Happy UK Tax Freedom day!

If you were paid only once a year this would be your Tax Freedom day. From January the 1st until now you have laboured for the state and every penny you have earned has gone in tax. From now on until December 31st it is all yours! Enjoy!

Free Events London

I am reviving another dead blog- Free Events London which will mainly be about cool (and free) events I am planning to attend or have attended. In this way I hope to build a social group with its own momentum.

You may call it social circle game if you wish (I am aiming for two women for every man) but I do not want to frighten 'my' women away with any hard core pick up artists. I would prefer a bunch of cool guys who can have fun with or without women. I may password protect the site once this has been achieved.

Please note that nothing much will happen until I have cleared my current debt.

The Window and the Mirror

If you need a simple way to understand the difference between men and women picture a woman sitting in front of a mirror while a man looks out of a window.

Women are largely inward looking. Look at the magazines they buy and the TV programmes they watch. These are nothing more than mirrors in which they may admire themselves. Even the titles of the magazines admit this. You, Self, Woman, She, Company, Glamour. They are pretty much interchangeable except that they are aimed at different age groups. Magazines aimed at younger women always have a beautiful woman on the front and highly sensualist fashion shoots within the pages. There is a mass of advertising that is very similar to the paid for content in that it promises instant transformation to some magical state.

Frequently the women in these magazines are shown as orgasmic while consuming the products offered to them- this is particularly true of perfume adverts. The articles found in these magazines rarely change much. They offer reassurance and advice on happiness, beauty and men. They will often talk about ‘independent women’ but this is a lie. The magazines offer no advice on the mundane hassles of life. These are assumed to disappear once this magical state of feminine perfection is attained. Work is nothing more than a canvass upon which to paint her beauty.

This may sound harsh but I am merely describing a woman's ideal fantasy self. A woman may behave in a responsible and creative way in real life but this is out of necessity. The most striking thing about the fantasy world of women's media is that OUTSIDE REALITY DOES NOT EVEN EXIST.

There are no wars. There is no politics, no economic crises or opportunities- and actually there are no men.

No men? Surely this romantic world cannot exist without men?

Well... perhaps I should have said- there are no men who are also people. Men exist as romantic and lust objects but they do not exist as rounded people. Men have no feelings in this world except to desire and love the perfect women. The fantasy men of women's magazines have no independent existence and act as a sort of backdrop to her beauty.

When a woman reads these magazines she is in fact transfixed by her ideal image.

What then, of men?

Men do not look in the mirror. We look out of the window. We are interested in technical advances, wars, political conspiracy and so on. There is nothing that does not interest us. The interesting thing about this is that the man himself is not in the picture that fascinates him.


This is a difficult concept to explain.

Imagine a woman reading Cosmopolitan. It is about HER beauty, HER emotions, HER desires and fears. She fills the frame completely.

Now imagine a man reading a magazine. What do you suppose the magazine would be about? It could be about cars, business, sex, or any number of things. On occasion it will be about looking good but in an embarrassed sort of way. Even the titles of these magazines pretend the magazine is about something else 'Mens Health' and so on. The point is that the man reads to escape from himself- while the woman reads to become absorbed by herself.

I realise this may seem offensive to some people but this was not my intention. It is quite possible to be self absorbed and also compassionate because compassion is yet another emotion to be indulged.

Equally, it is possible to be outward looking and yet a sociopath. This is not a moral judgement.
The media that men consume is entirely different. Magazines bought by men hardly ever have good looking men grinning back at them from the cover unless that man has done something noteworthy or admirable. Even then the men in men's magazines do not flirt with the reader the way women do in women's magazines. (It is interesting that heterosexual women are driven to buy images of beautiful women pouting and smoldering at them from the page.) In magazines for men we find pictures or trains, cars, world events, naked women, sport and above all- machines.

The magazines that men buy are windows upon the world. While women’s magazines are a journey into herself. Men’s magazines are an exploration of the world.

What can we do with this information?

I think that men should recognise that men and women are separate beings. We are drawn to one another but cannot enter one anothers worlds. Every other culture has understood this and accepted that a man will have lifelong male friendships.

Men and women can love one another but they cannot fully understand one another. This matters less than most people think.

Poverty is too expensive for me.

The most striking thing about the poverty that I come across in the United Kingdom is how expensive it all is.


Sometimes, when I come home from work I find a group of youngish men gathered on the green outside of the old church. They are drinking, and seem to have been doing so all day. The group is not always there and I assume they gather whenever there Giro (state benefits) arrives. This is a tired group who look defeated even on the one day that they have money. How much does it cost to be drunk from ten in the morning to midnight? I honestly do not know- as I would be unable to afford it even if I wanted to.

I see women pushing prams. I would guess they were in their late teens or early twenties yet they have strange duel age quality about them. The quality of their skin and there general air of tiredness make them look old beyond there years- yet there is something of the child about them too- as if they have never been young but hurried from childhood to middle age.

Why are they so tired? One reason is that they eat so badly- they seem to go to McDonald's three times a day. Again, this is not something I could afford. Another reason for there tiredness is that they cannot control there children- or rather, they do not know when to let their children be children. Every time their child moves out of reach he is shouted at- this occurs continuously- about once every three minutes. If the child has to be chased after then he is often hit for not staying near the mother- he does not cry as he is used to it and will probably be hit another twenty times that day.

You think I am making it worse than it is? I am not.

These women also dress badly- not cheaply, just badly. They look poor no matter how much money is spent. Branded shell suits and sports gear is popular- even though it is unflattering and always seems to be dirty.

How much does this lifestyle cost? A great deal. I have no designer labels at all, just good quality that lasts.

Everyone spends money yet everyone remains poor. This is because of a poverty of aspiration. It costs more for these people to be poor and bored than it does for me to live a full life. I know that I am paid less as a security guard than many single mothers receive from the state- and yet they go nowhere and do nothing.

I have an annual train ticket to London. This buys me the finest of everything the world has to offer and most of it is free. Yet many people remain chronically bored.

I am too busy and too poor for this sort of poverty.

The Austerity Blog.

Some of you will be rather relieved that I am moving my economics articles to The Austerity Blog along with some of my 'live well for less' stuff.

Porn for women.

A while ago, as an experiment, I created a porn site for women.

I deliberately did not link to the site or promote it in any way. I as I wanted to see if women would find it on their own. In fact I deliberately did not visit the site to make sure I did not accidentally boost its ratings.

Somehow the women found me. I have no idea how as I did not create any sexy keywords to help them.

You may read it here. My Secret Softness. Most men will find it virtually meaningless although it is poetry to women.

I want to see my Stasi flie.

When the Berlin wall fell the new united government did something rather brave. It let every citizen of the former GDR read their Stasi file.

The GDR had possibly the best organized bureaucracy of repression ever devised and a good proportion of the population were informers. Generally speaking nothing happened to those who were informed upon- but everything (rumor, political speculation and spite) was written down and followed the citizen everywhere.

This is rather like corporate life in the feminist countries. We have our own 'soft' Stasi in the Human Resources department. They have no gulag but everything you say will be taken down and used against you. Maybe you told a non PC joke? If somebody reported you it is on your file.

We need to give people the right to see what is on their HR file. This will keep HR from putting things on your file that do not belong there. It will also prevent management from setting political traps. Very often management will send a busy manager on a time consuming equal opportunities workshop. If he does not turn up then his career will be blighted when his only crime is putting the job first.

Snooping and privacy matter to a great many people- far more people than currently agree with us.

An accidental gigolo.

I have been poor and unemployed (and yet unaccountably popular with femaile lawyers, an independenty wealthy artist and a genetic scientist.)

Now it looks as if I might live a normal life once again- and yet I would like to understand what accounts for my recent popularity and work out what to do about it. It seems that I accedentaly came to match the profile of a sucessful male escort.

Women generally do not pay for sex. They pay to have their psycological needs met. Very often this includes sexual validation but it is the validation that is central- not the sex.

Male escorts listen more than they speak. They show an uncritical appreciation of the woman and simply let her BE. When women talk about just wanting respect from men they actually mean this. By 'respect' they do not mean slavish subservience which bores them- or chivalry which is respect for an ideal fantasy women. They mean respect for who they really are.

This is what I gave there wealthy women. My reaction was one of relief because I was at last meeting women who were my conversational equal. It was (and is) such a relief to meet women who can run their end of the conversation without my having to feed them lines or think five steps ahead to prevent awkward silences! I love the way these women groom themselves (never a hair out of place, every item coordinated). I love to hear of the lives they lead (stories about Cherie Blair that I would LOVE to tell you but will not) and above all I love the alpha gaze. I love the way they introduce themselves to you and look you in the eye three seconds too long. It is a look that says 'Hmmm... maybe'.

In short I have reversed the sexual attraction process. Everything that women find attractive in men I now find attractive in these alpha girls. Alpha girls do the pursuing (it makes them feel more alpha to do so).

The problem is not compatibility, or sex but money. These women want to buy me things in order to feel close to me. What is the point of being rich if one cannot share? Unfortunately I cannot (yet) allow them to do so.

So.. I put them off.. and work in my dead end job.. and wonder what I am missing.

The economics of toast.

I have just treated myself to the most expensive toasted sandwich maker I could find- a Cuisinart unit costing £50.

Nevertheless I hope to make my money back in a year- or less.

1. Toasted sandwiches are a good way to use up fridge scraps- particularly things like carrots and onions that are cheap and healthy.

2. A toasted sandwich is made of the same things as an ordinary sandwich but tastes like junk food. It is a form of healthy eating by stealth.

3. It is important to eat a good breakfast if you leave the house at 5.30 in the morning. Cornflakes simply will not take you till lunch while a full English breakfast will kill you over time.

So far I am very pleased with it. It is built like a tank and has removable heating plates- which makes it one of the few hygenic sandwich makers around. Furthermore it comes with a five year guarantee and has a timer so that there is no need to stand over the machine while it is working for you.

My only regret is that I bought it in the wrong place. I would have done better to use Amazon which charges £43 rather than £50.

EconoRap

Reasons to be Alpha.

Six months ago I took the worst job of my life. It was low paid, irregular and with no guaranteed minimum income. I took it for the worst and most desperate reasons- I was middle aged, white and male and had no other options. Furthermore I was facing eviction and was therefore in a poor negotiating position.

I could not even pay for my tube fare at first- so I walked across London twice a day for twelve weeks. This was humiliating on one level but I chose to take it as a shit test- and I passed by rising at four am and then working up to fourteen hours on boiled rice and black tea.

In fact I lost weight and found I had more energy as a result.

I passed my first shit test. More work came in and my income doubled.

The second shit test was exhaustion. I was working seven days a week by this time and I hit a brick wall. My body just refused to obey me one morning and I only made it out of bed through a supreme effort of will. The strange thing was that I was rewarded for this act by finding my second wind- all tiredness fell from me.

Each time I passed through what I thought were my limitations I surprised myself. I now realise I need only five hours sleep a night and thrive on it.

The third test was budgeting. Could I get out of debt or was I to be a lifetime slave? I am passing this test too- I think.

Looking back over this period I see that my disposable income (the only one that matters) has increased by about ten percent EACH MONTH. It is possible this will continue indefinitely.

It is exhausting and terrifying to treat everything that comes your way as a shit test- but this is the way to become Alpha. There is probably no other way.

It is true that my achievements are modest- find a crap job and keep on doing it- but life gives me larger and larger tests to pass. I have no idea where it will end.

The Ghost Method.

Regular readers will know that I am frighteningly poor- I am a security guard who does not even have a regualar place of work (what Market Researchers call a D/E).

Yesterday the clouds parted a little and I saw some hope. I made only £1630 this month (an absolute joke for London) and yet I was able to pay off debts of about £800.

I will not bore you with the minutae of my life but this clears my mortgage arrears and my credit card- meaning an extra £85 in my pocket every month from now on.

Well.. what If I could do this the next month.. and the one after?

It would take me less than a year to become free. You could do the same.

The economic outlook.

Here, for what it is worth is my view of the main western economies (chiefly the UK and the USA).

I believe the main problem with both nations is too much debt. This is particularly dangerous because the government, the consumer, and business are all equally insolvent.  This means that the state can no longer stimulate the economy by assuming the debts of other players the way it attempted to do with the banks.

I expect a series of short term apparent recoveries each of which will be followed by a further slump. None of these are likely to be as severe as the great depression but I do not expect a decisive return to health for a number of years.

Most governments understand the dangers of deflation (falling prices and wages) that was seen in the 1930's and the Japanese experience shows that there is no way to halt a deflationary spiral once it has started. This indicates that both the USA and the UK will adopt strongly inflationary policies designed to stimulate consumer and business demand.

Stimulus packages do work- for a while. The problem is that they work too well on some levels. Consumer confidence is only another name for the willingness to spend and borrow.

Recovery will only occur when consumers, government and business can spend once again. This will only happen when these groups are solvent. The problem is that both governments are going for a quick fix by encouraging them to borrow even more. This can only result in short term relief- followed by further decline.

IN CONCLUSION.

1) Do not rely upon government solutions. Sooner or later the government will be unable to borrow any further money.

2) Reduce personal debt.

3) Diversify. Have more than one source of income.

4) Devote 10% of your income and 10% of your time to Survivalism and the Alpha Strategy.

The Secret Engine of History.

It is surprising how much conflict boils down to the nature of money.

Socialist economics basically boils down to the creation of 'soft' currency that is created by the state and spent on public works. In small quantities this results in moderate inflation but in larger quantities it results in central planning and eventually labour camps. This occurs because money loses its power to motivate people when it exceeds the supply of goods. Why should anyone sweat to produce anything when there is nothing to buy with the money they earn?

This, I believe is the secret engine of history. It is surprising how simple history becomes when one looks at it as a battle of currencies.

The British and US governments seem to appreciate this dimly. On occasion they will encourage the creation of complimentary currencies for job creation but on occasions they will send people to jail. The overwhelming impression is one of confusion and a bias towards the left. This may be because LETS and Time Dollars are believed to exist for the benefit of single mothers and unemployed people while gold based systems are often held by the very rich. In the UK we find that the state has even prosecuted itself.

We see a similar situation with the US where left leaning Time Dollar schemes are tolerated but the more Conservative Liberty Dollar is raided by police. The irony of this is that both governments mint bullion coins themselves- which form an alternative currency of sorts among the liberty community.

Chaos also reigns in the commercial sector. Credit cards and airlines create points from thin air and are not required to hold reserves in order to honor them (the very crime that the Isle of Wight was accused of). These points are sometimes even called currencies and yet do not exist in law.

I would like to suggest a novel solution. Let us have a multi currency future. Each currency scheme has its own advantages and there is no reason they cannot coexist.

Conservative folk will have their gold. This is inflation proof and may be a useful business tool.

Socialists will have their soft currency. They will come up with ways of generating currency from thin air and will believe that this creates wealth. Rather than argue about this we shall simply wait and see.

This solution has already been tried in the UK with the great Blair/Brown Euro fudge. Tony Blair was keen that the UK should adopt the Euro while Gordon Brown was not. Their solution was to make both currencies legal tender and see which the public preferred. The pound won overwhelmingly.

The King of Chodes.

Prior to finding game I was a virgin Chode for more than 40 years- so you could say that I am an expert on the subject of Chodishness. Of course, there was always the occasional Holiday romance where language prevented my Chodishness showing too much- but if it were not for cheap air travel I would have remained a virgin.

This did not worry me as much as it should. I was a romantic sort of chode and could dream of finding 'the one'. This did not require much from me apart from patience.

Sex without romance had little appeal to me. It is true that I used pornography but I would always weave some romance into the fantasy. The combination or romance, feminist brainwashing and low self esteem made me the King of Chodes.

I became aware of a destructive cycle in my life. Women would pick up upon my low self esteem and treat me with contempt- and this would feed my low self esteem. I therefore got into Game as a way to feel good about myself. The idea of banging some dodgy nightclub chick filled me with horror- but the idea of being the sort of man who could do such a thing inspired me.

The career of a chode resembles that of an alcoholic. The alcoholic lies to himself all of the time and so does the chode. Only the nature of the deception changes. The alcoholic denies that he drinks while the chode denies that he is paying for sex or companionship. Change only occurs in both cases when he reaches rock bottom. A rich chode can buy a wife and not know he is a chode until she leaves him with half his cash. He will then realise that his life has been a lie and that he has loved a woman who could never love him back. This dark night where a man confronts his chodishness is a great blessing and (if he survives it) he can be reborn.

The recovering chode often needs time on his own to recover. This is generally a temporary phase but there are many men who plan to ghost for life.

Once this grieving process has been completed the recovering chode may become interested in Game.

Game may be used for any end.

You may use Game for one night stands. You may use Game to strengthen marriage. You may use Game to destroy marriages.

I use Game for respect.

That is all I want. Suddenly the world is full of nice girls- a completely new experience for me.

I am content. I want nothing more.

The Safe Haven.

The Safe Haven (usually a location) is where you go to recharge your batteries. It offers refuge from whatever bothers you and is food for the soul.

Generally the Safe Haven is a location where one feels at ease and understood. The larger ones Safe Haven is the more successful and happy one will be. This may be done by acquiring more fiends, taking up new interests or simply playing ones favorite music on an ipod.

Safe Haven may also be strengthened by excluding evil. This means not allowing people into your space unless invited. Western cultures generally deny men the right to retreat from women and see male only space as an affront. In fact it is quite possible to love women and still wish to escape from them from time to time. The same applies to women except that plenty of female only societies already exist. A woman does not need to explain why she is going on a 'girls night out' because these are more socially acceptable than the male alternative.

One early indicator of an unhealthy, controlling relationship is that one party cannot have an independent life outside of it. From this we can infer that feminism is a form of collective spousal abuse because feminists are absolutely TERRIFIED of friendships they do not control.

The pleasures of the journey.

My re branding began in my period of unemployment that ended six months ago. I had very little Alpha even prior to this humiliation and I guess it showed. Employers and co workers would concede that I was intelligent, hard working and basically decent but if you were to ask them why they did not promote me then they would probably laugh. In fact my lack of Alpha was the reason I found myself unemployed in the first place.

Men would treat me with respect (but never promote me) but my experiences with women were horrible. In fact most of the time I was invisible to them- quite literally. If I were in a mixed group then the women would edit me from their memories so that they literally believed that I was not present. They also had the habit of looking right through me as if I were a ghost. When they did take notice of me the experience was never good. Beta males are physical and emotional punchbags for unstable women. The healthy ones will ignore Betas while the messed up ones will go out of their way to humiliate him. Many sexual harassment cases come about in this way.

Fine- I thought. Women will be my barometer. Women will teach me Alpha without even knowing it.

I knew that I had to learn Alpha quickly- before I lost my home.  I knew that a middle aged man would never work again in this economy without Game.

I was OK with this. Sometimes life forces you to do the right thing.

So.. when I was in London for interviews I would Sarge. I had no time or mental energy for a girlfriend but simply needed feedback from women on my Alpha.

This photograph is the only one I have of this period. I am in a pizza restaurant but I am the only one not eating. If you look carefully you will see that I am eating the flowers on the table out of hunger. I am holding court with two women, both of which are competing for this revolting old man. Look closely at my face and you will see the yellowish tinge of a poor diet and a big red boil on my chin.

I am both embarrassed by this photograph and very proud. Life (after kicking me in the balls repeatedly) seemed to be telling me that I could sponge off women for a living if I chose. Many of the women one meets at social events are middle aged and rather rich. I would find that they always brought their diamonds and their second homes into the conversation somehow- and yet I was too dim to understand what it meant.

Move forward six months and we see that my appearance has changed a great deal. This is not due to my trying to improve my appearance but is a natural consequence of having some success in my life. My income has approximately doubled during this period although I am now working like a dog. You will see a more recent photograph on my facebook profile. I look younger and have a certain masculine energy that was previously lacking.

I remain babeless but continue to experiment with the new power I have over women. I banter with the more Alpha partners in commercial law firms. These girls are as sharp as razors and are not insecure so I can push my luck with them in ways that I could not with a less successful women. How much Alpha does a partner in a law firm get from men? Not much I should imagine- and they enjoy it when they get it.

This is Game that is not centered around getting a woman. I do it to feel good and to make others feel good- and as a barometer of progress. I receive small gifts from these women from time to time (cake, chocolate and so on) but this is no more than female receptionists receive from the men they work for. I will have to get used to it.

The chief advantage of  'learned Alpha' is that one simply feels better- all the time. I have compiled a list of free stuff I found useful.

Next month I will seek to re brand myself as an Alpha in a conscious way. This will involve becoming an Alpha for real- which will solve all my money problems and then some. My re branding is actually a business investment.

The man who owns the sun

The most reliable indicator of a persons spiritual level is their ability to own things.

A person of a low level is capable of only of owning things exclusively. In other words the pleasure is not so much in the ownership but in depriving others of ownership.

These people generally work hard and spend their money on things that other people will admire- such as cars and houses. They do not even get pleasure from these things themselves. As soon as they find someone who does not envy their belongings they become dissatisfied.

The world at large passes them by. They do not notice the beauty of public architecture or the flowers in the park. They are bent upon accumulating things. You may show such a person a great work of art and yet they are unable to truly 'see' the painting. These people experience the world though the proxy of other peoples opinions. The painting is good if it is fashionable- or if it is worth a great deal of money.

The terrible irony is that these great materialists do not even own themselves.

A person of high spiritual level on the other hand will always be wealthy. The whole world belongs to them but they are happier sharing these things than enjoying them alone.

Anyone who wishes to join the Ghost Nation must first attain this level. This is because going ghost involves giving up exclusive ownership of 'stuff'. The ghost owns little but his rucksack and his freedom and yet he owns the entire world.

Tesco clubcard

One common factoid trotted out by business journalists is that Tesco takes one pound of eight pounds the British public earn. This is usually a prelude to calling for Tesco to be restricted in some way so that 'local' shops may survive. This springs from a romantic view of the past where everyone supposedly knew one another.

Tesco is a reptile- it will devour all that is in its path and cares for nothing but the bottom line. Nevertheless it serves a purpose and reduces the cost of food relentlessly.

One central plank of their marketing is the Clubcard loyalty programme. This is a worldwide scheme now and it is possible to earn points in Thailand and spend them in London (I am told). Tesco knows more about its customers than any other retailer and can sometimes appear psycic. I have on occasion been walking down the street and decided that I needed a particular brand of ice cream or shoelaces. Upon entering the shop I find these exact products adjacent to one another. How did they guess I would want these things? They cross reference their Clubcard data with every other piece of research ever done and know our preferences better than we do.

The scheme is too sophisticated to be gamed in the way that others may be. The only way to come out on top is to exchange food vouchers for leisure experiences. This triples the cash value. The reasoning seems to be that a £5.00 shopping voucher reduces your spend in Tesco while a 'free' day out does not.

Join the Christmass club scheme while you are about it. This saves up all of your vouchers until November. If you choose to add some cash to the account you will be rewarded with extra vouchers in addition to the ones earned by shopping.

Free Ed

It took me a while to work out what Free Ed really was. It offers no qualifications but offers a fantastic profusion of resources. In reality it is not an online college but more of a search engine for educational materials.

Please forgive Free Ed  the occasional broken link. You will find treasure here.

I have done the following-

Preview of Educational Psychology.

English Grammar and Mechanics.

You may also like to consider BBC learning. This is state sponsored so clearly a great deal of money has been spent on it.

Practical branding.

Here is my plan for re branding myself as a human being and an employee. This sort of thing will transform how people view you and it will transform your job prospects.

I have very little money to invest and so I will spend as little as possible in the first few months.

Month 1. Re branding the body. (£60)
You may say the most wonderful things about your attitude and self discipline but you will never be believed if you are a blob of lard with fat on your chin.

I will therefore start the re branding with a diet. This will be done by eating more rice and vegetables and having smoothies for lunch at least three times a week. This will cost a little more than the junk I am eating, but only a little. I will also drink white tea which is slightly slimming.

I will buy a food processor to cut my carrots and vegetables. Carrots only cost 29p a bag right now and they can be eaten raw if they are shredded.

This approach will cause weight to drop off slowly but it increases energy levels within a week.

Month 2. Get a life. (£120).
Nobody respects a drip. How will we convince an employer that we are a go ahead sorts of guys if we all sit at home and have no social life? It is quite possible to do this very cheaply in the large cities because so many cultural events are free. You will need something for food and drink but this is almost your only expense. Try meetup.

I intend to continue with my healthy eating campaign while building up my social life because I cannot see myself losing more than a pound a week.

It is possible to develop new interests in this way. I intend to learn more about art and architecture.

Month 3. Become an English Gentleman. (£180).
It is time to look like James Bond. By now we will have lost some weight and will carry ourselves in a quite different way. We will know a little about art, culture, fine wine and so on but will not talk about it unless asked. Now buy some good shirts and a good silk tie. This will force one to walk with an upright, dominant posture particularly if the shirt has collar stiffeners. It will flatter your body provided your belly is not too big. Cultivate modesty. This is not submissiveness but the attitude that one is simply so awesome that one has nothing to prove.  Not all expensive stuff is good. Buy quality, not brand names.

Month 4. Imitate a horse. (£240).
Buy some shiny English shoes- but put a rubber sole on them. These give immense authority and announce your entry wherever you go- 'clip, clop, clip, clop!'. You will find that conversation stops and everyone turns their heads when you enter any room. Treat this as natural and be modest about it. These shoes have a magnetic power over women. It is rather like the effect thigh high 'kinky boots' have upon a certain type of man. I once had a woman at a social event ask me if she could kiss my shoes.. I let her do so as if this happened every day. This is the power of the English Gentleman image- he is humble because he knows he is King.

Month 5. Nearly there. (£300).
Buy an umbrella. I do not care if it never rains where you live. It hardly ever rains in London either. The umbrella is a badge of authority and respect. It may be used to salute your peers (bring the handle up towards your right eye and nod slightly) and it is a deadly close combat weapon. The umbrella also adds to the drama of your walk and thus draws attention to you wherever you go. Plus.. it is quite useful if it rains.

Buy some silver cuff links (always wear box cuff shirts), a good pen and (maybe) a tie clip. Consider taking up some thuggish sport such as boxing, hunting or rugby. The gentleman is a psychopath with perfect manners. Think of James Bond- a man who cracks jokes even while he kills. There is no need to become a psychopath, of course, but it may be helpful to remember that the English Gentleman is a builder of empires. He is not a 'nice guy' or wimp.

Month 5. Career. (£360).
You have now come to the point where you can pull off a career change. This is because you no longer carry yourself in the old Beta way. This places you ahead of most other candidates regardless of knowledge or experience.

Alpha beats book learning every time.

So.. spend this months budget on training in the full knowledge that it will not be wasted. You can now do anything.

Month 6. Congratualtions! (£400).
Take a holliday- patrticularly to somewhere unusual that you can talk about later because being well traveled is also part of your brand.

Rebranding/transformation.

I have talked earlier about the need to be a branded human being- a person whose every action communicates good things to the world. This absolutely cannot be a fake exercise. We really do need to become what we preach.

This means that personal creation is a three stage process.

1) Discover who you truly wish to be. There is no point in becoming what others wish you to be- this is slavery. Find your hero! Find someone who inspires you to the core of your being and yet who is human enough to identify with. I have two heroes, Richard Branson who is a brilliant man with the common touch. His autobiography 'Losing my Virginity' is one of the most inspiring books ever written- as well as a great adventure tale. Yet.. I cannot see myself as Richard Branson. He is so driven, and so unremittingly Alpha on every level that I may as well try to model myself of Superman. I cannot see myself in him and so he cannot inspire me to greatness.

My other hero is Owen Cook (Tyler from RSD). Owen is a much more flawed human being and he shares all of my strengths and weaknesses. The difference between us is that he has worked on himself with a relentless energy and overcome most of them. Tyler is a philosophy graduate who spends mush of his life in abstractions. He (like me) is naturally unattractive to women and had only a small group of male friends. If anything, I believe Owen started life at a lower point than me because he looked plain weird, rather weedy and prematurely middle aged (he seems to be ageing backwards and looks younger now that he did).  He also confesses to becoming paranoid and unstable when he does not eat an healthy diet. Owen now has a business empire, a home in Hawaii, a legion of male fans and sexual abundance. He is the exact opposite the lonely, socially inept kid he once was.

The essence of the 'useful' hero is that he has the same weaknesses as other people but that he overcomes them. By observing the hero ordinary mortals can believe greatness resides in them too. Winston Churchill understood this completely and invented a series of failures in his life to inspire others. He claimed to have been a poor student even though the school essays that survive are rather brilliant.

Once you have found your true hero you know WHO YOU COULD BE IF YOU WERE WILLING TO PAY THE PRICE.

This is your brand.

2) Stage two is to act in accordance with your brand and not your history. For example- I would like to be as self disciplined and focused as Owen. I therefore act as if I were a self disciplined person- and suddenly I am. Shakespeare said it best- 'assume a virtue and it is yours'.

3) Stage three is to bring every aspect of your life into alignment with who you now are.

Six of the Best!

Here are six of my favorite social networking services.

WAYN. This advertises itself as the 'facebook of travel'.  The main advantage is that WAYN asks  'What are you UP for doing?' This is more social than the preening that goes on elsewhere and WAYN is a far better way to meet people.

LinkedIn is a sort of Facebook for business. Members create an account and post their C.V and qualifications. This grows larger and larger (associations, clubs, business associations and so on) and more and more business connections are made.

Plancast. This service brings together all of my social networks and planned events and presents them on a single profile so I can see the options open up me. The options I choose will then be displayed on my public profile for others to see and join.

43 Things is an interactive 'to do' list by which people list their life goals. Thankfully very few people post their shopping lists online although some people do. In theory this should be a useful business tool where people unite over common projects and aims. In reality it is more like a public a public set of new years resolutions where people cheer one another on.

Couchsurfing is an association of people who allow visitors- usually from other countries- to sleep on their couch or floor for a few days. It is a wonderful way to meet people as couchsurfers are friendly people.

Motley Fool is a finance website, properly speaking. It does have an active message board and the occasional social event so has a social networking character as well. I include this because it is dedicated to investment and financial survival. All other social activity cost you money but sorting out your finances will do the opposite.

The wonderful Khan Academy.

The Khan Academy is a conscious attempt to bypass the monopoly of information that liberal academics currently hold.

There are no examinations and no certificates. These are actually products of the old order. In the future we will be judged by what we can do rather than pieces of paper issued by authority. Anyone may study these materials. There is no one to tell you that you cannot understand them and so you must do another course first. There is no one to tell you that your values are unacceptable or that you are too male, pale or stale.

The Khan Academy gives you access to information without political correctness, student unions or Marxist lecturers. It is the future and rioting rich kid 'revolutionarys' are the past.

May they rest in peace.

Carbon Neutrality.

Carbon neutrality is big business whether you believe in global warming or not (I do, but this is a separate issue). Many employers have a policy of preferring low carbon suppliers and it is quite easy to do this.

I start with a natural advantage because my income is quite low. This means that I travel by public transport and do not consume very much of anything. There is always a way to turn anything to the good.

It is possible to reduce my carbon footprint still further by following the advice of the Energy Saving Trust. Doing so will generally also save money.

The other side of the equation is to offset carbon emissions in various ways. My own chosen methods are to support Kew Gardens and the Woodland Trust. The Woodland Trust allow me to sponsor trees in the United Kingdom and send me a certificate and a map to tell me where it is.

This has the added advantage of creating new woodland. There is nothing more relaxing than a walk in the wild wood. Parkland does not quite do it for me for some reason. I believe that many of the UK's problems (divorce, obesity, social isolation) would be helped if everyone walked a mile a day and got some perspective on their life.

The Email College.

One further source of free education is the Email College. Once you enroll (a simple process) you will begin to receive daily emails on your chosen subjects. There is no test and no set coursework all you need to do is read them and understand what they are trying to teach you. This will continue for few weeks and then you will be sent a link to download a certificate in PDF form.

There are a couple of objections to this (from the employers perspective). Firstly, there is no proof that you have actually done the work. The courses themselves are interesting, well structured and useful but ultimately the system relies upon honor. I would advise you to take them seriously but not to rely upon them too much in interviews because they are not recognized qualifications.

Many good people have periods of unemployemt in their lives. Employers understand this but they want to know that you have been busy improving yourself. These certificates help to fill gaps in your C.V.

It is important to place your certificates under headings such as these. If you present them as a random selection of unrelated subjects they will be of little value to the employer.

I have completed each of these courses myself.

BUSINESS STUDIES.
Speaking and Presentation Skills.
Feedback Skills.
Understanding Statistics.
Information Reading Strategies.
Personal Ethics.
Time Management Tools.
Why Memory Tricks Work.
Writing an Email Course.
Searching the Web.
Freelancing.
Recruiting Staff.
Podcasting.
Writing to Newspapers.
Listening Skills.
Making Better Decisions.
Never forget anything again.
Finances for growth.
Growth strategies.
Practical project management.
Promoting yourself.
Customer care.
Market Research.
Reading Skills.
Improving your memory.
Deliver great speeches.
Think like a genius.
Google Ad Word sales.
Getting Creative.
Thinking Techniques.
Credit cards understood.
Reading for Life.
Learning Styles.
Information Management.
Basic Writing Skills.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT.
Aromatherapy.
Aromatherapy and pregnancy.
Personal fitness.
Alternative Medicine- a guided tour.
Film Noir.
Dealing with Stress.
Reading a Novel.
Film as Art.
Film Reviewing.
Opera Explained.
The Philosophy of Reason.
Buddhism.
Walking for Health.
Palates.
One Minute Workout.
Relaxation Techniques.
Vegetarian Eating.
Get the reading habit.
Getting non fiction published.
Historical novel writing.
Ghost writing.
Gothic fiction
Paranormal romance.

Open Table (ChodeCard).

This is an interesting site. You may reserve a restaurant table online and receive points that may later be spent on meals. If you are doing this for Chode purposes (buying expensive meals to impress a woman)- stop it- but if you insist you should first do this free online wine course and be a well informed chode.

Chodes have such dismal lives that you will doubtless need a free electronic shrink. This is funded by the NHS and is science based, unlike most of the stuff out there.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (the system favored by the electronic shrink) helps an individual to find out exactly what is making him unhappy. If he a Chode he will realise this and need a plan to change his life. I would recommend the following free resources. The book of Pook, Bishops Journal, Pickup Podcast and Approach Anxiety. This amounts to hundreds of hours of material and means that you do not need to pay for anything. Also try PUA Lingo.

Airmiles.

Airmiles is the granddaddy of all the loyalty schemes and is currently making a comeback. The best way to use this scheme is to shop as normal on the high street. Then go away and compare prices and specifications. If you still like the item you may then reserve it through the airmiles site so that it is there for you when you come back. This counts as a Internet purchase which entitles you to airmiles that will be credited to your account.

It is generally better not to spend your miles on flights. This is because the likes of Ryanair sell flights so cheaply that this is no longer worthwhile. I would order a mixed crate of wine (at 650 miles) which is actually very good.

Account aggregateors.

There are a number of account aggregators on the market. All of them are free but only some are useful- or safe.

So what is an account aggregator? An account aggregator is a website that is given permission to enter all of your finance sites and to fetch information from them in order to display them on a single page. This can result in a deluge of advertising because the website operator then has access to your entire life and can suggest alternatives to what you have.

Recent news about Sony losing the data of 100 million PlayStation customers  should also make one worry about the security of financial data on these services and for this reason I am not currently recommending them.

Far more useful is the Awardwallet site. This collects information on your various award schemes and presents a unified statement. This is a genuinely useful service as many of us are members of schemes but cannot recall the card numbers or login details which mean we have effectively lost the points. Awardwallet also keeps track of expiring points and warns you about them. I will not worry greatly if someone hacks into my loyalty points. They can have a free coffee and a croissant at my expense. This is the worst thing that can happen.

There are also a number of very neat mobile phone apps that physically replace your loyalty cards. If you see something you would like to buy but do not have your loyalty card- no problem! Simply select that particular scheme and up pops the bar code which can be scanned like a normal card and you will receive the points as usual. I use the CardStar app because it is the only one that runs on my phone. There are many alternatives however.

Nectar.

Joining Nectar is free and rather fun- because nectar bargain hunting is an addictive hobby. Nectar works rather like a supermarket loyalty card except that there are many different ways to collect points.

As a general rule, if you are offered a cash benefit in return for giving up the Nectar points, you should so so. I will tell you how to do this in another post.

Nectar points can be spent nearly as easily as cash. You can walk into some stores and charge items to your loyalty card as if it were a credit card. Neat.

Never buy anything just for the points! Having thousands of points can make one feel rich because they are worth only half a penny each. This is how they hope to get you!

If you have a PC, download the toolbar and get paid (in points) to surf!

The Coop.

Fancy owning a bank, an insurance company, various farms, and a funeral business for £1? This is the deal that membership of the coop offers because you will be legal joint owner of all of these outfits when you join.

The coop is a far more focused and rational business than it was during its long relative decline. It is actually the first time we can truly talk of 'the coop' because up until recently it was a complex federation and not a single company at all.

Profits are rising nicely due to some painful disposals- including abandonment of mainstream food retailing. The company is now more of a convenience operator.

Fortunately (because the coop is owned by its members) this means the return of the dividend. Get yourself a card and see if you can make it work for you.

N.B The beehive photo is included because the coop is trying to 'save the bee' and is better placed to do this than almost anyone as it is one of the countries biggest landowners. Most flowering plants are reliant upon bees to reproduce. Butterflies will do the job at a pinch and some trees can self pollinate but we will all be in deep dodo without the bee.