: About Me

"So much for Objective Journalism. Don't bother to look for it here - not under any byline of mine; or anyone else I can think of. With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms." Hunter S. Thompson.

Write it first, apply the rules later. That's how I do things. I want to write as close to the truth as possible without putting a party dress on it and asking you to hold its hand. Sometimes the truth is a fat ugly hag we want to run away from. Sometimes we don't even know what the truth is and the writing becomes a search for it. A journey that can take us as far inside our own bleating infant self as it can take us airplane-hopping through the gutters of the world. In fact, there are probably more places inside us that we'd rather not visit than there are slums in the world of humans.

I have schooling. I have sat through several classes writing things about Charlie Chaplin, the Hope Diamond and the plight of the dodo bird. None of it helped. My stream of consciousness is littered with empty beer cans, lost change and all the evidence anyone has ever tried to flush away to avoid incarceration, divorce, disgrace, shame or even mild embarrassment. Forget the rules. Write it. Feel it. Be a vector of the passion germ. Then dot the is and cross the ts. If you don't believe in it it doesn't deserve punctuation.

I'll write anything. I'm usually at a loss for structure, form, variance, nuance or style, which leaves me open to anything.Today I'll write an article full of poise, precision, rich language and hobnobbery. Tomorrow I'll rant for an hour about gas prices and the Bilderberg Group. Then I'll start a novel, hate it, throw it away and write a poem. I'll rant, I'll rave, I'll scream at the top of my lungs and maybe even write it all down.

Direction? Focus? You point the way, I'll go there. But never in a straight line.

Personal Finance > Smart Spending Where to find inexpensive cigarettes

6 of 10

For the total price of $28.65 I purchased a month's worth of smoking supplies on my last visit to the tobacco store. In exchange for that sum I walked away with two cigarette rollers, five bags of cigarette filters, six packs of rolling papers and a one pound bag of tobacco. Rolling my own cigarettes has not only lessened the expense of smoking it has also opened doors to a greater smoking experience. Gone are the days of brand allegiance. Smoking, like any hobby, has its accessories and collector's paraphernalia. Rummaging through an aromatic tobacco store and finding things like wooden r...

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