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 |   On a daily basis... things that bump around in my head and make me go... hummm! |
My new blog:
This is not just a collections of personal musing but it is a place where I can vent. Talking about daily events on the local, state, and national scene is my way of letting off steam so I don't come home and kick the dog! We are all the Captain of our own "Ship of Fools." We go where the current of the times take us and we do what we must to be able to sleep at night. Now this Captain will speak his mind about that current and about the ocean on which we each sail....... ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** {image: ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** PLEASE MAIL ME YOUR VOTE FOR BLOGGER OF THE MONTH OF AUGUST. This is a shot of Me and Mel at our wedding. We were married in a simple ceremony on a deck overlooking Lake Livingston. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I am so proud of my new Siggy which was made by the very talented vivacious   . Thank you so very much for all the effort that went into this.** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** This was taken from the wall in the Blogville Post Office. If you see this fugitive, please do not approach, he is armed and stupid. Contact the Blogville sheriff's office at once, then take cover! ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** } ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| It is about three thirty in the afternoon here and I have just managed to get out of bed for a bit. I was supposed to go to work today but couldn't make it. I hate missing work and I hate being sick. More than anything else though, I hate not knowing what is making me sick. It is a gray, overcast, rainy day outside and it shows all signs of being this way until tomorrow. I have Bach on the CD player and his music is filtering through my headphones now....God it so fits the weather, I do love his music. Toccata and Fugue for the Organ in D minor is playing. It is such a soulful piece. I wonder what he was feeling when he wrote this music. I think I undersand him now. I have to be careful when I listen to Bach because if any of my Bubba friends find this CD I could be drummed out of the Redneck Texan Brotherhood. I usually keep it hidden between my Willie Nelson Collection and a couple by Waylon Jennings. I love how the Classicical music can make your soul soar or weave its way to the very bottom of whatever emotional pit you may have fallen into. To be honest though there are some comtempary pieces of music that can sometimes do the same thing. I mentioned Willie Nelson up there, and he really is one of my favorites because of the lyrics to his music. They tell a story, each and every one of them and at times I have felt as if he was writing of my own life in his music. Bob Seger is another modern singer/composer whose music I love. His songs, You'll Accompany Me and Like a Rock are two of my favorites. LOL...am I dating myself here? Sting and his song Fields of Gold is a perfect example of an artist and his work that is able to reach out and effect people. To me one of the most erotic love songs I have ever heard was "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias. Do yourself a favor and listen to it with someone you love or if you can't be with that person...send the song to them and have them listen to it. The man gets his message across! I have always been intrigued by how music has been used to manipulate our emotions. The first thing I look for in a movie as a matter of fact is the Musical score and how it adds to or distracts from what is happening on the screen. The movie can have a so-so plot and great music and I will watch it over and over. A good example of how music can make the movie is "The Last of the Mohicians" starring Daniel Day Lewis. The story was very familiar to me, taken from the James Fennamore Cooper book, but the music just MADE the movie. I have never seen music so closely matched to the story before. The music enhanced the action on the screen. I know there are a few others in this catagory but they just don't come to mind right now. Do you have a favorite movie score or a song that particularily moves you? Let me know what it is...I am always open to music. |
| I was sitting here today and wondering what to write about in my blog. Well, I have found a topic. Ok, its offical, I am steamed! If I have a pet peeve, and lord knows I do have a lot of them, the thing that would top the list are people who come into your port and leave a bunch of 1's or 2.5's and never once leave a reason for the low score. Look people I don't mind if you think something I write is garbage.....just do me the courtsey of telling me WHY what I write doesn't meet with your approval. I would never leave a low rating on someone's work without also leaving a note to explain WHY I scored it low. Maybe it is just me. Maybe I am not sophisticated enough or worldly enough to not let this crap bother me. To me, going through someones port and leaving low ratings with no reason given is cowardly. At least have the courage of your convictions and, in effect, sign your name to those low scores. Tell the person what, if anything, they have done wrong with the piece. How else are we able to improve? I think this is the one weakness of this site, the ability to leave ratings without reviews. ****************************************************** Ok, I've taken a deep breath now, and I have calmed down. Time to move on. Have you ever given any thought to things you haven't done yet but want to do before you die? Personally, I want to see the sunrise over the Rockie Mountains and I want to see a sunset from the vantage point of a blanket on the beach with the woman I love. Oh, and just once I would like to drive the coast highway from Calif. to Washington. I have heard so much about this drive and the beauty it affords the lucky driver. I am so lucky to live in a place with so much natural beauty. I wonder why I have never took the time before this to actually get out and see these things. TIMING is everything I suppose. |
| I really didn't think it would turn out this way but today has been a very productive day. I just posted chapter three of Bygone Heart in my port. From this point on I hope to dwell less on the combat phase of the story and start getting into the relationship between Brian and Kim. in the end of this chapter i bring her into the story and they see each other for the first time. I really hope I can do this part of the story credit. I have to say writing love stories isn't my strong point. Please feel free to go in my port and check out this chapter and let me know what you think. I think I will lay down for a bit now....I will be here reading later so you guys have a wonderful weekend. |
| Good morning. It is Friday and I am off today. I plan on getting at least one chapter done today....sometime... As I reported the other day...I had my MRI. Do you know what the most painful part of that test is? It is right before they take you back to the machine, when they tell you HOW MUCH THE TEST COST! The sweet young lady didn't bat an eye as she informed me that the test cost 7,500 dollars. I told sweet thing that there must be some mistake, I had no intention of BUYING the damn machine....just wanted the test. She assured me that I should not worry, my insurance would pick up something like 80% of the cost....big deal! i did some quick figuring and decided that my SMALL portion of the bill would come to 1500 dollars! Can you imagine being very sick and not having the insurance? How many people, every day, find basic tests that might help doctors discover and treat their problems, totally out of the question because of the inflated price of the test? There is a great dispairity in this country between the health care of the poor and those who can afford insurance. This is a problem that has only gotten worse over the past twenty years. Many, many companies do not even offer insurance to their employees and of those that do offer insurance, many of them pay a wage so low that it is hard for the employee to buy that insurance because they NEED all the money they earn just to live and pay the bills. Let's take Walmart, for instance, since I work for them. Walmart likes to tell others that the median wage for workers in their stores is 10.00 per hour. Well actually it is much lower. They use the figures for their stores in places like Calif. where the wage and cost of living is so much higher. In Texas 85% of new employees are hired in at minium wage...just over five dollars an hour. I make almost 10.00 an hour and I am in the top 5% of HOURLY workers in my store. I have been there almost seven years now. It was not until three years ago, when my pay got to a certain level, that I was able to afford health insurance. Where is the fairness in that? The CEO of Walmart gets 12 million in cash and stock incentives over a year and the people who make that possible, the worker, gets minium wage. So what happens to people who can't afford insurance who develop life threatening illness? They die, that's what happens to them. While those who can afford the best treatment live. Is this the modern version of Darwin's Theory of Survival of the Fittest? ******************************************************** Ok, on to more pleasant thoughts... Have any of you been following the thing they are doing on the Today Show? They are doing a segment called Live for Today...where they choose one person a day who has written in to them and make that person's dream come true. I really wish I wasn't a coward. Why didn't I write in? My wish they could have helped me with would have been a simple one. I would have wished for someone with a major publishing company come into writing.com and read my port then tell me if any of it was worth publishing. The problem with that is that I have never been able to write some TV show like that. Never wrote a fan letter either. Oh well, I will just keep plodding along and hope for the BIG BREAK we all secretly hope for. Oh, by the way, tonight NBC is airing the last episode of Third Watch. This is "Must See TV" as they say. Third Watch is one of a handfull of really well written examples of eposodic TV. It is a shame that the Network is taking it off the air, maybe they just want to make room for another damn REALITY show! Ok, well I guess it is time to write...hope to post a chapter some time today, if I can stay out of bed long enough. Do any of you remember Amazing Stories. This was Stephen Spielburg's first effort at Television. I loved that show. The writing was always superb. Anyone who loves short stories loved Amazing Stories, Hitchcock Presents, Twilight Zone, and Outer Limits. Now those were some great shows...and we didn't have to watch morons vote each other off an island either! |
| Well, it is 8:07 a.m. and here I sit. Usually I make an entry after work but today I am going in later than usual. First I have to go get an MRI done. I have to admit that this test worries me a bit. I know, I should follow my own advise and say "WHY WORRY". The thing is, I have felt, for some time, that there is something amiss with me but I was perfectly happy NOT knowing. Now the luxury of ignorance is about to be taken away from me. If the news is good....then I have nothing to worry about. But, if the news is NOT good...then I have to make some decisions about the rest of my life. Ok, this is what I hate about the whole "Journal" thing...if I talk about myself I end up getting way too personal and sounding like some kind of whiner. So, let's talk about something important. Like why can't employees of Walmart get to shoot one customer a day? Do you have any idea how much stress that would relieve for us? This is especally true at the first of the month when all the government checks arrive and every trailer park in two counties empty as the rabble stampede to Walmart. It is always the same....They hit us like a Chinese human wave charge and we are overwhelmed. This month is no different. The worse of these attackers are those folks who demand an electric cart to shop from. Now our Walmart keeps twenty electric carts for our customer's use. For those elderly, or infirm folks who can not walk around our huge store without help. But do you tnink THOSE are the people who use them? Hell no! What we get are those who are just too lazy, or too FAT to walk. They will beat the invalids into the store and grab the electric carts and away they zoom, leaving some poor ninety year old lady struggling with her walker without any means of locomotion. The worse part of this is that the store will not allow us to stop this abuse of the carts. We can not say a word to some thirty-something behemoth who waddles in and plops down on the poor cart. All we can do is watch as the cart struggles to pull the load down the main isle. The really aggravating thing about this is that these are the same people who feel that having a cart to ride on is their RIGHT. They seem to think that we are bound by law to make sure they don't have to exert themselves. Nothing could be further from the truth. I had one extremely porcine lady grab a cart one day. She cut in front of a man who HAD ONE LEG! She almost knocked him down getting to the last cart. This woman tipped the scales at over five hundred pounds and when she sit on the poor cart, which is rated for four hundred pounds, she looked, for all the world, like an elephant sitting on a unicycle! Well, when the cart barely rolled under her weight, she turned to me and yelled: "WHY CAN'T WALMART GET CARTS THAT MOVE FASTER"? I couldn't help myself. I told her: "Lady, the only way that cart could go any faster right now is if we put a Cummings Deisle motor in it and 18in. tires under it!" The man with one leg who she had almost knocked down, howled with laughter and gave me a "thumbs up". The lady turned red and slowly rolled out of sight...mumbling to herself. It was a very satisfying moment. We don't get many of those! Seriously, I know there are people who need those carts and I am glad we have carts for them to use. It is just those people who take advantage of the service when they don't really need them that makes my blood boil. They have no regard for the really needy. They are self centered and selfish and I never miss a chance to slam them....its what I do and God help me, I do enjoy it! |
| Well heck. I was going to expound, today, on the war in Iraq and who knows, I might still get to it. But, before I could get in here and write, I went back and read Rebecca's Blog (its a good one btw)and I decided on a subject change for my own Blog. Writers tackling difficult characters and how best to handle them. I love trying to write characters who have nothing to do with who I am. It makes me exercise my tiny writing muscles when I try to capture a character whose circumstance and mental make up is totally different from my own. It always amuses me when I read the cover of a book and find out, for example, that the main character is a lawyer, living in the deep south who gets involved in a mystery while deep sea fishing in the gulf of Mexico. Then I turn to the back flap and read the bio of the author and find out he is a LAWYER who lives in FLORIDA and loves to deep sea fish in the Gulf of Mexico. You see, to me it doesn't really take a lot of imagination to write a story like that. I usually just set the book back on the shelf and move along. For years the standard advise to new writers is to WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW. In the last few years though another school of thought has gotten some exposure. Write what you DON'T know....thereby learning as you go. Your very act of writing causes you to learn. To do this, Research is paramount. You must immerse yourself in a subject or a type of character and learn all you can about them. James Mitchner was an expert at this kind of writing. Take his book, "Centenial", he started the book with the life and death of a dinosaur. From that point he proceeded to weave a history of the land that became Colorado and at the end of the book he tied in the Dinosaur from the beginning of the story. He was a master at this kind of writing and when you read one of his books you will learn volumes about the land, the people, and the history of both. This also works with individual characters. If, for instance you are writing about a man or woman who is experiencing true love, but you yourself have not found this love and are skeptical you can still let the character experience the emotion. You have to IMAGINE what true love is really like, you have to allow your character to have that emotion, and you have to just go along for the ride and see where it ends up.....HAVE AN OPEN MIND AND BE READY TO LET THE CHARACTER DIRECT THE ACTION. Now I'm not saying that it is worng to have characters that reflect your own feelings, likes and dislikes. I have done that quite a bit too. To me though it is just more fun to delve into a character you are not familiar with and let them run....let them develop and see what happens. Indeed, I have written some stories that have very little fiction to them. "Journey Into Darkness" is one such story. I was only able to write the story by fictionalizing PARTS of it....the emotion was too powerful even after all these years. How ever you write a story.....write it from your heart and enjoy the ride of creation that happens when you weave a tapistry of words into a STORY. |
| Ahhhh....another day in the master's cotton field is behind me, time to relax on the front porch of my hovel and comtemplate the wonders of life. Or, I could just sit here at the computer and do my stress managment exercise-write in my blog. Well I survived the trip to the doctor...he tossed the bones and read the chicken entrails and came to the conclussion that I needed to be on BP medicine. Actually two meds it turns out. One of the pills is for BP alone and I had no problem with that. It was the other one that made me go...UH??. This other pill was for "Congestive heart failure". Ok...what's up with that? The dang ticker hasn't failed me yet so why do I have to take pills for it? And, probably to pay me back for all my witch doctor jokes, the dang doctor has scheduled me for an MRI on thrusday. He took a little bit too much pleasure telling me that he wanted to check and see if I had experienced what they call a "Mini-Stroke". It's like I told you in another blog entry...once the doctor gets his claws in you he feels duty bound to find as much wrong as he can....it's like he is working on commission or something. I was discussing this sad turn of events with my buddy Randal at work today and he asked me if I was worried about the MRI. The question reminded me of a sage bit of advise my ole daddy gave me years ago, just before my all expense paid vacation with Uncle Sam. Dad Said..."Why worry." To which I said: "UH"? Dad expounded on the theme: "Son, why worry? You really only have two things to worry about in life...whither you are well or sick. Now if you are well, you have nothing to worry about, but if you are sick you only have two things to worry about. Will you get better or will you die. Now if you get better, you have nothing to worry about. But, if you die, you only have two things to worry about. Will you go to heaven or will you go to hell. Now son, if you go to heaven you have absolutely nothing to worry about. But, if you happen to go to hell YOU WILL BE SO BUSY SHAKING HANDS WITH YOUR FRIENDS YOU WON'T HAVE TIME TO WORRY!" So you see, dad had it down pat. Why worry? I repeated this advise to my buddy Randal who listened quietly then, when I had finished he thought for a moment then shook his head. "You know Dave,"he said seriously. "I sure hope nothing happens to you because then I will be the most twisted person at this store." Randal is such a compassionate guy, that's why I like him I think! LOL...I remember repeating this advise one day while laying on my back behind an acient stone wall and listening to the bullets SMACK into the stone or whine angerily over our heads. I shared this wisdom with another buddy of mine who was laying next to me trying to keep the elastic in his ass from snapping outta fear. He too paused and thought about it...then he told me: "You know if I wasn't so low on ammo I would shoot you myself." LOL....some guys just can not see the humor in a situation! |
| In another blog, which I enjoy reading, there was a discussion about journal vs. Blog and the differences. Well maybe I should try the Journal style of writing this animal. In other words, just talk about my day, much like I would in a diary.....let's see if it works for me. Today started like most every day for me. I groaned and fell out of bed around five in the morning, crawled into the bathroom and commenced the early morning voodoo rituals which more or less transforms me into some semblance of a human being. Five thirty five: I am now walking upright and take the proffered cup of hot coffee from my wife then stumble over to the computer, sit down, and check my writing.com mail. Six fifteen or so...I am off to the modern day version of the Master's Plantation cotton field....WALMART to start my work day. There I spend eight hours being pleasent to a large group of Trailer Park refugees while they satisfy their shopping blood lust within our isles. WAIT........this ain't working. The above is about as interesting as watching paint dry. Ok, let me try it another way.... The rising sun finds me standing on the deck of my sleek, powerful two masted pirate ship. I supervised my men as they rushed about throwing off the mooring lines and making ready to set sail. By seven in the morning The Westwindslipped out of the harbor with me manning the wheel, headed to the high seas and adventure! Yeah.......Now that's more like it! That's what is actually happening the entire time my body is trapped in Retail Hell....now that is much more interesting than mean ole Mr. Reality. **************************************************** Hummm.....no, I think I will just stick to blog stuffage. My life is way too boreing to inflict on unsuspecting readers here. What topic should I touch on today? Oh, I know.....The Runaway Bride. Over the past couple of days that's all I hear on the news, or read in the paper. Now they want to press criminal charges against the Georgia woman who got cold feet right before her wedding and ran away. She let everyone think she was kidnapped and there was a big search for her. She finally called in yesterday and let them know she was safe. I say no, they should not charge her with any criminal offense. Just let her alone and let's move on with our life for God's sake. I think she has been through enough. I mean, hell, if you were going to charge her with anything it would be exessive Stupidity. She never stopped to think what it would do to her family and friends, thinking she had been kidnapped and probably killed. Did she not think anyone would search for her? No. The thing is, she didn't think at all. Her big mistake was making a decision based solely on emotion. I don't care if you are a man or a woman, if you act strictly on emotion you will be inviting trouble. So let's just make her the poster child for Stupid and let her get back to putting the peices of her life together. Surely the media can think of something better to obsess over. Well I think I have wasted enough space for now. Time for me to get back to writing.......and reading....and reading...and reading....GOD I LOVE THIS SITE! |
| The other day I got a rather interesting little booklet in the mail so I thought I would share some thoughts it brought to me. The booklet was one of those things all major corporations send out to shareholders...this one was from my bosses at Walmart. I own stock so I get one of these puppies every time they send them out. Let me share with you some numbers that jumped out at me this time. The President and CEO of Walmart is Mr. H. Lee Scott Jr. Mr. Scott earns a very nice living with Walmart. Check this out....... Salary for 2005-$1,242,308.00 Incentive Payment-$4,124,772.00 Other annual Compensation--$276,847.00 Restricted Stock awards--$6,325,016.00 Number of shares underlying options granted--339,001.00 All other Compensation--624,550.00 Nice numbers uh? This is just the numbers for Mr. Scott. There are five other guys who make just nominally less than Mr. Scott. Ok, here's the thing.....Scott is always refering to himself as one of the Walmart team...like just another assocate. My question is just WHAT DOES MR. SCOTT AND THE OTHER FIVE GUYS DO THAT HELPS US SELL PRODUCT? Could we take the thirty mil. or so we pay them and maybe pass that along in savings to the consumer? Look, I know every big company in the world has a board of directors and every big company pays their board members a great amount of money....what I want to know is why? Do they package the product, get it to the public, stock the shelves? Do they do anything that can not be overseen by hourly wage earners or mid level managment paid a down to earth salary to do what the big money directors do? I don't know about you, but it just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to know that I bust my butt 40hrs. a week, at less than ten dollars an hour so that we can be a big success and Mr. Scott can get his multimillion dollar paycheck! Call me old fashioned, but I don't think there is a CEO anywhere on the earth that has ever done anything to warrant paying him 12.5 million a year! I know, you probably think I am some kind of communist or something. Nothing could be further from the truth. I am somwhat to the right of Attila the Hun as a matter of fact. I just believe in paying a fair wage ONLY to people who actually EARN it. I am not sure about the rest of the world, but I firmly believe that America has become top heavy with these fat cats who attach themselves to a business and suck it dry while personally producing nothing of value in return...kinda like a leach isn't it. |
| I thought I would try something different with my blog today. It seems that I have a few folks who come in here regularly and read my babblings so I thought I would try, once a week, to post my picks for things to read. These are stories, essays, and poetry (sometimes) that I have run across in writing.com that I think everyone ought to read. For this first week I have chosen some real winners!! 1.
This is a really funny look at Lust after fifty by Nada and I loved it. Nada has a number of essays in her port and I recommend you read ALL OF THEM! 2.
This is a novel in progress. I started reading it a couple of days ago and I was hooked! Do yourself a favor and check this one out..its a winner. 3.
4.
5.
Oh, and just a suggestion, if and when you go read these items, take the time to R&R them. I know the authors would really appreciate it. Now go! Get busy and read this stuff. You won't be disappointed! |
| Remember that old saying: You can't judge a book by its cover. I think we are all guilty of that every day, in one way or another. Let me tell you what got me to thinking about this. One day last week, while at work, I noticed this young man walk into the store. Now it has been hot here, in the mid 80's with about 65% humidity and this kid walks in wearing this long black overcoat which almost touched the ground. He was about seventeen i guess, with long, stringy black hair and a nose ring and an erring dangling from one ear. The very first thing I thought of was....Here is a shoplifter for sure! I mean I was sure of it. I radioed our security guy and gave him the boy's description and told him to watch the kid and see what he steals. Now I gave the kid no more thought. I went on about my day, then, finally, it was time to go home. I clocked out and walked from the store out onto the parking lot. I was half way to my car when I heard someone behind me calling. "Sir, Oh sir" The voice called. "Pardon me..." I turned around and, to my surprise there was the same young kid and he was hurrying to catch up with me. I stood quietly and waited for him while wondering what the heck this pierced, punked out kid could want with me. I didn't have long to wonder. The boy came to a stop in front of me. He was a little breathless from running and he was holding out his right hand for my inspection. "I'm sorry sir," he said. "But did you drop this?" I looked at his hand and saw that he was holding out a wad of bills to me. I took it from him and counted it, there was twenty five dollars in the roll in assorted bills; ones, a five, a ten. Well I was, for once, dang near speechless. I shook my head in wonder then told him: "No son, that's not mine. Where did you find it?" "Back there by the front door."he replied. "I left right behind you so I thought you might have dropped it." "Well it's not mine but I guess this is a case of 'finder's keepers." I told him. he shook his head vehemently. "Oh no sir, I couldn't do that. I will just take it back in the store and turn it in to the Service Desk." With that he turned and walked back inside the store leaving me wondering just how I could have been so wrong about a young man as I was him. This episode brought home that old saying to me...I judged THAT book solely by its cover...and I was WRONG. It gave me hope for the younger generation...while questioning the responses of my own generation. Well I am glad that I am still able to learn something every day....makes life interesting don't it. |
| Well the witch doctor was unable to see me until monday so I spent most to the day in bed then, about one this afternoon I started feeling better, got up, then went straight to the computer and pounded out CHAPTER TWO OF BYGONE HEART.....yahhhh!!!! Please, if you have the time, I would really appreciate it if you could go look at the chapter and tell me what you think. |
| Ok, I missed a day with my blog, but hey, I had a good reason. My blood pressure has finally worn me down. After spending a whole day at work suffering from BP spikes, I have given in and made an appointment with the doctor. I hate doctors. I firmly believe that a man is ok UNTIL he goes to the doctor....it's those guys who have the bad grace to tell you something is wrong...if they hadn't said anything then you would never have known and would be fine! Geeze, that didn't even sound right to me...BUT IT'S TRUE! Without doctors telling you that you are sick, you would be fine, but just having a BAD day. I have learned to live with the BP spikes. When it happens I can feel it and I will go check the vitals. My blood pressure usually starts its spike with a reading of 139 over 90 which is PreHypertension stage. From there, over a period of a few hours it will go as high as 180 over 120 with a pulse rate of 125. I call this "Riding the Wave". I hang on, stay at work and ride out the high readings with the pounding in the head, the numbness, and dizziness. Then it finally peaks and starts down. When it does that it feels sooooo good, lol. I am left exhausted and numb for a few hours and within a couple of days I am back to normal. So what was different about this time? Well, this time I didn't think it was going to peak. It seemed like there would be no downward drift to the numbers and I started looking for a nice quiet spot to fall down. So, I called in this morning and made the appointment for the doctor. He sounded suitably surprised to hear from me. I told him to get his bones and chicken entrails ready to read....I was coming to see him! I call him a witch doctor and can you believe he doesnt see the humor in that. The main reason I have relented and have made the appointment is because when the BP is on a rampage I am totally unable to write. My mind can't focus, hell I can't even sit at the computer. So, I can't have that. I have a book to finish. That damn Witch Doctor better come through with a miracle curse which expunges the evil spirits attacking my BP or I may be forced to have him drummed out of the tribe! ROFLMAO! I will keep you posted on the outcome. |
| Today I did something brand new for me on writing.com. I used the "Sponsored Item" venue for the first time and I put in my story MULLIGAN. At this moment I can look up at the top of this page and I see, in gold, the words: SPONSORED ITEM: MULLIGAN....Now for some of you this might seem like a small thing, but for me this is a sweet moment. I now know just a tiny little bit of how an author must feel when he walks by a book store and sees a poster in the window advertising his work. I LOVE IT! I want a lot of people who I don't know from adam to click on my STORY and read it. I want to know what each one of them think about the story. I WANT FEEDBACK! After all, isn't that what we are doing in here? Arn't we all trying to move just a bit closer to actually having our work before the public in a PAYING way? I love this story. It has a special meaning for me and it was a lot of fun writing it. I want this story to find a home someday in some magazine, or maybe be made into a screeplay. OOOH! Just noticed. It is also displayed on the left side scroll too!!! lmao! Please pardon me if I sound like some dang school kid but I really do love seeing this story displayed. Thank you writing.com for giving me and all the other struggling writers this forum to flex our creative muscles. Now....everybody run over there and click that story and read it, then let me know what you think. You can even tell me I am a no talent hack.....I will accept that. I may stick my tongue out at you, but I will accept your verdict. |
| Have any of you been following the news about the five year old girl in Flordia who went on a screaming and hitting fit in her school? They ended up calling the cops and handcuffing the kid. Now the child's parents are talking about sueing the school and the cops for handcuffing their little darling. I would not have handcuffed the child. I would have dumped her butt in the squad car, taken her striaight home and HANDCUFFED THE DANG PARENTS! They should be arrested for raising their daughter to believe that it's ok to throw a tanturm like that and hit people! What is up with kids today and, for that matter, their parents? When did we come to the conclusion that children should never be made to mind their elders? Did I sleep through that big sea change? Folks I raised five children, Three sons and two daughters and I can guarantee you that not one of them would have ever done what that young girl did. Yes. I spanked my children. Does that make me a horrible parent? You would have to ask my kids about that. They are all grown...the youngest is 18....and all of them have made a good life for themselves. I am proud of each and every one of them. If I suddenly found myself with one or two more children, at this late date in my life, I would raise THEM the same way. Oh, and something else I did, besides warm their butts when they misbehaved.....I made dang sure each and every one of them KNEW beyond a shadow of a doubt that their dad loved them. To me, that little girl in Fla. is just the result of bad parenting. Today, teachers can't disipline children. They are forced to call the police when the kids misbehave because the parents won't allow the school to hand out any punishment. Then the parents howl when the cops come in and treat the kids like little thugs...which is how they are acting. Bottom line is.....BAD PARENTS MAKE BAD KIDS. If parents are unable to put limits on children's behavior and can not teach them that all actions come with reprecussions and they won't allow teachers to teach these lessons, then how can they be surprised when the cops, the last resort, treat the kids just like their parents have all along...LIKE ADULTS. I am sure now that those parents, I assume there is two, of that little girl will sue the school and the cops and probably win. What have they taught that little girl? You act like a hoodlum, then when the cops bust your butt, sue them for trampling your civil rights. Yeah, that's a lesson that will probably stand that little girl in good stead later on in life....when she has her own kids and is on welfare, and gets caught shoplifting...SUE THE STORE FOR NOT LETTING YOU HAVE WHAT YOU WANTED TO STEAL. Parents....love your children enough to teach them right from wrong and teach them what happens when they do wrong. They will love you for it in the long run...I can attest to that. |
| In another online group which I belong to there was a question posed on the message board. The question was: What was the most memorable day of your life? Well, that could be any number of days for different people. For some it would be the day they met their spouse. For others it might be the birth of their first child. For me the question was an easy one. My most memorable day was that day back in 69 when I rode the Freedom Bird back to the world. It was on that day, as I walked across the stark tarmac of the LA airport, that I finally realized that I was going to live. Against all odds and contrary to all reason, I had survived the meat grinder. It dawned on me, in that moment that I was going to spend the rest of my life trying to figure out why I was spared. It was not because I was better, faster, or more adept at the art of war; many better at those things than me died there. Yet I lived....I can only hope that before I die, I get a chance to know the answer to that question. So, what was your most memorable day? Let me hear from you. ***************************************************** God, let's get off the heavy subject matter and back to things more entertaining shall we? Here is a list of five things you should never say to a cop who pulls you over..... 1. "Arn't you the guy from the Village People"? 2."That's great. The last guy only gave me a warning too". 3."You're not going to check the trunk, are you"? 4."Hey, you must have been doing 100 to keep up with me." 5."I thought you had to be in good phyical condition to be a cop." This list is just more of the great stuff found in Uncle John's Absolutely Absorbing Bathroom Reader. You know there is something that has bothered me for some time and maybe some of you know the answer to my quandry. The thing I have always wondered is why are land prices so high in California? Think about it a minute. No matter where you buy land in California it is all prone to either shake your house apart, slide your house in a wall of mud down a cliff, or burn it to the ground in a wildfire. SO WHY DO PEOPLE PAY SO MUCH FOR LAND THERE? I mean, it's not like moving to that state will bring you lower taxes or anything....Californians pay some of the highest taxes in the country. What is the big draw that brings people flocking to that state? I looked into real estate prices there not long ago and found that even an abandoned crack house in east LA would run you three quarters of a million! The whole reasoning behind this phenomenon just escapes this old country boy. Ok, enough of this! It's time for me to do something important, like go play poker online! See ya tomorrow! |
| I firmly believe that the human animal is genetically predisposed to requiring more than two days off a week. At this moment I am on day two of my two days off and I feel like I haven't even started yet. A third day would suit me just fine. That way I would have one day to do what I MUST do, a second day to do just what I WANTED to do, and a third day to rest and get back into the whole work or starve frame of mind! Wonder if my boss will buy such drivel....probably not, oh well. Yesterday I got the first chapter in my novel finished and placed safely in my port. This project is going to be a bear but at least now it is started. Today I have spent some free time (time not writing) reading other blogs and I have found quite a few that are really good and entertaining, I am going to have to spend more time reading them now, a few have me hooked. Today I would like to share with you some sayings I would most like to see on bumper-stickers. 1. The gene pool could use a little chlorine! 2. The more you complain, the longer God let's you live 3. We have enough Youth, how about a fountain of "Smart"? I found these pithy little gems in a rather unique book called Uncle John's Absolutely Absorbing Bathroom Reader. It is just chock full of really great little known facts and all around useless information. I think I will be sharing a little of those gems with you each day now. OK, time to get back to work and remember, Age is a very High Price to Pay for Maturity! LOL... I just love that book! |
| One of the first entries I made in my blog was about the California man who had been badly mauled by two escaped chimps and how, during the attack, the man had tried to REASON with the chimps! Well I came home tonight intending to do a google search on the subject and see if I could learn any more background to that story. I didn't have to do that thanks to ABC. I had the tv on for background noise as I fired up the old computer and lo and behold, what was on but a story about the man who was attacked by the chimps!! Was that timing or what! And of course there WAS more to the story. Seems the couple had gone to africa and they found a baby chimp in the jungle who was orphened and they brought the chimp home and named him Moe. The couple named him Moe and they raised him in their home just like their child. Apparently Moe was a little money maker for them too. Remember the seventies TV show, "Smokey and the Bear",about a truck driver with a pet chimp? Well Moe was the chimp. After that show thankfully was axed Moe went back to just being a stay-at-home chimp. No longer the pampered star, Moe was content to live the life of an everyday monkey in L.A. Until tht fateful day everything changed. Something must have snapped in the poor monkey. Did he miss the limelight? Was he lonesome for Smokey? Maybe he just wanted to get out and find his old fan base. Whatever the reason, Moe busted out of his confines at the Davis domicile and went on a rampage through the streets of West Covina attacking a police car then a policeman himself. Well after Moe was subdued, he was taken by the city and St. James and LaDonna Davis, Moe's owner/parents were charged with a criminal offense by the city. Now this is California so of course....ENTER the lawyer! Non other than Gloria Allred! On her advise the Davises sued the city for a civil rights violation. Ok, that lost me. Who's civil rights were violated....theirs or the monkey's? There were pickets in the streets of West Covina demanding the wronged simian be returned to it's loving human parents. So, of course this being California and the city fathers having not a ball between them, caved in and settled with the Davises and paid them 100,000 dollars! A little aside here....I am personally shocked that Allred represented Moe since he is a MALE monkey after all. Anyway, as part of the settlement agreement, Moe was forced to live in a wild primate refuge some distance from his home. On the day of the attack St. James and LaDonna Davis were at the refuge to help Moe celebrate his BIRTHDAY! That's right. Ole Moe was offically 39 and holding and the Davises wanted to share the moment with their hairy "son". And the rest, as they say, is history! Four other chimps use the distraction of the birthday party to make good their escape. Unfortunately they escaped BEFORE dinner time so two of the monkeys decided to make St. James their own personal "Happy Meal". Where was Moe all this time, you ask? Well seems Moe had his cake and was cowering in the corner of his cell. He had opted not to come to the aid of his "Daddy". Seems Buddy and Ollie, the two male chimps that had escaped took offense at not being invited to the birthday party, thus the attack. Moe probably didn't want to make either of those two any madder by helping St. James. So much for family loyality! Which brings me to the point of this story. When I was at work I got to thinking again about Moe and I thought, man, I could make a really funny story here. Then I see the TRUE STORY on TV and am amazed once again. There is no way I could have come up with anything as bizarre as the truth in this case. This quote says it all... "But never fear, Ms. Allred is on this case also, and has been cited by the press as demanding "immediate answers"; the couple hasn't decided whether they'll sue. (David Pierson and Mitchell Landsberg, "A Primate Party Gone Horribly Awry", Los Angeles Times, Mar. 5; Whether they will sue??? HELL YOU KNOW THEY ARE GONNA SUE SOMEBODY! Now, this being California, I am wondering if Moe, himself, might not be able to sue his keepers for causing him mental anguish by ruining his birthday party! You know, without California, who the hell would the rest of us have to laugh at? |
| Well, I have to work late today so I decided to make an entry early in my blog. I watched HOUSE last night and I was impressed. The show is very well written, and that is a rare circumstance in television this season. As for the main character and I sharing attrubutes...well he is good looking, and he is definately abrasive...LOL! YEAH THATS ME! At least in my own dreams that is. I hate to harp on one subject but I watched more news reports on the new Pope and it just gets better and better. We are told that the Pope, when still a cardnial, was referred to as "The Panzer Cardnial" for his pechant for steamrolling over anyone who disagreed with him. From Hitler Youth to Panzer Cardnial...Now that's what I call growth and change! What was really funny to me was the fact that right after they reported the fact of the new Pope's nickname, the reporter interviewed another cardnial who was gushing about how COMPASSIONATE and CARING...the new pope was. Again...irony just abounds with this story. Oh and did you catch the new Pope's age? He is seventy eight! This means that in the near future they are gonna have to go through all of this over again. You would think that they could have found a guy just a bit younger don't you. Would it have killed them to find a fifty something cardnial who might hold the job just a bit longer? It was almost like they were in a hurry to get a replacement. Maybe they all had plans for an early getaway for the weekend and wanted to wrap up the whole conclave, voting thing. I think this new Pope will afford us quite a few headlines in the next couple of years....I'm wondering if he Plans on invading Poland. |
| I had someone tell me yesterday that I reminded them of the title character in the fox network show HOUSE. Now personally I have never watched that show, but I will tonight. When I asked how I reminded them of that character they said: "He has this abrasive personality and he doesn't like anybody." I'm not sure if that was meant as a compliment or what. But, come to think of it, I guess that could be a pretty fair assesment of me. I do tend to be abrasive in this modern "Politically Correct" world today. I have always had the bad habit of telling people just what I thought....is that abrasive? The thing that really chaps my hide is the fact that someone like Andy Rooney gets paid a load of money being the same way, although he does add to the mix just a little. He is also obnoxious, loud mouthed, and a know-it-all so I guess he does give a little bit more for the money. Well, I feel a bit Andy Rooneyish today so let me expound on a few things that I too have limited knowledge of! Just like Andy. Ok, I'm gonna start with Rooney himself. It is a common misconception, in this country, that as you age you gain some kind of wisdom. Well I don't think thats true at all. I think that if you are young and stupid you will age to become OLD and stupid! So, how does he get away with some of the crap he spouts? Easy, he is very careful to say things that most people have thought at one time or another but just were afraid to come right out and say them....when they hear andy do it, it validates their own secret beliefs. You know, to be honest, I think the thing I dislike the most about Andy Rooney is that he is such a flaming liberal. What they need on 60 Minutes is another old coot who is just as opinionated as Andy but who is a raging Conservative, just to counter-balance the views. Well, let's see, what can be second on the list? I see by the news on TV that a new Pope has been named. Cardinal Ratzinger, the German Cardinal who was once a member of the Hilter Youth. Ok, am I the only one who sees the irony in that? Of course it really doesn't effect me because I happen to be protestant and so for me the new Pope is nothing more than a high paid Preacher. But, you would think that they could have taken an extra day or so and come up with someone better than an ex Hitler Youth to lead the millions of Catholics around the world......just this old country boy's opinion. I think I have pissed enough people off for one day. I think I will settle in and wait for that show, House, to come on to see who else is getting paid a load of money to act "abrasive".....wonder when I will get paid? ROFLMAO! |
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Congrats on 500 entries, and we are all looking forward to the sequel.
