The camp memo said to dress warm, to bring a sleeping bag and to wear rough terrain shoes. So, I dug up my son’s old sleeping bag. I’m staring at it and wondering what it smells like. Afraid I’ll faint. I’m thinking, this will be a natural sleeping pill which I will need just in case the snoring among my 2 cabin-mates come to full crescendo. I decide to surprise myself when I get there. Of course, there’s this strong possibility that I will just suffocate from the fumes that have percolated inside that bag over the years. I wonder if dying from sleeping bag fumes is covered in my insurance.

Are you afraid of the dark? I grew up with a very imaginative family. We would watch horror movies and share stories to scare each other. We just loved to get scared. Strange human behavior. It must have something to do with endorphins. And yes, I was open to the possibility of UFOs, Abominable Snowmen, Yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, ghosts, vampires, Frankenstein, Werewolves --- I was messed up …. just like everybody else.

Raoul’s Two Cents: October 24, 2025 Frightful Passages If you don’t want to ponder, move on to the Jokes. To be relevant with the season, I wanted to talk about the big event just around the corner – Halloween! I toyed around the idea of writing about the decorations, the costumes, the history but — meh! – these themes have …

My Singaporean friend sent me a Youtube link to Singapore’s historical rise to success. I was a kid when the legendary Lee Kuan Yu made his decision to transform his minuscule country from a fishing village into an international trading port.

An immaculately clean well-lit room with a 360 degree computer screen hovering around me with an endless number of browser windows --- each containing different topics, with the most relevant topic enlarged in the center.

I was shocked at the arrogance of some politicians in recent videos. Here in the US and other advanced countries, politicians and businessmen (who have enriched themselves) constantly lie through their teeth as though there were no consequence. And what’s even more remarkable is that there are people who actually believe them.

Adam & Eve After the Fall: In today's world full of angry protests, I think we've forgotten that we're on the same expedition of life. Everyone is rushing up the mountain of power and pushing everyone else down. We should know it's lonely on top of the mountain. Why would we want to go there?

LAUGHTER IN THE RAIN: Last week the stabbing pain hit me in the lower left abdomen and my lower back simultaneously. I could neither bend nor stretch. I nursed myself to bed like a pretzel. Then, in the middle of the night, my wife woke me up from a deep sleep. “The downstairs bathroom is flooding!” Immediately, I jumped out of bed. “Yowch!” The pain was still unbearable! But I forced myself down while grappling on the stair railings. Every step was agony.

SEPTEMBER MEMORIES: When life was simple, one of the first songs my Mom taught me was this song from the Off-Broadway play, The Fantastiks. Today, in a world filled with anger and hate, it may do us good to recognize how far mankind has deteriorated and return to a time of beauty, goodness and innocence. After all (starting with Adam and Eve), it was the grownups who messed things up. Who says life has to be complicated? If enough of us want it, we can certainly aim for it.

I found the city’s pulse unchanged — same wild energy, same eccentric souls. Fashion’s evolved though — tattoos and sneakers-with-suits replace Clairol curls — but the “come as you are” dress code still thrives. Pajamas? Sure. Cell phones? Glued to every hand.