectors for their state</strong><br />
Cops don&#8217;t know this because, essentially, they are revenue collectors for the state.  That&#8217;s why a ticket for an &#8220;illegal u-turn&#8221; is $166.  Who is the injured party?  The State of Florida.  If so, let the State of Florida take the stand.  It obviously cannot.  Since there is no injured party, no crime has been committed.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/police_and_corporate_enforcement_officer_400.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/police_and_corporate_enforcement_officer_400.jpg" alt="" title="police_and_corporate_enforcement_officer_400" width="400" height="286" class="alignright size-full wp-image-2975" /></a></p>
<p><strong>1.  You do not need car insurance to drive a car.</strong><br />
This is fraud.  And cops demanding you have car insurance to drive a car turns these cops, most of whom have little or no clue about these issues, into revenue collectors.</p>
<p><strong>2.  You do not need a driver&#8217;s license to drive a car.</strong><br />
You do not have to register your car.</p>
<p>(The following article originally appears at:  <a href="http://www.apfn.org/apfn/travel.htm" target="_blank">http://www.apfn.org/apfn/travel.htm</a>)</p>
<p><strong>Right to Travel:  Driving without a license and without insurance<br />
</strong></p>
<p>For years professionals within the criminal justice system have acted on the belief that traveling by motor vehicle was a privilege that was given to a citizen only after approval by their state government in the form of a permit or license to drive. In other words, the individual must be granted the privilege before his use of the state highways was considered legal. Legislators, police officers, and court officials are becoming aware that there are court decisions that disprove the belief that driving is a privilege and therefore requires government approval in the form of a license. Presented here are some of these cases:</p>
<p>    <strong>CASE #1:</strong> &#8220;The use of the highway for the purpose of travel and transportation is not a mere privilege, but a common fundamental right of which the public and individuals cannot rightfully be deprived.&#8221; Chicago Motor Coach v. Chicago, 169 NE 221.</p>
<p>    <strong>CASE #2:</strong> &#8220;The right of the citizen to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon, either by carriage or by automobile, is not a mere privilege which a city may prohibit or permit at will, but a common law right which he has under the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.&#8221; Thompson v. Smith, 154 SE 579.</p>
<p>It could not be stated more directly or conclusively that citizens of the states have a common law right to travel, without approval or restriction (license), and that this right is protected under the U.S Constitution.</p>
<p>    <strong>CASE #3:</strong> &#8220;The right to travel is a part of the liberty of which the citizen cannot be deprived without due process of law under the Fifth Amendment.&#8221; Kent v. Dulles, 357 US 116, 125.</p>
<p>    <strong>CASE #4:</strong> &#8220;The right to travel is a well-established common right that does not owe its existence to the federal government. It is recognized by the courts as a natural right.&#8221; Schactman v. Dulles 96 App DC 287, 225 F2d 938, at 941.</p>
<p>- &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - </p>
<p><strong>If you have doubts about right to travel, watch these videos:</strong></p>
<p><strong>Part 1:  Charlie Sprinkle, driving without license for 37 years</strong></p>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fS43EIQQ7ak" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>source:  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS43EIQQ7ak&#038;NR=1&#038;feature=endscreen" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS43EIQQ7ak&#038;NR=1&#038;feature=endscreen</a></p>
<p><strong>Part 2:  Charlie Sprinkle, driving without license for 37 years</strong></p>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oFgQnp9_IqE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFgQnp9_IqE&#038;feature=related" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFgQnp9_IqE&#038;feature=related</a></p>
<p><strong>Part 3:  Charlie Sprinkle, driving without license for 37 years</strong></p>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eQzSXgbs108" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>source:  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQzSXgbs108&#038;feature=related" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQzSXgbs108&#038;feature=related</a></p>
<p>- &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - </p>
<p><strong>Americans have the right to travel without a license or insurance</strong><br />
As hard as it is for those of us in law enforcement to believe, there is no room for speculation in these court decisions. American citizens do indeed have the inalienable right to use the roadways unrestricted in any manner as long as they are not damaging or violating property or rights of others.</p>
<p><strong>You&#8217;ve been lied to by your government</strong><br />
Government &#8212; in requiring the people to obtain drivers licenses, and accepting vehicle inspections and DUI/DWI roadblocks without question &#8212; is restricting, and therefore violating, the people&#8217;s common law right to travel.</p>
<p><strong>Right to travel</strong><br />
Is this a new legal interpretation on this subject? Apparently not. This means that the beliefs and opinions our state legislators, the courts, and those in law enforcement have acted upon for years have been in error. Researchers armed with actual facts state that case law is overwhelming in determining that to restrict the movement of the individual in the free exercise of his right to travel is a serious breach of those freedoms secured by the U.S. Constitution and most state constitutions. That means it is unlawful.</p>
<p><strong>Watch this video:  Guy gets pulled over by cop and hands the cop his driver&#8217;s information.  (I have this paperwork.  E-mail me at: bicycledays@yahoo.com if you want me to send it to you.)  This guy has no driver&#8217;s license and his tag is a paper tag that he made himself.  Cop let&#8217;s him go.</strong></p>
<p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/X9k-cblUUR8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>source:  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9k-cblUUR8&#038;feature=related" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9k-cblUUR8&#038;feature=related</a></p>
<p>The revelation that the American citizen has always had the inalienable right to travel raises profound questions for those who are involved in making and enforcing state laws. The first of such questions may very well be this: If the states have been enforcing laws that are unconstitutional on their face, it would seem that there must be some way that a state can legally put restrictions &#8212; such as licensing requirements, mandatory insurance, vehicle registration, vehicle inspections to name just a few &#8212; on a citizen&#8217;s constitutionally protected rights. Is that so?  </p>
<p>For the answer, let us look, once again, to the U.S. courts for a determination of this very issue. In Hertado v. California, 110 US 516, the U.S Supreme Court states very plainly:</p>
<p>    <strong>&#8220;The state cannot diminish rights of the people.&#8221;</strong>  </p>
<p>And in Bennett v. Boggs, 1 Baldw 60,</p>
<p>   <strong> &#8220;Statutes that violate the plain and obvious principles of common right and common reason are null and void.&#8221;</strong></p>
<p>Would we not say that these judicial decisions are straight to the point &#8212; that there is no lawful method for government to put restrictions or limitations on rights belonging to the people? Other cases are even more straight forward:</p>
<p>    <strong>&#8220;The assertion of federal rights, when plainly and reasonably made, is not to be defeated under the name of local practice.&#8221; Davis v. Wechsler, 263 US 22, at 24</p>
<p>    &#8220;Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them.&#8221; Miranda v. Arizona, 384 US 436, 491.</p>
<p>    &#8220;The claim and exercise of a constitutional right cannot be converted into a crime.&#8221; Miller v. US, 230 F 486, at 489.</p>
<p>    There can be no sanction or penalty imposed upon one because of this exercise of constitutional rights.&#8221; Sherer v. Cullen, 481 F 946</p>
<p>We could go on, quoting court decision after court decision; however, the Constitution itself answers our question &#8211; Can a government legally put restrictions on the rights of the American people at anytime, for any reason? The answer is found in Article Six of the U.S. Constitution:</p>
<p>    &#8220;This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof;&#8230;shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or laws of any State to the Contrary not one word withstanding.&#8221;</strong></p>
<p>In the same Article, it says just who within our government that is bound by this Supreme Law:</p>
<p>    &#8220;The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution&#8230;&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>Freeman gets pulled over and does not consent</strong></p>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/4ADVuu9cNPM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>source:  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ADVuu9cNPM&#038;feature=related" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ADVuu9cNPM&#038;feature=related</a></p>
<p>Here&#8217;s an interesting question.  Is ignorance of these laws an excuse for such acts by officials? If we are to follow the letter of the law, (as we are sworn to do), this places officials who involve themselves in such unlawful acts in an unfavorable legal situation. <strong>For it is a felony and federal crime to violate or deprive citizens of their constitutionally protected rights.</strong><br />
Our system of law dictates that there are only two ways to legally remove a right belonging to the people. These are:</p>
<p>   <strong>1. by lawfully amending the constitution, or<br />
   2. by a person knowingly waiving a particular right.</strong></p>
<p>Some of the confusion on our present system has arisen because many millions of people have waived their right to travel unrestricted and volunteered into the jurisdiction of the state. Those who have knowingly given up these rights are now legally regulated by state law and must acquire the proper permits and registrations. There are basically two groups of people in this category: </p>
<p>   <strong>1. Citizens who involve themselves in commerce upon the highways of the state.</strong><br />
Here is what the courts have said about this: &#8220;&#8230;For while a citizen has the right to travel upon the public highways and to transport his property thereon, that right does not extend to the use of the highways&#8230;as a place for private gain. For the latter purpose, no person has a vested right to use the highways of this state, but it is a privilege&#8230;which the (state) may grant or withhold at its discretion&#8230;&#8221; State v. Johnson, 245 P 1073. There are many court cases that confirm and point out the difference between the right of the citizen to travel and a government privilege and there are numerous other court decisions that spell out the jurisdiction issue in these two distinctly different activities. However, because of space restrictions, we will leave it to officers to research it further for themselves.</p>
<p>2. The second group of citizens that is legally under the jurisdiction of the state are those citizens who <strong>have voluntarily and knowingly waived their right to travel</strong> unregulated and unrestricted by requesting placement under such jurisdiction
<ul>
through the acquisition of a state driver&#8217;s license, vehicle registration, mandatory insurance</ul>
<p>, etc. (In other words, by contract.)</p>
<p>We should remember what makes this legal and not a violation of the common law right to travel is that they knowingly volunteer by contract to waive their rights. If they were forced, coerced or unknowingly placed under the state&#8217;s powers, the courts have said it is a clear violation of their rights. This in itself raises a very interesting question.</p>
<p><strong>Legally drive without a license</strong></p>
<p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/tOlh2rrEmF8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>source:  <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOlh2rrEmF8&#038;feature=related" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOlh2rrEmF8&#038;feature=related</a></p>
<p>What percentage of the people in each state have applied for and received licenses, registrations and obtained insurance after erroneously being advised by their government that it was mandatory? </p>
<p>Many of our courts, attorneys and police officials are just becoming informed about this important issue and the difference between privileges and rights. We can assume that the majority of those Americans carrying state licenses and vehicle registrations have no knowledge of the rights they waived in obeying laws such as these that the U.S. Constitution clearly states are unlawful, i.e. laws of no effect &#8211; laws that are not laws at all.</p>
<p><strong>Police officers should protect Constitutional Rights</strong><br />
An area of serious consideration for every police officer is to understand that the most important law in our land which he has taken an oath to protect, defend, and enforce, is not state laws and city or county ordinances, but the law that supersedes all other laws &#8212; the U.S. Constitution. If laws in a particular state or local community conflict with the supreme law of our nation, there is no question that the officer&#8217;s duty is to uphold the U.S. Constitution.</p>
<p>Every police officer should keep the following U.S. court ruling &#8212; discussed earlier &#8212; in mind before issuing citations concerning licensing, registration, and insurance:</p>
<p>   <strong> &#8220;The claim and exercise of a constitutional right cannot be converted into a crime.&#8221; Miller v. US, 230 F 486, 489. </strong></p>
<p>And as we have seen, traveling freely, going about one&#8217;s daily activities, is the exercise of a most basic right. </p>
<p>Learn how to drive without a driver&#8217;s license and without car insurance.  Educate yourself by searching on Google and YouTube for &#8220;right to travel&#8221;.</p>
<p>Read the articles.  Watch the videos.  Get informed and take action.</p>
<p><strong>Drive without a license, insurance, tag, registration</strong><br />
If you want to know more about right to travel, follow me on Twitter by <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ownlesslivemore" target="_blank">clicking here</a> and add yourself as a Facebook friend <a href="http://www.facebook.com/kris.kemp1" target="_blank">by clicking here</a> and following me <a href="http://www.facebook.com/ownless.livemore?ref=ts" target="_blank">by clicking here</a> to a bunch of free information, including PDFs, ebooks, paperwork that you can use to drive without a license.</strong></p>
<p><strong>Share this with others</strong><br />
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		<title>Making Money Online:  How to Build Wealth and Earn More Money</title>
		<link>http://kriskemp.com/making-money-online-how-to-build-wealth-and-earn-more-money/</link>
		<comments>http://kriskemp.com/making-money-online-how-to-build-wealth-and-earn-more-money/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:34:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kris Kemp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[achieve freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[demonstrate value]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[build wealth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[building wealth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[earn money online]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[earn more money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[how to build wealth]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[how to earn more money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[how to get rich]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[how to make money online]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[making money online]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kriskemp.com/?p=2928</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you're trying to build wealth and earn more money, I'm going to share some simple, but powerful techniques you can incorporate that will help you do both of these--build wealth and earn more money.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>If you&#8217;re trying to <strong>build wealth and earn more money</strong>, I&#8217;m going to share some simple, but powerful techniques you can incorporate that will help you do both of these&#8211;build wealth and earn more money.</p>
<p>If you want to earn more money, get rich, make more money, you&#8217;ve got to start by remembering this next sentence.</p>
<p>If you expect other people to make you ________, you&#8217;ll always be un_______.</p>
<p>In other words, if you expect other people to make you rich, you&#8217;ll always be unrich.  If you expect other people to make you wealthy, you&#8217;ll always be unwealthy.</p>
<p>If you want to earn money, don&#8217;t expect other people to help you earn money.  They&#8217;ve got their own set of goals and agendas.  If you want to earn money, you&#8217;ve got to realize that it&#8217;s up to you to do this.</p>
<p><strong>So how do you build wealth and earn more money?</strong></p>
<p>The principles are simple.  It&#8217;s the execution that requires discipline and tenacity.</p>
<p><strong>Demonstrate value</strong><br />
The way you can earn more money is by demonstrating more value.  Find out what people want and what they&#8217;re willing to pay for it, and then provide them that product or service.</p>
<p>The more value you demonstrate + a market ready to buy your product or service = earning more money.</p>
<p>If you have an interest in something, find out if others are interested in that something to, and if they will buy an e-book or hire a consultant to teach them about that interest.  </p>
<p>Then, develop that interest by learning more about it.  There&#8217;s a plethora of free ebooks online and the library is a great resource for learning more.  A lot of people don&#8217;t have time to learn what you can learn, and will gladly pay you to share your knowledge with them.</p>
<p>Whatever you do, don&#8217;t give away your knowledge for free because if it&#8217;s free, people don&#8217;t value it.</p>
<p><strong>How to Make Money Online</strong><br />
If you want to make money online, find out what people are searching for, and then sell them that product or service.  </p>
<p>To find out what people are looking for, visit <a href="https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1000000000&#038;__c=1000000000&#038;ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS#search.none" target="_blank">https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1000000000&#038;__c=1000000000&#038;ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS#search.none</a></p>
<p>Type in the keywords and do a search.  You&#8217;ll see how many people are searching for something that involves that keyword.  Then, find a product that is related to that keyword.</p>
<p>For example, you could search for the keywords &#8220;hair vitamins&#8221; and find how many people are searching for products that include &#8220;hair vitamins&#8221; in their search.  A lot of people are concerned about having healthy hair.  Write some articles about a product that helps to strengthen &#8220;hair vitamins&#8221; and sell an affiliate product.  Rinse and repeat.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s one of the ways to make money online.</p>
<p><strong>Writing an Ebook</strong><br />
Another way to make money online is to write an ebook.  If you can write an ebook (a digital book) that provides a solution to people&#8217;s problems, and if there&#8217;s a market for it, you can make money online.</p>
<p>I have a lot of interests that share the common theme of freedom&#8211;health freedom, time freedom, financial freedom.  And I like helping people.  So, I&#8217;ve developed these interests by learning more about them, distilling the ideas into ebooks that provide solutions to people&#8217;s problems.</p>
<p>So far, I have 3 ebooks.  You can see them by clicking on the links below.  Another window will open.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flipfloridaland.com" target="_blank">Make Big Profits Flipping Florida Land</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.theshiftdiet.com" target="_blank">The Shift Diet</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.howtotraveleuropecheap.com" target="_blank">How to Travel Europe Cheap</a></p>
<p><strong>Building Wealth</strong><br />
If you want to build wealth, you must remember this one simple rule, and then put it into action:  Invest in assets instead of liabilities.  In other words, put your money into things that will earn you more money.  In a conventional sense, you would want to invest in real estate because, despite the market slump, people still need a place to live.  Also, you could invest in precious metals like gold and silver, and stocks, if you&#8217;re willing to study the market.</p>
<p>If necessary, make the sacrifices to invest in assets.  A few years ago, I lived in a tent, in my sister&#8217;s backyard, for about a year.  I was working at the time, and living this way allowed me to pay off a mortgage on a property in North Florida.  After paying off the mortgage, I sold the property, on payments, and now I earn money every month from it.</p>
<p>Anyone can do this.  It&#8217;s just a matter of wanting to do it.  For me, I was motivated by freedom, to be free of this mortgage and to have more freedom in life, by getting checks to my mailbox every month, so I could pursue more creative interests, like <a href="http://www.dumpsterdivermusical.com" target="_blank">producing a musical that I finished</a> a few years ago.  God willing, I&#8217;ll be able to produce this in Brooklyn, New York before the end of 2012.</p>
<p><strong>Don&#8217;t buy this, buy this</strong><br />
If you want to build wealth, don&#8217;t buy a lot of clothes, don&#8217;t eat at restaurants, don&#8217;t buy a fancy car or fancy flat screen TVs.  Instead, put your money into something will produce more money.  You could even loan it out, at 10% interest to someone in need, someone who you trust will pay you back.  10% interest exceeds the measly 1.5% interest banks offer.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/earn-money-online.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/earn-money-online.jpg" alt="" title="earn-money-online" width="520" height="302" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2958" /></a></p>
<p>If you want to make money online and earn more money, demonstrate more value.  Find out what people want, make sure they are willing to pay for it, and offer that product or service to them.</p>
<p><strong>Learn how to make money online</strong><br />
If you really want to know how to make money online, sign up at <a href="http://www.makebigprofits.net" target="_blank">Make Big Profits</a>.  It&#8217;s completely free to sign up.  Once you do, you&#8217;ll get $1,375 worth of ebooks that show you how to make money online.  I&#8217;ve been collecting these ebooks and decided to give them away because I like helping people.  If you read them and put them into practice, you can make money online and even earn money by acting as a consultant, showing others how to make money online, too.</p>
<p>Help others learn <strong>how to build wealth and earn more money</strong>.  Share this by clicking the share buttons below. </p>
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		<title>My manifesto for 2012:  Change the course of history</title>
		<link>http://kriskemp.com/my-manifesto-for-2012/</link>
		<comments>http://kriskemp.com/my-manifesto-for-2012/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:59:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kris Kemp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[achieve freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[becoming minimalist]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[demonstrate value]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[2012]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[aspirations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[change the course of history]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[change the future]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[everything's about to change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[goals]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inspirational articles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[inspirational sayings]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[manifesto]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new years resolution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reset the compass]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kriskemp.com/?p=2937</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My manifesto for 2012.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1>i&#8217;m going to change the course<br />
of history. when i&#8217;ve finished with<br />
this place, they&#8217;re going to have to<br />
reset the compass, add an extra 1/2<br />
hour to the day, put another element<br />
into the periodic table. everything&#8217;s<br />
about to change</h1>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/kris-jumping.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/kris-jumping.jpg" alt="" title="kris jumping loqueffret france photo by raegan test" width="640" height="480" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2947" /></a></p>
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		<title>Exploring the Caves of Clematis Street, West Palm Beach, Florida:  Why You&#8217;re Bored</title>
		<link>http://kriskemp.com/exploring-the-caves-of-clematis-street-west-palm-beach-florida-why-youre-bored/</link>
		<comments>http://kriskemp.com/exploring-the-caves-of-clematis-street-west-palm-beach-florida-why-youre-bored/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:12:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kris Kemp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[achieve freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[become more interesting]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[best blog in the world]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bored]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[boring]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cares]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[cigarettes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[clematis street]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coffee]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[dancing]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[do you want to know why]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[downtown]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[florida]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[france]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[get off facebook]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[interesting blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[johnny depp]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[less]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nutritional]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[personal blog]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[respectable street cafe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sex with people]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[trivial]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[west palm beach]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wpb]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[you don't care about]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[you're bored]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kriskemp.com/?p=2905</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Do you want to know why ... you get drunk so often?  You smoke too many cigarettes?  You drink too much coffee?  You've been eating too much?  You have sex with people you don't care about?  You're addicted to donuts, those nutritional handcuffs that you pay for?  Do you want to know why?]]></description>
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<p><strong>Exploring the caves of Clematis Street</strong></p>
<p>Sitting there, talking to her, I knew I would leave with her number.  She was beautiful.  And I was consumed by both lust and poverty.</p>
<p>I was drunk from 2 PBR&#8217;s at the local progressive dance club that acted as a broken-elevator-with-better-music, girls using lit cigarettes like flashlights to guide their way through the sweaty mob, and all the guys, trying to be different in a display of displaced irony, even though they all dressed, essentially, the same&#8211;a uniform of a plaid button up collar shirt, long sleeves rolled up to the elbow to show off their tattoos, skinny jeans, facial hair and those flat black shoes.</p>
<p>I didn&#8217;t even know who this girl was, but I did know that I&#8217;m a good conversationalist, I&#8217;m handsome and have a nice body (girls and girlfriends have told me this), have no problem approaching beautiful girls, and didn&#8217;t really care if she gave me her number or not.  The person who cares less is the winner.</p>
<p>I usually didn&#8217;t drink, which meant that I was a cheap drunk.  2 PBR&#8217;s in my belly turned me into an unstoppable charm machine.  I was approaching girls left and right, and I didn&#8217;t care about the outcome, which made me all the more dangerous.  The beer put a magnifying glass on my personality, turning me into George Clooney with the wit of Oscar Wilde.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that I didn&#8217;t care.  My intention was to remind myself that people liked me.  And they do.</p>
<p>While talking to her, I was qualifying her and making her laugh.  Here&#8217;s how the conversation went:</p>
<p>Her:  So what do you do?<br />
Me:  A lot of things.<br />
Her:  What&#8217;s your job?<br />
Me:  I&#8217;m a lion tamer.<br />
Her:  (laughing) No you&#8217;re not.<br />
Me:  but that&#8217;s only on the side.  You?<br />
Her:  I work in retail.  I&#8217;ve been working retail for 8 years.<br />
Me:  That&#8217;s a shame.<br />
Her:  (laughing)  That&#8217;s not nice.<br />
Me:  I&#8217;m just being honest.<br />
Her:  But I have a dream, though, I want to &#8230;</p>
<p>I got her number and the numbers of a few other girls.  Two days later, after washing my pants, which I usually do once very six months, I found the papers with numbers in the dryer, unreadable.  Oh well.  Their loss.</p>
<p>- &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; - </p>
<p><strong>I’m going to connect the dots of the possibilities and change the world, change the course of history. When I’m through with it, they’re going to have to reset the compass and add another element to the periodic table.</strong></p>
<p>- &#8211; - &#8211; - &#8211; -</p>
<p>On Facebook she sent a friend request, which I accepted.  Immediately, she FB&#8217;ed chatted me asking why my status said I was in a relationship.  </p>
<p>Her:  Why does your FB status say you&#8217;re in a relationship?<br />
Me:  Because I am.<br />
Her:  With who?<br />
Me:  Cool girls.  And my dreams.<br />
Her:  Sure. (adding a wink)<br />
Me:  I&#8217;m going to connect the dots of the possibilities and change the world, change the course of history.  When I&#8217;m through with it, they&#8217;re going to have to reset the compass and add another element to the periodic table.<br />
Her:  What are you talking about?<br />
Me:  I have to go.</p>
<p>I wasn&#8217;t interested in being the plumber of pipe dreams for someone else, nor was I interested in explaining myself to someone who was happy working a job for years that had little meaning for her.</p>
<p>Florida.  West Palm Beach.  Waste Palm Beach.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/johnny-depp-pirates-of-the-caribbean.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/johnny-depp-pirates-of-the-caribbean.jpg" alt="" title="johnny-depp-pirates-of-the-caribbean" width="400" height="400" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2912" /></a></p>
<p>Like seashells (that&#8217;s a horrible simile, isn&#8217;t it), so many washed up souls find their way to Florida expecting something to happen but they get stranded here like castaways, hoping to star in their own movie.</p>
<p>Well, I&#8217;m here to tell you something:  There is no movie.  You will not be in the next Pirates of the Caribbean.  And Johnny Depp, because he&#8217;s smarter than you, lives in France.</p>
<p><strong>Do you want to know why?</strong></p>
<p>Do you want to know why &#8230; you get drunk so often?  You smoke too many cigarettes?  You drink too much coffee?  You&#8217;ve been eating too much?  You have sex with people you don&#8217;t care about?  You&#8217;re addicted to donuts, those nutritional handcuffs that you pay for?  Do you want to know why?</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll tell you why:  Because you&#8217;re bored.</p>
<p>And you&#8217;re bored because you&#8217;re lazy.  </p>
<p>Change your state.  Change your emotional state, physical state, spiritual state, mental state.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/fc-jack.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/fc-jack.jpg" alt="" title="fight club" width="359" height="517" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-2913" /></a></p>
<p>Read.  Learn a new language.  Begin playing a musical instrument and practice, every day, for an hour.  Do pushups.  Go swimming, in the ocean, naked.  Buy <a href="http://www.theshiftdiet.com" target="_blank">my ebook</a> and get healthy.  Drop the losers in your life.  Leave America for a while.  Take the bus.  Learn how to buy real estate, and get checks in the mailbox, so that you can work from anywhere, <a href="http://www.flipfloridaland.com" target="_blank">like I do.</a>  Hop a train.  Stand up for yourself, even if you have to get in a fight.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re bored, it&#8217;s your fault because you&#8217;re a boring person.</p>
<p>If you&#8217;re a boring person, it&#8217;s time for you to do something.</p>
<p><strong>Do something different = become someone different</strong></p>
<p>Turn off the TV.  Get off of Facebook.  Quit talking about stupid stuff that doesn&#8217;t matter.</p>
<p>Start talking about <a href="http://www.abundance-101.com" target="_blank">stuff that does matter.</a>  Concepts.  Ideas.  </p>
<p>Eliminate the trivial.  Look at the bigger picture.</p>
<p>Do something different and become someone different.</p>
<p>Push yourself.  Forward.  Never look back.</p>
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		<title>Boynton Beach Veterans Assisted Living Facility:  Shut it Down</title>
		<link>http://kriskemp.com/boynton-beach-veterans-assisted-living-facility-shut-it-down/</link>
		<comments>http://kriskemp.com/boynton-beach-veterans-assisted-living-facility-shut-it-down/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 21:03:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Kris Kemp</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[achieve freedom]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[alan patrusevich]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[assisted living facility]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[boynton beach]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[florida]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[florida assisted living facilities]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mistreatment]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[veterans]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kriskemp.com/?p=2901</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Boynton Beach Assisted Living Facility operates more like a prison than assisted living.  This story was originally published months ago, then yanked when I received threats that Alan Patrusevich, one of the people living there, would be kicked out unless the story was pulled.  Alan does not live there any longer.  So, the story is going back up.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><strong>A live/work space for artists</strong><br />
In the mid-to-late 1990&#8242;s, and even through early 2003, the artists, musicians, drifter, dreamers and visionaries of downtown West Palm Beach, Florida knew of or had known someone from &#8220;the hut&#8221;, a series of quonset huts that housed artists live/work spaces.</p>
<p><strong>Unarmed Underground Art Centre</strong><br />
Also known as the Unarmed Underground Art Centre (in a friendly, if somewhat harmless and dismissive nod to the Armory Art Centre, it&#8217;s more play-by-the-rules counterpart in the same area&#8211;Flamingo Park) and Flamingo Art Studios, the quonset huts was known for it&#8217;s renegade art shows, makeshift studios, and the interesting people who lived within the walls of this warehouse shelter some 50 feet west of the railroad tracks.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/46970_429431001783_697591783_5691311_4131116_n.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/46970_429431001783_697591783_5691311_4131116_n-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="46970_429431001783_697591783_5691311_4131116_n" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2103" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Alan Patrusevich</strong><br />
In the early 1990&#8242;s all the way into a few years shy of 2005, Alan Patrusevich, was the benevolent director of the Unarmed Underground Art Center (UUAC), an artists living/work space that inhabited a quonset hut at 502 Kanuga Street, in Flamingo Park, an historic district of West Palm Beach, Florida.</p>
<p>Patrusevich, a self described multimedia artist and entrepreneur, who also is an antiques restoration expert, engineer, and former machinist/steam propulsion engineer in the Navy, was the director of the Unarmed Underground Art Center (UUAC), also known as &#8220;the hut&#8221; and Flamingo Art Studios, up until the mid-2000&#8242;s.</p>
<p><strong>The end of the hut</strong><br />
Over the years, pressure from the downtown West Palm Beach code enforcement, rumored complaints from Flamingo Park residents, and surprise visits from city officials mounted into a giant bureaucratic tsunami that, combined with several missed payments on the monthly mortgage, pushed Alan into selling the run down factory-of-dreams.</p>
<p>Eventually, the dust would settle.  The artists, musicians, dreamers, drifters and slackers who had boarded this ship and set up residence, with Alan Patrusevich at the helm, one hand on the wheel, another hand holding a Lucky Strike, while he searched for the elusive whale called Freedom, in his own take on Captain Ahab, would go elsewhere looking for inspiration and shelter and connection in this world, a world of tears falling like raindrops into the oceans of our dreams.</p>
<p><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/49xY6zfw6Rk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p><strong>The hut, the space</strong><br />
Soon after the hut fell from mounting pressure from the inside, and collapsed under its own weight from the inside turmoil.  It&#8217;s no surprise that this collective living space ended, as it was a social engine, pushing out sparks, a byproduct of putting together 20 very different personalities inside a leaking warehouse.  The physical space was an experiment itself, as it was held together by aluminum sheets and termite-ridden wood beams, arching overhead like ribs in the whale, and all of us, perhaps, inside the belly of this beached whale &#8211; rivers of water on the floor with boards laid down for makeshift walkways, dangling extension cords in all directions like drunken, rubber orange spider webs, extending from the few valuable and overloaded outlets, industrial machines, art supplies sitting next to half-eaten plates of food</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/073.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/073-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="073" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2128" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Between then and now</strong><br />
A few years ago, Alan was in New Jersey, living with his parents.  About a year or so ago, he returned to West Palm Beach, and was living with artist Jack Barry.  At some point, due to a medical issue, Alan was put into the Veterans Administration center in West Palm Beach, Florida.  A few months ago, he was transferred from there to Boynton Beach Veterans Assisted Living Facility (VALF).</p>
<p>Out of respect for Alan&#8217;s kindness to me over the years, as well as others wanting to know how he is, I decided to visit Alan, interview him and take some pictures, in order to share them at this website.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/051.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/051-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="051" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2107" /></a></p>
<p>Initially, the interview was intended as a way for Alan to express himself to those whose lives he&#8217;d touched over the years, since the Boynton Beach Veterans Assisted Living Facility (VALF) does not have internet for it&#8217;s residents.  This interview, however, turned into something else.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/050.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/050-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="050" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2106" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Boynton Beach Veterans Assisted Living Facility</strong><br />
The Boynton Beach Veterans Assisted Living Facility (VALF) is located at 1708 NE 4th Street, just south of Gateway Boulevard, in Boynton Beach, Florida.  Usually, assisted living facilities are on main roads, with well-kept gardens out front, vast parking, and a big sign advertising their presence.</p>
<p>This is nothing like that.  It&#8217;s appears to be in a residential/commercial mixed use zone, as residential houses line the west side of the street and commercial buildings, including the VALF line the other side of the street.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/063.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/063-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="063" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2119" /></a></p>
<p><strong>A veterans center or a low budget horror film?</strong><br />
From the outside the VALF looks like an abandoned train station, a one story building, run down, with a small parking lot.  No well kept gardens.  No big sign advertising what it is.  When you enter the building, you&#8217;re greeted by a lobby with high ceilings, a dining room on the right, a TV room on your left, and directly ahead a counter with a sign in sheet.  Imagine if the &#8220;The Shining&#8221; was done on a lower budget in a run-down section of Florida, this is the hotel they would use.</p>
<p>Parked in the TV room are people in wheelchairs, gazing at the glowing screen and others asleep, bundled under blankets, some standing, mumbling to themselves.  It&#8217;s a scene out of &#8220;One Flew Over the Cuckoo&#8217;s Nest&#8221;.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/067.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/067-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="067" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2123" /></a></p>
<p>The dining room has an assortment of tables with elderly people sitting at them, blank eyed, spooning their soup, looking lost, miserable, and unhappy.  There&#8217;s no music nor joy in this place.  Just despair and the smell of lemon polish mixed with the pungent odor of antiseptic.</p>
<p><strong>Cigarettes and chocolate</strong><br />
My pockets are bulging.  In my right pocket are two packs of Pall Mall Reds, cigarettes, that Alan requested on my next visit.  In my left pocket is a digital camera, so I can document the interview with pictures.  </p>
<p>I walk up to the front desk.  A lady is on the phone.  I look for the visitor&#8217;s sign in sheet on the clipboard.  It&#8217;s not there, but I notice the patient&#8217;s sign out sheet, glance around, then walk down the hallway toward Alan&#8217;s room, number 435.  He&#8217;s not in there.  But his roommate is&#8211;Fish, a big man with pale ashen skin, who&#8217;s in the bed next to Alan&#8217;s, sleeping. The TV is on.</p>
<p>I leave the room and continue down the hall, then make a left down another hall toward the courtyard.  Walking outside, I see Alan, sitting on a chair, chatting with other resident patients of this miserable kingdom.  They&#8217;re smoking.  Alan&#8217;s blue eyes sparkle with recognition as he sees me.  &#8220;Kemp!&#8221;  He says.</p>
<p>I pull out the cigarettes, and a small Mounds bar, along with some Fox mints my sister, Kim, purchased from a British import store on Dixie the day before, and Alan and I start talking.  </p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/053.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/053-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="053" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2109" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Interview with Alan Patrusevich (and others) &#8211; Boynton Beach Veterans Assisted Living Facility (VALF)</strong></p>
<p><strong>How did you get here?</strong></p>
<p>In October of 2009, I went into the Veterans Hospital of West Palm Beach.  I had just came back from New Jersey where I was visiting, working.  I arrived at the VALF March 10, 2011.  Before that, I was in the VA hospital of West Palm.</p>
<p><strong>What&#8217;s it like living here?</strong></p>
<p>It&#8217;s easy to make friends.  Easy to make enemies.  It&#8217;s like a hellhole in Guatemala.  Once you&#8217;re in, you can never get out.  They have no reason to because they&#8217;re making money off of you to stay.  There&#8217;s no treatment here.  They just give you placebos, vitamins, a tylenol.  There&#8217;s no internet.  They don&#8217;t even have newspapers here.  And they go through your mail, too.</p>
<p><strong>How is that legal?</strong></p>
<p>It&#8217;s not.</p>
<p><strong>Isn&#8217;t that a felony?</strong></p>
<p>Yes.  They don&#8217;t care.  There&#8217;s no oversight here.  When you get a card, it&#8217;s opened.  If there&#8217;s any money in it, you don&#8217;t know, because it&#8217;s opened before it gets to you.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/068.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/068-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="068" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2124" /></a></p>
<p><strong>Have you complained?</strong></p>
<p>To who?  Who am I gonna complain to?  What are they going to do?</p>
<p><strong>Isn&#8217;t there any oversight?</strong></p>
<p>No.  Exactly.  There&#8217;s no oversight.  That&#8217;s the problem.  They&#8217;re happy to keep us here, as many as they can.  Herd us into here because as long as we&#8217;re here, they&#8217;re getting paid.  They&#8217;re sucking off the tit of the U.S. government.</p>
<p>At this point, a lady (Barbara), sitting beside Alan, asks:  What are you writing, an article?</p>
<p>Alan replies:  He&#8217;s doing an interview for The Palm Beach Post.  (I&#8217;m doing the interview to post it at this blog.)  A guy comes up and says:  Oh, you work at The Palm Beach Post?  I reply:  I&#8217;m a free lancer.</p>
<p><strong>You have a girlfriend here?</strong></p>
<p>Yeah, but they shipped her out the day before yesterday to Bethesda, something for her heart.  She has heart issues.  She may or may not be back.</p>
<p><strong>Do you have regular visitors here?</strong></p>
<p>My son-in-law comes by.  I had more visitors at West Palm.  I was closer to everybody.  Here, it&#8217;s different.  It&#8217;s out in the sticks.  So, it takes more for people to come visit.  When you&#8217;re stuck here, having visits is more tease than fruit.  Ultimately, you&#8217;re going to leave and I&#8217;m not.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/052.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/052-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="052" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2108" /></a></p>
<p><strong>How&#8217;s the staff here?</strong></p>
<p>The wrong tools in the wrong hands.  They are what they are.  I guess they got the credentials to prove it.  </p>
<p>Another lady (Alison) sitting nearby:  What is he writing?<br />
Alan:  An article for The Palm Beach Post.<br />
Alison:  It&#8217;ll make the news?<br />
Alan:  The Palm Beach Post is the news.<br />
Alison:  It&#8217;s shitty here.  It&#8217;s terrible.</p>
<p>Here is the bizarre part.  American veterans are being supervised by a Pakistani national.</p>
<p>It&#8217;s a warehouse for veterans.  Minimal care.  Marginal food.</p>
<p><strong>Do you get mail here?</strong></p>
<p>Barbara:  It goes through 3 different people before you get it.  First, front desk. Then, secretary.  Then, Ram (Mr. Rammy &#8211; owner of Boynton Beach Veterans Assisted Living Facility).  Then you get it and it&#8217;s opened.  I&#8217;ve had mail stolen.</p>
<p>Alan:  I had a get well card from cousin in New Jersey and it was opened.</p>
<p>Alison:  They look through your bags when you come in here to make sure you don&#8217;t have any beer or drugs.</p>
<p>Barbara:  It&#8217;s horrible here.  People walking around wearing the same clothes 2 to 3 weeks.  Soaking diapers.  A lot of people can&#8217;t take showers themselves and the CPA&#8217;s don&#8217;t help them, so they walk around wearing filthy clothes.  They&#8217;re giving people nighttime medication at 6:45 so people are out like a light at 9.  They&#8217;re drugging people with psychoactive drugs who don&#8217;t need it.  And then there&#8217;s people getting sick from the food.  There&#8217;s one lady, Joy, in the hospital, sick with ecoli.  In the last 3 days, there was 3 people deathly ill, vomiting.  They&#8217;re not fully cooking the chicken.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/057.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/057-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="057" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2113" /></a></p>
<p>Alan:  The food is just filler.  Basically, they just fill you up to shut you up.</p>
<p>Barbara:  They had a brand new psychiatrist.  He fucked me up with these new medications.  My boyfriend, John, he&#8217;s as normal as they come.  He&#8217;s from Brazil.  He has 5 children.  He visits the psychiatrist and the psychiatrist gives him Haledol, the psychoactive drug.  He slept for 2 days.  The psychiatrist tells him that his time in Brazil and his children are an hallucination, that neither were real.</p>
<p>John:  Came back from Brazil four-and-a-half years ago.  Was homeless, so they put me here.  Mr. Ram (the manager).  I used to go to the Post Office, cash checks, and pay Mr. Ram.  </p>
<p><strong>What happened?</strong></p>
<p>John: Sometime back is he got me to sign a form and I didn&#8217;t realize that that turned over my checks to him.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/066.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/066-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="066" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2122" /></a></p>
<p><strong>So, there&#8217;s no source of cash for you?</strong></p>
<p>John:  No.</p>
<p>Barbara:  We get OSS checks from Children &#038; Family Services, that&#8217;s for our hygiene and needs.  We&#8217;re given by the state $54 a month.  Mr. Ram turns around and says you&#8217;re not paying your rent.  I&#8217;m taking half your OSS check.  That&#8217;s illegal.  When social security came here to look into what was going on, Rammy said &#8220;go to your room&#8221;.  He didn&#8217;t allow us to talk to social security.</p>
<p>Alan:  That&#8217;s how it&#8217;s operated, like a prison.</p>
<p><strong>Contact Alan</strong><br />
Alan Patrusevich would like to hear from you.  Call him at: 561-542-2880.  </p>
<p><strong>summary</strong><br />
Alan Patrusevich is a former Navy steam propulsion/hydraulics engineer who was the director of the hut, an underground artist&#8217;s live/work space in downtown West Palm Beach, Florida.  Currently, he&#8217;s at Boynton Beach Veterans Assisted Living Facility (VALF) at 1708 NE 4th Street, Boynton Beach, Florida.  Initially, I intended to interview Alan alone, however, soon found myself surrounded by a small crowd of VALF residents who wanted to air their complaints about abuses at this center to someone they thought was a reporter from The Palm Beach Post.</p>
<p>Visiting this veterans center was an informative and sad experience.  If you can, visit Alan.  Call him first to see if he needs anything.  The Boynton Beach Veterans Assisted Living Facility needs to be investigated, cleaned up, and if possible, shut down.</p>
<p><a href="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/062.jpg"><img src="http://kriskemp.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/062-300x225.jpg" alt="" title="062" width="300" height="225" class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2118" /></a></p>
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