Always try to minimize the amount of example code you post. One of the downsides of getting free help is that when you post something that overflows the screen, it's a lot harder for us to get motivated to wade through it.
I think your problem is here:
EL is not intended as a programming language. Programming should be done on the Model, not on the View. In particular, read/write property references, such as those made by "value=" are unsuited for programmatic access, since
Java doesn't return references to objects, it returns objects, and a method call is effectively only going to read and not write.
So try this instead:
>
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.