I don't declare myself to be an expert on relationships, as there have only been two people in my life who became serious love interests for me.  One was a marriage that lasted nearly a decade; the other an engagement that lasted three years.  When it comes to telling people what they should do when it comes to their partner in life, I am not really the best qualified to give advice.

Still, there are some basic concepts that apply universally across all areas of life.  While I don't really understand all of the nuances of how to make a woman happy, I can point out on very large factor that contributes to the happiness, or lack thereof, in a relationship.  People jump into serious relationships for a multitude of reasons, and each of us has a different primary goal when we decide to commit ourselves to being with another person.  Regardless of what those reasons might be, our ability to be content in any relationship comes down to a single factor:  expectations.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://gunthrek.com/2021/10/31/relationships-are-only-as-difficult-as-we-make-them/

Making money is one of the more sad things that we have to deal with in our lives on this little pale blue dot we call Earth.  The laws of nature dictate that we have to put in time and effort into very boring things like finding resources to survive.  As most of us have come to realize, the idea that we can find a way to survive that doesn't involve long hours of toiling away at something we don't particularly want to be doing is a bit crazy.  A very select few of us have found a way to make a living doing something we actually like.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://gunthrek.com/2021/11/03/learning-to-make-money-with-something-you-enjoy/

We hear it all the time these days: so many jobs and not enough employees to fill the positions.  It seems crazy to think that with so many people out of work, yet so many available jobs, that we are struggling to get people hired.  There are a lot of theories as to why this is, and the primary one I've heard is that government handouts are encouraging people not to work because they make more staying home.  I'm sure this is the case, but as someone who is in the market for a new job, I have seen a trend in the jobs I've been looking at which and a personal feeling which leads me to two separate conclusions.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://gunthrek.com/2021/11/02/why-is-no-one-getting-hired/

They say the best things in life are free.  It would be nice if that were true, and perhaps if you're talking about money, it has a ring of truth to it.  However, it is the unfortunate truth that anything worth having has a cost associated with it, something we have to give up in order to have it.  Many times it is money or resources, but even if it's just a positive interaction with another person there is a cost of some kind, be it time or effort.  As with everything else in life, you get what you pay for.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://gunthrek.com/2021/10/23/you-get-what-you-pay-for/

I came to a rather stark realization this morning:  I don't exist.  At least, not in the way that everyone else around me seems to.  So many people seem to have at least a vague understanding of who they are and what they are about, but I've spent my entire life struggling with what I want and who I am.  After so much soul searching in trying to figure out what might make me happy in life, I realize that there is one thing that defines me as a person:  the stories I've immersed myself in from the very beginning.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://gunthrek.com/2021/09/28/an-echo-of-reality/

So many of us today are struggling with this idea that events are moving beyond our control and we fear what tomorrow might look like.  Perhaps it is a feeling we have of being a small person in a big world run by powerful people who will crush us if we refuse to comply with their wishes.  Whatever the reason might be, there is a feeling of power held by those people who have risen to the top of our social structure that is exerting certain ideas that are categorically harmful to the average person.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://gunthrek.com/2021/10/01/the-illusion-of-power/

I've said a few times before on this blog that I struggle with knowing what I want to do with my life.  Over the course of nearly four decades, I've done so many different things that most people probably wouldn't believe it.  If I recall, I covered some of that in one of my first posts, and every time I go back and recall the things I've experienced in my time here on Earth, I'm surprised at just how varied my experiences have been.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://gunthrek.com/2021/09/30/a-life-of-aimlessness/

"The world will always need ditch diggers."  This saying, or whatever version you might be familiar with, has been around for as long as we have had modern industry.  As people have moved from primarily farm based activity to jobs in production, we have been constantly striving to move beyond the need for menial labor and into work that satisfies our souls.  Few people are content with the idea that certain people have to do the dirty jobs that most of us avoid, and virtually no one wants to actually do them.  Yet, until we enter into that utopian post-scarcity society where all our hated tasks are automated and work is no longer required, the saying still stands.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://gunthrek.com/2021/09/24/successful-ignorance/

It's old news by the time this article goes live, but as many of us expected it turns out that Fauci lied about his connection with the Wuhan lab and the gain of function research related to COVID-19.  As far as I know, there has been no conclusive evidence presented that the virus absolutely originated in this laboratory, but it's an awfully suspicious coincidence for a highly transmissible virus to "just happen" to spring up near an institute that studies just such biology.  While we can't prove yet that the laboratory was directly responsible for the pandemic, it seems far more likely than any other theory.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://gunthrek.com/2021/09/16/and-you-wonder-why-we-resist/

Human beings reach for the stars.  It's in our nature to be unsatisfied with what we have and constantly strive for something better.  The drive to succeed and accomplish great things is what has propelled us from living in cold, dark caves to the fantastic level of technology that we enjoy today.  There is nothing inherently wrong with being unrealistic because most of the things we have today wouldn't be possible if someone at some point hadn't decided to follow their dreams in the face of overwhelming evidence that it wouldn't work out.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://gunthrek.com/2021/09/15/the-problem-with-being-unrealistic/