What I say at Alcoholics Anonymous Meetings. My "Share." ---> Hi, I'm Greg and I'm and Alcoholic... and then I say...

I got into AA in the year 2000. I was living in Chico, CA at a Motel after getting fired from my job and getting evicted in San Jose. On New Years Eve, I was drinking heavily and watching VH1 Behind the Music for hours. There seemed to be a standard story... The Band practices for years, has a hit song, becomes Rich and Famous, Starts Drinking and Using Drugs, Some Members Die, others get Clean and Sober... So, I thought, maybe I should stop drinking before I die. I started going to three meetings a day. I ran out of money and had to go live in Bidwell Park. I ate at the Jesus Center Free Meal and rode my bicycle all over town. I sold my Stock that I had bought while working but it took months to actually get paid. Eventually I did get paid just before Winter... and I moved back in to a Cheap Motel. 

I met many interesting people at those meetings. Some had very worthwhile advice. I found that by Listening to the G. O. D. (Group of Drunks) my life became much better. They suggested I move into an apartment that a member of the group had a spare bedroom. They Suggested that I Get a Job at the Factory where a member of the group was supervisor. They suggested that I Take a student loan from FAFSA and go to college, In Arcata, California. They Suggested that I quit smoking Marijuana, do my homework and attend class every time. They Suggested taking a Job after Graduation at the Welfare Office as an Eligibility Worker... So I worked there for 7 years and Paid off my student loan. When my father died, I quit work. He and I had become friends after I sobered UP. One of the reasons I continued working while he was alive was to make him proud of me. I remember one time we were driving around the neighborhood and he pointed at a house and said... "See, I Raised You Boys Right, That Man's Son Became a Merry Prankster." (A reference to Ken Kesey's Band of Merry Pranksters - who promoted the use of LSD Nationwide.) My Father was proud that I had a Good Job Doing Useful Work. We sold his house in San Jose for a Fortune. I was given a Trust Fund because my family was afraid that I would Smoke My Inheritance...   

I retired and had the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do. My "roommate" is self-supporting and she wanted to stay at home, play with her cats, go on the internet, talk on the phone, take photographs etc etc etc. For a decade I have been traveling by myself and taking photographs, then showing them to her when I got home... I was her eyes... That allowed her to go visit events without leaving home. I drove over to Chico and found my friend Mike. We went to the Rainbow Gathering in Utah. We had a wonderful time. I met a woman who was selling Self Help Seminars on the Internet. I Bought Admission for $5.00 a Week for a year. By that time I had learned Everything She Had to Teach. 

I spent the next couple of years traveling and publishing my photographs on a Blog. I wanted to provide Driving Directions to interesting places and events so people could go visit... and if they couldn't go visit (because they lived in Australia or something) they could see what I saw online. 

When the State of Oregon Legalized Recreational Marijuana I drove North 112 Miles and Bought some. I spent the next 8 months stoned 100% of the time. I used my Crazy Mind to write Absurdist Fiction... It was very popular on the internet and My Blog started to have 1,000 visitors a day... I believed that the increase in traffic was because I was doing interesting art and fiction... What I have come to realize is that My Success was mostly because I had FOOLED THE GOOGLE SEARCH ENGINE to display my webpage for almost any search term. GOOGLE NOTICED MY TRICK AND CHANGED THE ALGORITHM. It is true that I thought up the idea while stoned... Marijuana DID allow me to THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. and fool myself into believing that my fiction writing was wonderful. 

In Alcoholics Anonymous There are Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. Tradition TEN states that AA has no opinion on "Outside Issues." For Example: AA has no opinion about Smoking Marijuana. That's an "Outside Issue." I have attended countless meetings while stoned. HOWEVER, I Personally May Have an Opinion, and I Personally Can USE the Twelve Steps to Quit Smoking Tobacco, Marijuana and Sugar.... 

That's all for now... Thanks for Listening.   



I learned a LOT by Listening to my G.O.D. Group Of Drunks. 

Popular Posts

LINKS TO MY BEST BLOG POSTS!
*The Violet Overgrow - An Eco-Warrior's Journey by Gregory Vanderlaan - FICTION

*Trump Confesses to Adultery! "Hey, Moses Was JUST JOKING When He Wrote those Ten Commandments...

*Generate Electricity and Clean Drinking Water AT THE SAME TIME. A Solar Powered Desalinization Plant Would Convert Seawater into Energy, Pure H2O and NaCl.

*Free Coloring Book Art by gvan42 - UFO and Alien Hieroglyphics

*Tree Sitters Protest Lignite Coal Mine in Hambach Forest, Germany

*The Passage of Roe v Wade Led to Fewer Unwanted Babies Being Born... and 20 Years Later, Less Violent Crime... Because Unwanted Babies Grow Up to Become Violent Criminals...

*FREE COLORING BOOK: Print The Drawings and Color Using Felt Pens, Pencils or Potatoshop... American Indian

*HEADLINE: Deadline for "Real ID" for Air Travel Postponed AGAIN Until May 7, 2025... WONDERFUL!

*My Music Video: FREE ALL THE CANNABIS PRISONERS - A Mockery of Nancy Ray Gun... Jest Say KNOW

*Bubble UP! Economics. Raise the Minimum Wage, Social Security and LOWER Taxes on 99% of Americans. Actually Collect Taxes on the Top 1%... We The People Will Spend that Extra Money in Our Paychecks and it will BUBBLE UP! Throughout The Entire Economy...

*How to Escape the Cult of Trump: Deprogramming by Family Members of the MAGA MORON is Essential... If Someone you Know has been Brainwashed... RESCUE THEM!

*The Best Five Restaurants Near Eureka, California - Eat a Fish, Watch the Boats...

*Trump: "The Art of the Failed Deal" Book. Every Deal in that book LOST MONEY. That's why He declared Bankruptcy SO MANY TIMES. Will his Business Stupidity cause the ENTIRE COUNTRY to Go Bankrupt?

*Photographs of a Journey to the Headwaters Forest - Now a State Reserve... Near Eureka, CA - Plus The Story of How It Came To Be!

*Rainbow Gathering July 1-7, 2024 Will Be In CALIFORNIA... Exact Location To Be Revealed June 15th... and As Soon as I Know, I'll Post Driving Directions and Maps Here... What IS The Rainbow Gathering? For Me, It's Woodstock with Amateur Musicians and I'm in the Band... It's a Week Long Backpack Trip for Thousands of People...


*Add THIS to Your Bucket List: Swimming at Bear Hole in Upper Bidwell Park, Chico California. Crystallized Black Lava Rocks - Basalt from the Eruption of Mount Lassen.

*Numbers have Cultural Meanings... A list from Zero to Infinity and Beyond... For example: 007 Means James Bond. 420 Means Marijuana. 5150 means Insane... and... 420 + 5150 = REEFER MADNESS!

*"Conspiracy Theories" that are ACTUALLY TRUE. MKULTRA, Cointelpro, CIA-Contra-Cocaine, Donald Rumsfeld Selling Weapons to Saddam Hussein, UFOs are Real... Sometimes people dismiss Truth as "Just a Conspiracy Theory" because they Don't LIKE THE TRUTH.

1967: The Summer of Love... San Francisco, Hippies, Flower Power, Peace, The Diggers, Haight Ashbury, LSD and the Grateful Dead. It certainly has been a Long Strange Trip. Congratulations to all those of us who have survived... One thing is for certain...The culture of the United States was radically different After the 1960's...



*American History: "The Thunder Machine" was a Giant Sheet Metal Sculpture that you Got Inside and Played like a Drum. Made by Ron Boise and used at Ken Kesey's Acid Tests.

For Maximum Effect, Don't Read This Book. Write Your Own! --- "Lessons Learned" by Gregory Vanderlaan. A Lifetime of Trial, Error and Survival Yielded These Words of Wisdom...

My Biff Rose Trip: Driving To a Cabin in the Woods - down The Coast of California from Arcata thru Ft Bragg to Mendocino... An Excellent Adventure!

How To Remove Smoke from Indoor Air. Tape a Filter to a Box Fan. During Wildfire Season the Air Indoors is Bad to Breathe...


Pretty Soon the Filter Turns Brown
from Smoke, Pollen and Dust.

Who WAS Ram Dass? In the Sixties, He was a Psychedelics Researcher and Promoter at Harvard with Dr. Timothy Leary. (LSD, Magic Mushrooms and Peyote) Then He went to India Looking for Enlightenment and Met a Guru. Changed His Name and Published a Great Book... "Remember: Be Here Now" - It Has His Autobiography and then Many ART Drawings Explaining Eastern Religion. Real Name: Dr. Richard Alpert...


Who WAS Ram Dass? In the Sixties, He was a Psychedelics Researcher and Promoter at Harvard with Dr. Timothy Leary. (LSD, Magic Mushrooms and Peyote)


My Autobiography: Growing Up in Los Gatos, California in the 1960s by Gregory Vanderlaan - and Living in San Jose, Washington DC, Chico, Eureka and Orangevale, CA.

I Was Born in 1954. We lived Near the San Jose Airport until they Started Landing Jet Airplanes and We had to move... We went to Los Gatos in 1960. I lived there until graduation from Los Gatos High School in 1972... an Ideal Childhood... FYI: Los Gatos is about 50 miles South of San Francisco on the edge of the mountains between San Jose and Santa Cruz.

I Went to West Valley Jr. College, learned electronics drafting and got a job at System Industries in Santa Clara... I feel blessed that not only did I grow up in a great location but I also grew up at a great time. I missed the Vietnam War by ONE Year and Silicon Valley Was Hiring Like Crazy When I Needed a Job.
Peace Sign Pie Chart
History of the Vietnam War. 58,000 Americans Died for Nothing... Something They Don't Teach in School Now... "Too Controversial" -

During the 1950s Americans went into a Mad Panic about Communists taking over the world. We built thousands of Nuclear Missiles and Fallout Shelters. The US Congress had witch hunts (Joe McCarthy-HUAC) to expose "Commies" who worked in The Hollywood Movie business and blacklisted folksingers that were leading our young people astray with Labor Union Organizing songs.


During the height of this hysteria Vice President Richard Nixon went on Television and explained "The Domino Principle" while pointing to a map of Asia. His theory was...

READ MORE: https://gvan42.blogspot.com/2017/11/a-brief-history-of-vietnam-war-58000.html

Who Won the War? DOW CHEMICAL AND HUGHES AIRCRAFT. Selling Napalm, Agent Orange and Helicopters...

Military Death Chart USA

AMERICA'S BOGUS WARS - Since 1945, The US Military Has Never Defended The USA, Not Even Once.

Ever since Victory in Japan, All of Our Wars have been Marketing to Sell Weapons for the Military Industrial Complex.







Free Coloring Book Art by gvan42 - UFO and Alien Hieroglyphics