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 |  "Putting on the Game Face" |
  This blog is a doorway into the mind of Percy Goodfellow. Don't be shocked at the lost boys of Namby-Pamby Land and the women they cavort with. Watch as his caricatures blunder about the space between audacious hope and the wake-up calls of tomorrow. Behold their scrawl on the CRT, like graffitti on a subway wall. Examine it through your own lens...Step up my friends, and separate the pepper from the rat poop. Welcome to my abode...the armpit of yesterday, the blinking of an eye and a plank to the edge of Eternity. Note: This blog is my journal. I've no interest in persuading anyone to adopt my views. What I write is whatever happens to interest me when I start pounding the keys. |
| Acknowledgement Today is a milestone. I've written a year's worth of blogs. I try and write a page and a half each day. It has really helped me as a writer. For those who have taken the time to follow my scribbles and the tangents you have my appreciation and thanks. Using the Time Tested Model Last night Linda and I went to the movies in Baraboo and saw Real Steel. It was a warm and entertaining screen play, that had a lot of excitement and the visual effects you'd expect from a top notch flick. What I found myself reflecting on afterwards was the model that the writer’s used. It was the classic story telling model that I have been hammering my students about for the past few weeks. The Central Character was a fighter (CC) who had run out on his wife years before and gone on to lead a dissipated life style. The movie provided a good before snapshot. The supporting characters were his son, girlfriend and a sparring robot they resurrected, and a host of minor characters all of who had a part and moved the story along. Every line of dialogue and every scene met the test. To begin with the audience saw the CC as a “Me” sort of guy who had hit rock bottom… To get the money to buy a new robot he shakes down the rich old man about to marry his deceased wife’s sister. As part of the deal he agrees to watch his son for the summer while they go to Europe. Now it appears that the CC’s want need or desire is to win, but slowly the theme of redemption begins to emerge as he and his son begin to bond. What follows is a string of crisis, each bigger than the last building in the “Rocky” tradition. In the end he begins to regret signing away his rights and there is the grand finale in the ring. By this time we have witnessed a complete turnabout in the CC’s character. He has a life changing experience and wants to be a good father. For those who aspire to become better writers I recommend you go and see “Real Steel” not so much for the movie, which is entertaining, but to follow along and see how the screen writers, religiously followed the science of good writing and the model that has evolved over centuries for the spinning of yarns. Much of what I read here at WDC is a meandering of whatever pops into the author’s head. It almost reads like stream of conscious. JRR Tolkien had a character, Gandalf’s brother, Radagast. He went around trying to wake up the trees. Sometimes I feel like Radagast. “There is a science to writing ,“ I lament in the wilderness. “It forms the frame-work for all the art that follows.” Ignore the science and suffer the consequences. |
| The Essence and the Stones My cousin came over today and we blocked wood and moved it via the tractor bucket over to the wood pile by the log splitter. Working together for a couple of hours we got more done than I could accomplish alone in a week. Then I came inside and read my Novella Essence and the Stones, Bedelia and Petra. They are all aspects of the same story. I have decided I’m going to combine them all into a single novel. Much of the material will not be included and become part of the back story. New material will be added to bring the parts into harmony. Some of you who have visited my port know that I am also a sensual prose writer. I have this view that you can energize your writing by skirting the edge of our human sensuality and later edit it out. When you do it seems that most of the energy remains even when the graphic details are deleted or referred to indirectly. It is an interesting concept and I’m glad this site gives writers an opportunity to experiment with what works and what doesn’t. So I caution readers who visit my port to pay attention to the ratings and if you are easily offended don’t read the material labeled GC. The first effort I made at writing fantasy was Essence and the Stones. Then I went off on a tangent and developed one of the characters, Bedelia while expanding a backwater of the fantasy. Finally I wrote some material on another character Petra, that looked at the situation from an entirely different perspective. When I read Stephanie Meyers, vampire series I could tell there was a lot of back story she probably didn’t include. For example the novella Brie Tanner which forms a connection but a digression from the main story thread. The character was in her series, but only briefly. This is what I have done with Bedelia and Petra. They are connected to the Essence and Stones saga, however they formed digressions. Interesting digressions, to be sure, so interesting that Bedelia began to eclipse Liope as the Central Character. In the digressions different aspects and slants on the story line began to appear and taking these side trips was very worthwhile. I now know that Bedelia is the Central Character, even though there are about a dozen well developed male and female characters spread throughout the works. As I wrote the variations on the main thread each of these characters began to emerge as serious players and they had a competition of sorts to determine who would qualify as the big cheese. When I read the Bedelia digression, something resonates and I find myself really liking her. So does my wife Linda. She gives me hell and says I ought to write Bedelia and quit fooling with all this other stuff … particularly the sensual prose… Keep it in the 13 plus classification and even that might be pushing the envelop of her tolerance. So I have about decided to write a second draft of Essence and the Stones that uses Bedelia as the CC but the whole rest of the cast too. I’ll be using the drama model and integrate the three takes into a comprehensive outline. Then I’ll do the character sketches. Then I’ll write the second draft. The expository writing will be disguised as poetic prose. The dialogue will be a crisp conversational banter that moves the story along. It will have all the undercurrents, repetition, and symbolism that makes for good drama. What it will have that most of my writing has lacked to this point is a structure that is built on the traditional model for good storytelling. Anyway I intend to start soon and will keep everyone in the loop as to how it is coming. |
| Actualization Last Christmas somebody gave me a computer game….“Call to Duty” It’s what they call a shooter game. I went through a period where I amused myself with them and I particularly liked the “Half Life” series. So I was up late last night and today I have a full schedule. My Cousin is coming over to help me split some wood. I received an update from a student this morning on Lesson 3 and it was encouraging. She seems to have had the light come on as to what the want need or desire of her central character is. Now you might think that is an easy thing to figure out but if you read literature that seems to head in no particular direction, this rudderless meandering can sometimes be attributed to this shortcoming. It isn’t just this student that has this problem right now, it’s several. My Dad used to tell me that you have to say something three times before it really sinks into most people’s heads. Getting the students to follow the model instead of their own lights is hard for some reason. I know I must sound self righteous but I don’t mean to be. I am as guilty as anyone else but these days I have learned to use it…even if it is coming through the back door and asking myself… Is it clear who the Central Character is from the get go… That this is that someone the reader or audience needs to attach themselves to… That they have a real want, need or desire that is not abstract but something a reader besides Sigmund Freud can relate to….. Do they reach the point where they are fed up with going with the flow, with the status quo and decide to do something to change the direction of their miserable lives, and once resolved do they create or encounter a series of crisis, each greater than the last. Do these build each wave bigger than the last until the biggie rears up in the climax and washes over, leaving them changed forever? Sometimes though I still get an idea and write a short story simply following my muse and giving no thought to the science of literature and when I’m finished, at least now, ask myself if I remembered all the ingredients and arranged them in the right order. Now this doesn’t mean the story or drama will be necessarily good. How good it is involves the other dimension of the craft….the art. I remember in my water color class, struggling for the whole period to produce something half decent… one good leaf on the plant we were modeling… frustrated, and having the instructor walk by and with a deft flick of her brush paint two or three in the space of a heartbeat with a beauty and wonder I could never achieve in a million years. That is what the art is and nobody is totally without any. It is the spark of God that illuminates all living things. It is the light in the light bulb and while dim in many and blinding in others we all have it and it shines in a vast array of different hues. Anyway the art in us limit’s the threshold to which our creativity can rise but for most it doesn’t really matter because we are too lazy to rise to the level of our potential to start with and need not worry too much about being constrained. But here’s the whole point! Without the science there is nothing for the art to latch onto…the science provides the structure upon which the vine can express itself… How’s this for a word Freud would like? “Actualization!” It’s the wow! When you write something and reflect… “This isn’t half bad.” Did I write this…did it bubble up from inside my mind or did I steal a thread from the skirt of a muse as she floated into my dimension? |
| On to Lesson 5 This has been the by-week for my class, the One Act Play. Everyone has made a submission in one form or another. In an e-class if someone turns in their homework that is a plus. If they don’t there isn’t much the instructor can do about it except to continue on with the class. However, I have been gratified that my students are at least submitting something each week. Now the something they submit might be less than I think they are capable of but what else is new? This is after all a workshop class (less the workshop) and in a given week I get one shot at them or at best two if they submit early. Having a by-week was one of the smarter things I did in setting up the course because it gives everyone a chance to catch up after week 3. Another good thing about the course design is that the first three lessons are really into the science of writing the play and the last three focus on the art. There is the outline, the character sketches and the rough draft in the first three weeks, then a break and finally will come the artsy part in lessons five through eight. The hardest thing about phase 1 has been getting the students to really buy into the model. Basically the model says a drama is about a Central Character (CC) with a want or need, who decides to act on it, faces several crisis, until there comes a climax that transforms the CC into a new person. In a One Act Play these have to happen fairly soon and in sequence and if one is missing the drama has a hole in it. In lesson 3, The First Draft, words must be written to flesh out the outline but even those should only give the structure a thin veneer. They should be written as well as the writer can but not agonized over. So even lesson 3 is more science than art. In phase 2 however there comes a not so subtle transition. This is where the serious writing begins and the art comes into play. Teaching science is one thing and art quite another. I think the whole notion of “Teaching Art” is a contradiction in terms. Still it is an aspect of literature that must be addressed to the extent possible. So lesson 5 will talk about artistic structure, Lesson 6 about monolugues, lesson seven about dialogues and 8 will be a catch-all for devices such as undercurrents (themes) symbolism, repetition, dialect and a host of other things that rear their lovely heads. Every student will come in at a different level and need help of a different sort and actually the second part while impossible to really “teach” is the most enjoyable, if the instructor just kicks back and deals with each issue as it comes up. Nobody is going to write a prize winning drama on the first attempt and there is no sense making the workshop more difficult than it needs to be. At the same time improvements must be pointed out, even if the students choose not to accept them. I can see potential in their dramas the students will never achieve and I need to know when to accept this fact of life and when to nudge them into the abyss of frustration. It is a fine line. |
| The Scary Story I tried my hand at writing a Horror Story, for a contest sponsored by the Determined Dyslexic’s Society. "Snagar, a Halloween Story"  [E] I like this group for a reason that should be obvious…it takes one to know one. I’m not sure my form of the affliction meets the classic definition but what I see tends to be distorted and at times appear almost incomprehensible. Spatial relationships, figures, negative logic and complex mathematical algorithms flow into my bio-processor only after being reduced to the most simplistic and lowest of common denominators. What I think I do is convert what I see into sounds. I take a vision and transform it into a noise. Then the noise into words and the words into sentences…. Before I try and feed it into my mind I have to understand what I’m talking about. “Monkey see Monkey do” drives me to distraction. Don’t ask me to blindly follow a process when I don’t know where it’s leading. (even if it all works out in the end)Anyway the first question that comes to mind is what makes a horror story scary? First I have to reflect on what scares me and then go back to what scared me as a kid between the ages of 8 and 18. I know there is a science as well as an art to writing a horror story and that a writer needs to first apply some time tested principles. For example, the threat of something that is unknown is more frightening than the actual viewing. Not knowing what is out there is more frightening than what the apparition actually turns out looking like. So it seems to me you have to not graphically show the terror to begin with but rather have it appear indirectly and let the imagination of the reader or audience flesh out the unknown with their own fears and assumptions which are often many times more terrifying than reality will ever prove to be. So you tell of the noises the thing makes, or the smell that assails your nostrils and just about any kind of sensory stimulus that stops short of the visual. Next I think you take the old standbys model. The Central Character (CC) is faced with a challenge, and there is a life chancing event and he resolves to do something about it and what follows is a string of crisis that begin to unfold. These should start out small and grow in intensity until they culminate in a climax where the visualization of the great fear is manifested. This would seem to me to be the model a scary story writer would follow. This is the science and writing the actual words is the art. No doubt there is still more, for example the tempo. To begin with the pace is slow as the CC gets drawn in and picks up as the drum beats louder and finally the symbols clash with the climax. Anyway it starts with the science and from there the authors artistic skills embellish on the framework. The next step is to get the characters etched clearly in mind. If they are clear in the writer's mind they should be clear in the readers or audiences. Using character profiles are useful as is test driving characters in short stories or other forms of literary expression. The Snagar in my story come from creatures in my novella, Essence and the Stones. I am not yet satisfied with how they appear and am testing another look in this short story. Then of course is the first draft. That is what I have just completed and intend to post initially as my contest entry. Then I 'll let it cook on the back burner and go back before the contest ends and clean it up. The reason I post it is to get feedback. Negative feedback is the best kind since I no longer need to be stroked for encouragement as a writer. For me a new set of eyes pointing out shortcomings is most useful. I don’t take it personally and indeed welcome it. When my reviewers have their say I’m ready for the massaging. I now have the story line, the characters, a rough draft, comments and am ready to embark on phase 2 of the model. A horror story, it would seem to me is essentially like any other story but one that exploit’s the fearfs and anxities that people have. So phase 2 should deal with undercurrents, exploit the fear mechanism, keep the reader off balance and constantly assailed everyone with the unexpected. Do not allow the viewers to rise up into any semblance of a comfort zone. Maybe a respite to catch their breath but no comic relief or any opportunity to marshal any real fortitude. Rather to keep up the pressure until they are reduced to a neurotic hand wringing. Set the audience up for one event after the other saving the worst moment for last as the reader retreats down the ladder of confidence and self assurance. Give them no opportunity for transcending their fears before the story ends and when that time comes leave the CC and everybody else trembling in their boots. This is what the writer needs to try and achieve and the questions they need to keep reminding themselves in crafting a Horror Story. |
| Visual Artists and Auditory Artists (Light and Vibrations) I am not a visual artist.. I love great visual art be it painting, schulpture or photography. I have taken watercolor courses just to see the extent of my talents and disappointingly there were not strongly in evidence. Actually they were not even weakly in evidence. I have the passion for visual art but not the talent. On the other hand my artistic gift, such as it is, centers on sound. I have never been trained in music but I love it and I have been writing poetry most of my life. I believe that like the visual artist who can “turn an edge” the beat and resonance of a writer’s style is the difference between good writers and great writers. I can see glimmers of it in expository writing in short stories, in poems and certainly in the dramas I struggle to teach. I have a friend who has dropped out of WDC who wrote romance novels that were published by a legitimate press. I did a review of one of her novels and commented that certain parts of her work seemed to be lacking in resonance. She asked me what “resonance” was. I suggested she take a poetry class here and her response was that she did not enjoy poetry and avoided it whenever possible. Yet she was not without talent as a poet as evidenced by parts of her writing that flowed along better than others. It seemed to me that she had never taken the time to acquire the technical skills that would have allowed her to showcase the talent she has in a more poetic sort of way. Clearly she got away with the shortcoming because she got her novels published but she was a good writer and I lamented her weakness in this area. My daughters could have been great writers. Life led them down different paths and they had many interests and responsibilities that took them in other directions. When they were younger I got them to learn some of Shake spheres famous soliloquies like Hotspurs, and Macbeth’s and Hamlets. They have an actress’s memory and sucked up the lines like a sponge. They can still recite them. If you don’t know what resonance really is then read some of these monologues and you will hear the master at work. Resonance is more important in some forms of writing than others but since drama is a synthesis of exposition and poetry it really explodes in a stage play. The screen play with the special effects has temporarily pushed the staged drama into the background but it will never supplant it altogether because of the way it treats resonance. In my blog yesterday I talked about technicians and artists. The biggest struggle I face as a teacher of playwriting is the poetic aspects of using the English language. The challenge is so daunting I avoid it. How do you teach someone to be poetic in the way they write exposition? Karen, my boss and mentor at New Horizons is a poet and she must chuckle at my attempts to explain the nuances of resonance, because I suppose she struggles with it all the time in her poetry classes. The problem is particularly acute in monologues which when well written are more like a song than a picture. This was so obvious to Shakespeare he probably didn’t give it a second thought but to writers today it represents a huge void of understanding. The idea of seriously trying to combining the effects of the vibrations and the light is not something that gets a strong treatment any longer. We have the poets and the novelists and only occasionally does the distinct art of the two senses come together. Shakesphere brought them together and when he did the effect was electrifying. Even though the language is becoming more and more archaic the genius of what he wrote still continues to shine and resonate. One of my favorite sayings is by Hesiod, a contemporary of Homer. He stated something that gives hope to us all. “Those too are excellent, who know the best when they see it.” |
| Late Bloomers I definitely think I will use these blogs to write the lectures to go along with the lessons. I guess the question is how many are enough…. Before the student gets bored and throws up their hands and quits reading.? Then there is the reality that a little bit of Percy Goodfellow goes a long way. Everybody in a class sees the process from a different slant and takes away different things from the experience. For an instructor it is a never ending rollercoaster ride of highs and lows, watching some writers grow and others who drift away and follow a different path. Not that a path other than the one I advocate is a bad thing but sometimes writers are headstrong and insist on following their own light and who am I to say my approach is better than theirs. When I think of all the great writers who have succeeded despite the advice of their critics I am humbled. I have never felt that all wisdom resides in this mind and I wish everyone the best even if I don’t always agree with the paths they choose. One would think that if someone is taking a course they would listen to the instructor and try their model before embarking on a tangent but writers are often independent, stubborn and insist like Frank Sinatra, in doing it, “My Way.” The first question I always have for myself in trying to understand a student is where they are coming from. Do they come from a solid academic background in high school and perhaps even college or graduate school or have they never gotten a real opportunity to absorb and let the English language take root? For those who english is a second language the challenge is enormous to write at the publication level. If the student is seriously deficient in the basic skills I have a different set of expectations. I want to help them make their play the best it can be. I try and limit the tough love and this is different from how I approach a talented and well educated student. The way you determine this is go to their port and read samples of their writing. The second category are the educated and talented students. These tend to fall into those inclined to the science of writing and those with more of an artistic propensity. Those into the science do well at first and no doubt they got good grades in school and are used to having their class work receive high marks and laudatory comments. The Artists often struggled in school and since most academic institutions find it easier to measure science than art tend to reward those with the science skills. However, science can be learned and art is a gift from God. There are some students that have both and these are the ones that like the cream rise to the top. An artist who is not technically adept can acquire those skills but at the expense of hard work and pain. However, the technicians will ultimately only rise to the level their artistic talents allow and therein is the real difference between the two. The artist is used to struggle and the technician is used to praise and will never understand why their work never quite makes the cut. This is why many of those who excel in an academic setting fail to rise to the next level in the competitions of life. They usually gravitate to academia or middle management and never really make it to the big time. I believe that most “Late Bloomers” arrive once the technical understanding finally sinks in, takes root and the artistic talent can then piggy back on top of it. |
| The Continuing Saga of Lesson 3 I am learning more and more with each student. I tend to classify them into several general groups. One group consists of the technicians and the artists. It isn’t that some are one or the other, but rather that like being right or left handed, some tend to one aspect of the literary process and some to the other. It’s sort of like the order in which you eat the food on your plate. There are those who eat the nourishing stuff first and save the dessert for last and vice versa. Anyway in writing a Drama I definitely think the Dramatist should begin with the science. Indeed lesson 1 and 2 of the course deal almost exclusively with that aspect. I worry about the scientifically inclined. They excel at the early requirements and get bogged down when it comes to the creative part. I had a great student last semester quit when she got to lesson 3 thinking the process was going to serve her as it had in the first two lessons. She simply could not make the transition from the science to the art. All the ingredients were there, all the rules of thumb followed, and the character sketches done to perfection. In her play the integration didn’t work, the drama was anemic and the dialogue was hopelessly out of touch with reality. In other cases I see students who have the art gene in spades and struggle with the science of writing. The reason so many don’t make it as writers can usually be traced to one or both of these areas. My mentor and hero for the One Act Play course is Buzz McLaughlin. I love to quote him because what he says rings so true. The first symptom that something is going amiss in a drama is the Central Character. “It is critical that your thinking focus on one central character. Probably the single biggest problem I’ve run up against over the years as a teacher and dramaturge is that people can’t decide who their plays are about. I find myself reading ten, twenty, thirty pages into the script wanting to know who I’m supposed to be attaching myself to and identifying with and I don’t have a clue. Sadly, I too often still don’t by the end of the play.” I build restorations… old cars, born again. There are two phases to this process. These are essentially getting one running again and then doing the body work. Some call this substance and form or use other words but you get the idea….One deals with the science of the project and the other deals with the art. For me the science needs to come before the art. Just as in doing a restoration I begin with the frame, suspension, engine, transmission and drive train. Then you crank it and see if the mechanical parts operate in harmony. Only then should you begin to think about doing the body work which is the real art of the restoration. If however, someone is artistically inclined it will evidence itself in an agony over words before the structure is set in place. To be sure you have to write words once the outline is completed and the character sketches are firmly in mind, and yes those words should be crafted to the best of the writer‘s ability but in a first draft the dramatist needs to keep up with their inagination that is the vehicle which is relating to them the story line of the drama. If you try and polish every word, the muse will be in the next county before you get to the end of the first sentence. When you finish a first draft it should be pretty bare bones and then you need to go back with a check list to make sure all the components and ingredients are included. Where they are not add them in and then go back to the supporting documentation (Outline and Character sketches) and bring it all up to date. Then take the draft and write a synopsis of the play. Scene 1, 2, 3, just the basic thread of the parts that compress the story line into its essential parts. Then read this over several times to get it firmly in mind and have the synopsis sitting next to you in the work area. Then go back to the first draft and add in or strike out anything that is not included in the synopsis. Make sure every line moves the story forward from beginning to end. When you finish, the manuscript should be about half the length of what it will expand to when it comes to full fruition. In other words as you polish and refine and build resonance into the monologues and crispness into the dialogues the play will expand but everything the playwright adds will move the basic threads of the story along. So how hard is that? Duh!….It’s hard as heck. |
| Are We There Yet? My Students have completed or on the verge of completing Lesson 3, The First Draft. Think about it, less than halfway through the course and they have a first draft down in black and white. No longer is it necessary to speak in abstractions about vague concepts. Now when I point something out we both have something specific to refer to. A first draft is a fluid document. Hopefully it contains all the components I have been emphasizing for the first part of the course and while it represents a significant milestone nothing is really dovetailing nicely together yet. Most will soon discover that significant rewrites lie ahead. Other swill see that the structure needs to be revamped to get that hub spinning the way they want. (Ouch!) If they are in the ball park I will tell them to sit on it this week and do little. If they aren’t we will have to keep plugging away. Everybody is still hanging in there and that is encouraging. Last semester there were only two left standing at this point. Nobody is satisfied with what they have and that is a good thing. If they were happy each would be even more resistant to change and there are a lot of changes still to be made. For some it will be plenty and or others a whole lot more. There is still the integration, timing, and acceleration that needs to be worked on and all the non-essentials to be deleted. Everything must contribute and what is missing must be added in and we are not talking at this juncture about polishing and fine tuning… Forget that…. That part is still a ways off. However we do have a good first draft and time still to work on it. I hope the process of what we do from the first draft forward will be eye opening because many new playwrights haven’t been to the first draft stage before and think when they get there it’s almost finished. (Are we there yet?) I wish I could say, simply clean up some grammar and spelling and they’re finished. A good draft comes about halfway through the process …. A light appears way off at the end of a dark tunnel… and we’re right on schedule. The last time I taught the course it was an accomplishment to simply get through it. This time I have more students and there are a lot of ideas that begin to suggest themselves to make the class better. Foremost is the idea of having a daily lecture to supplement the Lesson. It will be like what you read in this blog but in a lecture format and sent out in a group email. Everybody likes to get emails here at WDC. Is that a good idea or what? So there will be course pages, Lesson Plans and Daily Lectures. In addition I asked Socalscribe if he had some references for a Screen Writing Course. I might begin writing one of those. It will be similar in many ways to the One Act Play Course but build on the lessons learned. Maybe If I find a promising assistant instructor I could devote some time to writing it. Also I am thinking about writing a how to book on the One Act Play. Ideas, ideas, ideas… is there no end to them…? unfortunately there is but that is a depressing subject we need not dwell on. |
| Living on Half a Brain Sometimes when I’m tired I do my best work. In my younger days my mind raced so far ahead of my pencil that I couldn’t keep up. Often I would quit in frustration and watch my imagination sprint off over the horizon knowing all the cool thoughts and ideas that had flitted through my mind were soon to be lost and forgotten. As I get older the energy is no longer quite as intense as it once was and if you throw in a little exhaustion, then I find it easier to keep up with my thoughts and get them keyboarded down. Last night I had a dream. In the dream I had a beautiful young relation, (say a cousin) who told me that she needed me to lie in her behalf. She was being called before some sort of tribunal. Then she gave me a text on lying, which explained how to do it with a straight face, remembering your lies and making sure they didn’t contradict one another. As the dream went on there was a long parade of my other relations walking about like in Mardigras attire, extolling the lies they planned to tell on her behalf. Towards the end I resolved to tell the truth when it came my turn to appear before the magistrates and it caused me no small amount of anguish. Don’t expect a moral to this dream….It is like so many I have…. Bizarre, irrational, and defying any remote form of interpretation. At least this one was not terrifying. As a matter of fact all the costumes were colorful and pleasing to the eye. Today I cut wood with my chainsaw. I have ten piles in my yard and I have to get them blocked and split before winter gets here. As I was cutting Mark and Steve came by. These are my neighbors that helped clear the roads when we had the last storm. I was wearing my A.D.D T-shirt that says… Attention Defici…..wow! Is that a butterfly?” They chuckled to one another as they read it like it was an inside joke….I get animated at times and people around me get wide eyed like I arrived last week from Mars. I was talking about the importance of breaking in a diesel engine….Like that was something they were really interested in. Mark wants to borrow the splitter tomorrow. He has some big blocks to lift and mine has a hydraulic lift platform. When I got my speedometer installed I had to calibrate it. The sensor was located on the end of the transmission and works by reading a mark that turns at a one to one ratio with the engine. To calibrate it you had to push a set button and drive two miles and then push the button again. I did this and the Speedo worked beautifully. It was all “Monkey See Monkey Do (MSMD)” This is to say that I followed the instructions and it worked. I don’t understand how it worked and the instructions did not elaborate on that. I’m sure there is a chip in the gage that can calculate your speed if it knows how many revolutions the drive shaft turns in two miles… don’t ask me how but it can… Must be like calculating the third side or angle to a right triangle if you know a side and an angle… or a power equation were if you know two of values you can calculate the third. Anyway I am better at MSMD than being able to conceptually rotate things in a spatial plane… The intelligence measuring questions like A is to B when B is greater than 4A but less than C… drive me bonkers… Negative logic does the same thing. It took me a year and three tries to make a “C” in trig. I remember telling myself the first day of class… “now pay attention. Don’t get behind because if you do you’ll never catch up.” Sure enough the professor drew a cross on the blackboard and said numbers up and to the right are plus and numbers to the left and bottom are negative….That was the last thing I understood for the rest of the semester. Where is this leading I know you are asking….? It’s like that dream… Nowhere. Absolutely nowhere. Believe it or not I can actually program in C++. I love the language but if there is an algorithm of any complexity I have to get somebody good at that sort of thing to write it. I can identify the values that flow into the equation and the values I want to flow out but how they get mucked around to the right answer is beyond my pay grade. Isn’t that the darndest thing you ever heard tell of? |
| Still more on the One Act Play Course. I have a number of handouts that go with the One Act Play Course. These include examples and Rules of Thumb. I know the students read these but like reading from a text book words are often abstractions until you have actually tried the process. Thus when I see the first drafts coming in there are always some missing ingredinets that were not added. So I have this checklist I provide about midway through lesson 3. Since I firmly believe that writing a drama is similar in many ways to writing any form of literature I will share them with my interested readers to see if they resonate. Checklist for the First Draft. Most everything on this checklist are issues that were brought out in the handouts. You probably read them but they were abstract and theoretical and maybe a bit fuzzy until you actually sat down and wrote your first draft. Now you have that in black and white and at this point you should have a real understanding of what these ingredients are. 1. Does the central character have a strong and compelling want need or desire.? By compelling is it earthshaking, leading them to a pivotal decision that will change their life. What is it…? One of the first questions the audience will have consciously or unconsciously is what is the central character’s problem and what do they intend to do about it. This issue should emerge in the first scene possibly in the first monologue…. The playwright simply cannot afford to wait until into the second scene to make a statement as to what this is. 2. Once the audience knows what it is that is driving the Central Character (CC) and realize what this life changing circumstance is, they want to begin to see the obstacles rearing up that keep the CC from realizing his or her goals or desire. The first hurdel (crisis) usually is the least intense but they grow until the big tsunami rolls in. That is the climax. Does your play have three (or more) crisis that build in intensity as the drama moves along. 3. Do these crisis bring an emotional load to the audience. Does seeing them take place cause them to yawn or lean forward in their seats? 4. In your character sketches there were many things mentioned that will not be directly expressed in the drama. The drama is the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the drama are undercurrents and the biggest of these is the theme, or message or whatever is really at the core of what the Central Character is about. Often we say and do things that are “politically correct” because the real problem, the undercurrent is too difficult to face. We have to find a politically correct reason to serve as the proxy for what the real problem is…. This is often referred to as the undercurrent, or hidden meaning… A good play has this taking place even if it is a comedy or light romance. What is the moral or theme or underlying message of the drama? 5. Humor often arises in the contrast of the undercurrents and the superficial story being presented. It also pops up with the expectations of the characters, often unrealistic, as they face the light of day or come into conflict with reality . Good humor is not something you can write directly…. You must see its potential in what is going on and coax it into the script as it happens along the way and rears its head as a target of opportunity. Is there humor in your drama? 6. Does every line move the play along… There is simply no room for words that don’t in some way push the drama forward. Have you ruthlessly gone in and removed words, phrases and/or blocks of dialogue that might sound cute, witty or well written but are not overtly or subtly moving the story forward? In a One Act there is no room for tangents and digressons that serve no purpose in advancing the play. 7. Is there an important event in the drama that you tell the audience about in a monologue or dialogue that they really need to see. Keep in mind that unlike a short story a stage play has a stage. The audience not only gets to hear (read) what is happening the get to see it. You will certainly do some telling but if the event being described is huge you need to show it . Don’t say in a telephone conversation…”I saw frank slap Grace,” when that slap was the life changing event in the Central Character,s life…but rather find a way to show it to the audience. I will stop here for now… There is plenty more to consider but I don’t want to overwhelm anyone. These seven things are big questions I will be asking about your play. If you don’t have them included consider bringing them into the picture. These are not trivial omissions if they are not included |
| More on One Act Play Class I like to write my blog’s in the evening and give it a rest. Then I work them in the morning putting it in final form. There is a lot to be said for letting your writing cool off so you can skim off the flux that rises to the surface over night. The same can be said for firing off emails in the heat of the forge and regretting not allowing them to settle to room temperature. I’m sure everyone can attest to the truth in that and probably think of a few personal examples. Teaching a course is every bit as much a learning experience for the instructor as it is for the students. When I designed the One Act Play course I did a smart thing. I took a great reference text by Buzz McLaughlin, “The Playwrights Process” and used it as the core document. To be sure I read several other texts on the subject but his was far and away the most useful. What he did was sit down with sixteen (16) of the top playwrights in the country and use those interviews to write the book. It was a great idea. What resulted was not what Percy Goodfellow thinks, Buzz’s view of the craft, or some researcher or college professor, but the views of the Profession’s top practitioners. It soon became clear that the first two lessons had to deal with an outline and character sketches. A good stage play doesn’t just come together by magic as the playwright idles along. From the outset there needs to be prior planning and some clear thinking…Listen to what Buzz had to say. “….plays are wrought rather than written… raw materials must be shaped and formed into a working whole by following precise specifications. All parts must serve as a function to the finished piece. And like the wheel the play must have a hub, a center, which distributes the load evenly. It must spin freely. It must have perfect balance. If a wheel is made wrong it will quickly fall apart while running on the roadway. If a play is made wrong it will quickly fall apart while running on the stage.” This is something most students don’t realize when they start out. They think, “…how hard can this be?. Three little scenes, some action and bango!, I’m finished. Why I’ve written short stories the same length that have gotten me a lot of praise and compliments. I have arrived! Is Percy ever going to be impressed with what I crank out.” So my reasoning went on how students think to begin with and based upon it saw the need to front end load as much structure as possible before giving rein to their talents. I want them to succeed so badly but it soon becomes evident that this is a bit more difficult then they anticipated and somehow still need to bring out the best out in their work. Some don’t see it in these terms, perhaps think me a bully or that I go too far in telling them what to do. They write something that might sound good on the surface but that wheel wobbles and threatens to fall off before the third scene rolls around. I get nervous as I read their creation, imagining what the audience is thinking as they sit watching and listening to this "drama" unfold. Then I have to figure out what’s missing or poorly wrought and tell them what it is so they can consider fixing it. Sometimes they choose not to fix it and become indignant and discouraged and wonder if I really know what I’m talking about. I am acutely conscious regarding my own limitations but still I know when something is wrong and not working..., even if I can’t always precisely put my finger on it. So I say, “have you thought about this or that…?” And they come back…“What the heck are you getting at Percy? “ And the frustration builds and the pain intensifies. At this point the temptation is great for the student to throw in the towel and I have to try and sense when to back off. The point is that learning any craft is a painful process. Some pick it up quickly and for others it takes longer. Some of the quick learners peak and go no further….Some of the strugglers have the light come on down the road and surge forward. My challenge is often deciding what is enough and what is too much. However when I see the first drafts budding to maturity, the blush on the rose if you will, it's quite a high. I have some great students this semester and each brings to the table a unique set of experience, talent and writing skill. How lucky can a guy get? |
| Accountability One of my students wrote me that the technique she learned in Lesson 2 of the One Act Play was very helpful in a mystery she is writing. It is always good to receive this type of feedback. In the references I used to create the course the importance of character development was stressed so much I had to give it a major treatment. This class isn't about what I think but about time tested techniques. However you can have a great outline and character sketches and still fall sort of a good drama. Some playwrights take a year or more on what we covered in the first two lessons. I am pushing the students hard and risk losing them to discouragement and realize fully the thin ice we skate together. A drama is the highest form of story telling and I believe if you can ever figure out how to write one you will have success in all your other writing endeavors. Another student turned in an exceptional Lesson 2. Anyone who wants to see a good effort in this area should go to “eventrap”s port and see her submission under her One Act Play Folder. When I initially read her outline I had a vision of what the characters looked like and the photographs and written criteria strongly confirmed that impression. Shifting gears, I risk boring my readers with views on government but being involved in this hugely important process is something I think everyone should be more involved in. I do not feel particularly partisan and see both parties as seriously deficient. Neither is following the Letter or Spirit of the Constitution and where we are headed as a nation is into dangerous and uncharted waters. Indulge me while I hammer The Federal Reserve and Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Federal Reserve is the nation’s Central Bank. It sounds like Socialism and Central Planning to me. The other night the candidates were talking about the Federal Agencies they would shut down and I was hoping to hear the Federal Reserve mentioned. I might feel differently if they were audited and accountable to the American People but they are not. They operate under a shroud of secrecy and either need to be shown the light of day or boarded up. A big and unappreciated reason the nation is in the mess it is, is because they print too much currency….How much is that…? Your guess is as good as mine…. They won’t say. That and Americans are entitled to know about the Gold Reserves and how much is actually still in Fort Knox. Ron Paul and Barney Franks both think so and these guys are politically at opposite ends of the universe. Another Federal Agency I have problems with is the Bureau of Labor Statistics. They need to run their algorithms and post the results. All this massaging and adjusting just undermines their credibility. All this disregarding of criteria like energy and food has to stop Why can’t they just run the numbers and post the results. If they feel obliged to explain spikes and downturns then by all means do so but don’t mess with the numbers and try all this slight of hand. Even if they are not politically motivated having the capability to fudge the statistics with these seasonal adjustments mean that values are being played around with and inserted into the formulas to make things come out the way someone wants, or put the best possible spin on the bad news. We know all Federal Agencies are run by political appointees and when an agency starts messing with the data it makes us even more skeptical. This isn’t Venezuela. Right now if you accept their numbers and run their inflation calculator comparing this year with last year you see inflation at 3.89 percent. That is almost 4 percent. It is to my view grossly underreported. When I look at what gold sold for this time last year and what it is selling for now… that to me is a much better indicator of inflation that what the BLS is telling us. On investments today you are lucky to make 2 percent and on savings one percent. By this estimate people who once depended on interest income are not getting any and so have had to go into their principle and even that is being eroded by inflation. The new aristocracy is Government claiming to be champions of the downtrodden and disenfranchised…. What they are setting in place is the same old Socialist claptrap that has failed in every country it has ever been tried in. We need to get the Democrats (Socialists) and most of the Republican (Status Quo Party) out of office and start over. I would love to see about half of the three letter agencies closed down and the remainder significantly reduced. I would like to see a flat tax and term limits. Mostly I would like to see Americans return to the Constitution which is not a panacea but much better than the social welfare state we have become. We need to have policies that grow the middle class rather than destroy it and quit trying to reduce everyone but politicians and civil servants to the poverty level. |
| Taking Liberties with the Constitution Today we went to the Marshfield Clinic for some lab testing. In the main lobby is a small art gallery and I got to talking with the curator. We had a lively conversation about artists that have more a passion than talent and I told him about Hesiod. Hesiod was a contemporary of Homer and said that “Those too are excellent who know the best when they see it.“ Linda is a patron of sorts and has an eye for the good stuff and a talent for making quilts… She used to teach it when I was attending a school at Newport Rhode Island. Then this evening we went to Steven’s Point for a tax and estate seminar. Linda has completed the H&R Block tax course and for years did our books. We attend these seminars and always learn something new but I think Linda and I missed our calling. We should have become lawyers. The presentations were much too technical for the old people present and were not well tailored to the audience. One of the speakers is our advisor, on occasion, and a very smart lady about most things. Anyway today my WDC time has been spent reading and commenting on the first drafts of the plays that are being worked on and submitted. What the first drafts tend to show is that the writers are more focused on the gilding than the lily. What I mean is that a play has to pop! It has to be fuzzed, packed with explosive, wrapped tight and when the curtain goes up the whole thing has to take off with a bang. In other words the first iteration on a first draft needs to focus on and compress the essential thread of the drama and not worry so much about how the polished product will look and appear later. It’s easy to say and much harder to do. The outline needs to be squeezed down to the essentials and each line needs to advance the story one idea at a time without digressing from the central focus. Each crisis needs to build in intensity, feeding off the energy of the last, building on the momentum until the final wave sweeps across the theater like a tsunami…and then comes relief and closure. Sorry, don’t mean to lecture. Linda says I don’t talk to her enough. That she wants me to think out loud so she can be a part of the process and interject her two cents worth. I know I can be somewhat of a solitary sort and do try be more outspoken but it just isn’t my nature. So she turns on the radio and listens to the conservative talk show personalities. This is good because I can snooze while she gets a chuckle out of Rush Limbaugh. I have always thought socialism was an attempt to go back to the aristocracy and the serfs. Ironically it portrays itself as a champion of the workers but what plays out is quite the opposite. We have seen the model work over a long period of time in the Soviet Union and Europe and in the end a new aristocracy is born. Those who serve the government (Government Workers) become the new aristocracy and everyone else gets regulated back to serfdom. Party members got their dacha on the Black sea and everyone else got the dole. The only real difference was that party membership was not hereditary. No wonder the system collapsed when there was no longer an incentive for management to manage and workers to work. In the United States we have a system called a Democracy driven by an engine of capitalism. Theoretically we realize that the market place is irrational and while these pat little economic models advanced by Marxists might sound convincing anybody who thinks an economy can be controlled is deluding themselves. Central control and planning doesn’t control the economy any more than the weather man controls the weather. Under our system we have a middle class as well as rich people and poor people. The goal of socialism is to destroy the middle class and give their share to the elite and as little as possible to the serfs. This is what the redistribution being advocated by the Democrats is trying to achieve. The Republicans are not much better. They are Champions of the status quo where the capitalists are running things and form an aristocracy of sorts. This is better than socialism and realizes that the bureaucrats are totally incapable of planning and controlling the economy and poor deciders of how capital should be invested. The fruits are distributed more to the advantage of the people but the wealth is still badly skewed in favor of the wealthy. The Republicans want to keep everything the way it is. Big central Government with the rich in charge. In theory the Constitution was a pretty good plan for giving everybody a chance to rise to the level of their talent and industry. It promised nobody a free ride but what it did offer was a chance for everyone to succeed. Some take better advantage than others, however, since the Civil War the trend has been to big government and small state and local government. The more power shifted to Washington the further it was removed from the people. We need to hang steadfastly to the principles of the constitution. It is an imperfect document in an imperfect world but a whole lot better than any of the other alternatives. |
| Rustling and other forms of Thievery The jails in Wisconsin are full of criminals just like in all the rest of the states. Many just don’t get it…. Break the law and you go to jail and even some of these “White Collar” prisons are not places someone would like to get locked up in. What is scary is that if the Liberals have their way the ranks of the incarcerated will swell to include those who don’t share their views. Already we hear cases of homeowners being prosecuted because they shot trespassers breaking and entering. Every year there are half a dozen stories of how a home owner lost everything trying to protect their personal property and of law enforcement refusing to act for fear of retaliation by the ACLU. I suppose that what we hear on the news are only the spectacular horror stories of our justice system skidding out of control and no doubt there needs to be some protection against some crazy homeowner blasting away at everyone who drives by… but the impression is locally that law abiding citizens are being victimized and prosecuted rather than the criminals who perpetrate the crimes.. There have been a rash of break-ins… particularly of seasonal homes here in Wisconsin. At first the migrants get blamed but when the actual wrong-doers got caught they are usually the home grown variety. There has also been talk about rustling going on…. Of angus cattle being stolen and butchered. Yesterday in the paper was a story of Hog rustling in Iowa and two hundred fifty head disappearing overnight from some farmer’s shed. I was glad to see at the end of the article a local farmer commenting that stealing that many hogs requires a degree of sophistication that is well beyond your typical thief and a pickup truck. Anyway the Mexicans get blamed for a lot to begin with before it turns out the real culprits live a wee bit closer to home. However, from what I see on the news and hear from those who comment on my blog… It really depends on where you live. What goes on around here isn’t the same as what is happening down on the border. We have a drug problem in the state but nothing like the trafficking down in New Mexico and Texas. Bad people are walking around with AK 47’s and Border Agents are getting shot. The gang violence down there has not yet expressed itself in the seasonal migrant workers who perform jobs nobody else is willing to do up here. Today when we returned from shopping in Stevens Point my wife was giving me instructions of what to carry in an where to put it. Finally all that was left was a big bag of cat grain I was lugging and some small plastic bags she was holding. “Look behind you,” she called out, “at all the dark clouds.” I tuned and she chided, not over there… over there to the West.” I tuned to the West and looked. At the same instant she complained, “When are you going to quit looking aimlessly around and open the door…? Can’t you see I have my arms full?” That woman can definitely keep somebody off balance. |
| Rural Power Outages I am happy to report that after weeks of struggle my speedometer is installed and functioning. If you remember I started with a suspect power source, used an incorrect hook-up procedure and finally, hardest to admit, I tried to hook to the wrong sending unit on the transmission. It was a great and humbling experience that demonstrated in real terms my lack of mechanical aptitude and talent. What it did show is that even for a dullard, persistence will illuminate the road to success. Now I must hook up the other gages which include a clock, a tachometer and an hour meter. Today the Greenbay Packers will play the Chicago Bears. This is a traditional football rivalry and promises to be a good game. Often when I watch I pretend that I am coach and take no small amount of pride in sagely predicting the plays that would have worked after the one of choice didn’t. I believe they call this Monday Morning Quarterbacking. This is one of the reasons I think that people have such a love of the sport. This is Sunday and I need to lighten up and think about things other than politics, economics and that darn truck of mine. Maybe I’ll talk about cutting wood and my outdoor wood burning experiences…Maybe about future plans that explore wind and solar power.. That’s it I’ll discuss that. My wife and I talked about a generator after the last storm, when we lost power for thirty-six hours and all the frozen foods defrosted in the refrigerator and basement freezer. We had to get rid of everything. To prepare for the future we considered the following options. To begin with we defined the problem in these terms. To Determine the best way to cope with a long term power failure. Facts Bearing on the Problem. In the last five years we have experienced 3 power outages. The last one was thrity-six hours. If the outage lasts more than twenty-four hours the freezers begin defrosting and we lose the contents to spoilage. The value of the frozen goods averages $500. In addition to the freezers, in the wintertime, we lose the capability of our primary and back up heating sources. The outdoor wood stove uses electric pumps to circulate water through the heat exchangers as well as the blowers that force warm air through the conduits, The secondary system is a gas furnace that also requires electricity to operate. Final back-up is a fireplace and old fashioned wood stove in the basement. Using this system is not viable when the inside temperature falls below thrity-two degrees F on a winter night that is colder than twenty degrees below zero. We won’t perish but the house does get a bit chilly. Assumptions: In a given year we will experience a power failure. That the roads are passable and there is a vacancy in a motel withing one hundred miles. Plus that the motel has power. Courses of Action: 1. Do nothing. If the power goes out go check into a motel. The advantage is that we don’t have to spend any money on a supplemental power source and will be out only the expense of a night’s lodging and replacing the spoiled items in the freezer. Disadvantages: We are forced to leave our home for the period of the outage and the roads could be a problem to negotiate. 2. Put in a solar system that will provide back-up for the freeaers, pumps and blowers and operate them for 24 hours. Advantages: This will solve the refrigeration and heating problem. The disadvantage is that it will cost $4000 dollars. 3. Install a wind powered system. This system will provide backup for forty-eight hours and cost $6000. 4. Buy a gasoline powered electrical generator. This system will solve the problem at a cost of $2000. Discussion: We can reduce the amount of perishables we keep on hand. A night’ s lodging and the replacement of several days worth of foodstuffs will cost $150. Conclusion: The scope of the problem does not justify the cost of an external back-up electrical power generating system. Recommendation: If a power outage happens in the Winter, check into a motel. Are you impressed, shaking your head or convinced we have entirely too much time on our hands? Now most people do this sort of thing mentally if they do it at all. It is a variation of the problem solving process. Sometimes it is best to get the basic components of the process down on paper to enhance your decision making. |
| Illegal’s Grandchildren are destructive to your self image. They tend to say what’s on their mind and have absolutely no sense of political correctness. One morning when we were visiting my in-laws in Georgia. My daughter was there with her younger son. It was at the breakfast table and I’m not a morning person. You would have seen me in a characteristic stupor like state. In the distance there were conversations taking place. Suddenly I was jerked from my reveries. “What’s the matter Ben?” my daughter asked her son. “HIM! He’s what’s the matter,” said the precocious young man pointing accusingly in my direction. I looked up startled by the sudden assault…. “And what has Grandpa done to upset you?” “He isn’t listening to a word I’m saying. “ Now this was a good lesson for the boy… Those in charge are seldom good listeners…not that I’m in charge of anything. But I am old and that guarantees me a seat. Anyway there is an analogy here that shows that leaders are seldom on the same wave length as followers. This was evident in the debates several nights ago and I was amazed as always that many of the participants were so ill prepared. Here I teach a semester course on Drama for GPs when I could be making OBAMA dollars teaching debaters how to keep from looking like a bunch of dumb bunnies. Now I am not trying to demonstrate a superior air, and no doubt if I had been in their shoes my performance would have been equally uninspiring but for crying in the beer… There are some questions that are not that hard to anticipate and I know for certain that these questions are posted before the debate, so why in the heck do some candidates have so much difficulty? The answer is because they don’t rehearse. They don’t have a mock debate with their staffs and do a little role playing to get the feel of how to juke with the punches and counter jab to good effect. Before going further let me say that the way future presidents are selected has become more like a beauty contest than a serious attempt to find the best candidate. What a debate shows is not who is best qualified, or who has the best experience and track record but rather who has the glibbest tongue. In my view glibness is not a trait that is particularly important in a President. It really bit us in the last election. However, this is the way the selection process works in a Democracy, driven by the engine of Capitalism. Talk about mixing nitric acid and glycerin. The Greeks, who invented Democracy had little good to say about it other than it was ten times better than the second runner up. The same can be said for Capitalism. Anybody that thinks this economic model has a heart, is living in a dream world however, like its counterpart, it beats the heck out of Marxist thinking or a pinhead Tyrant. So if this is the way it is going to be then why are the debaters not better prepared? Let me explain further… In any debate there is what I would call a scientific argument and a human argument. If a candidate is getting bested in the science of the issue they need to shift to the spirit. For example, One of the candidates was criticized because his State was “Incentivizing” illegal immigration by offering to pay tuition to the children of illegal’s. That this was an encouragement for them to enter the country illegally. Now this was what one might expect from a quibbler. First of all the candidate was a governor and the hand-out was passed by a state legislature, second it was a bunch of bull and finally it was motivated by a sense of doing the right thing and making the most out of a bad situation. Anybody that thinks that illegal’s are incentivised to enter this country by the advantages provided by educational or healthcare benefits is playing too much bridge out on the yacht. Illegal’s are drawn to this country because, as bad as life is when they get here, it is ten times better than the crappy existence they are fleeing in Central and South America. These are people on the lowest rung of Maslow’s scale and are motivated by putting food on the table, finding a lousy job, and avoiding an even more dismal future. How many of the children from these families do you suppose will qualify for admission to the University of Texas? Legally or Illegally these immigrants are going to find a way in here and educational or health benefits have nothing to do with it. Duh! The Problem has two dimensions. Keeping the illegal’s from entering and dealing with them once they get here. Unless you’re Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin, these are two entirely different issues. As much as I hate fences and believe deep down that they simply don’t work, the only way to stop the onslaught seems to be with a barrier. The fundamental reason I believe this is not because these immigrants are bad people, because they are a burden on our health care or educational systems, because they take away jobs or because many are criminals involved in the illicit drug trade. The gut reason is because the balance of power hangs precariously in this country. The Socialists favor big government and to maintain political power need the broadest base possible. To build this base they want to increase the numbers of disenfranchised and to do this they have created a never ending stream of social programs that addict voters to welfare, food stamps, and unending unemployment benefits. They have steadfastly resisted any immigration policy to staunch the influx they believe will swell their ranks. Their belief is that those addicted to handouts will vote Democrat. If a citizen of this county complains that an illegal is taking their job then shame on them. The jobs the migrants do are jobs nobody else wants. They are crap jobs and a growing number of long term “Citizens” disdain to even consider taking them. These include both the lawless and and the historic long term users that chronically strain our social welfare system. Some are mentally, physically or emotionally impaired, but more and more are those with average intelligence, becoming by choice, a lifetime, multi-generational drag on society . The safety net is not something they fall into but one that they choose to wear. If they had applied themselves in school and had the ambition to find a job, they would not feel challenged by the illegal’s who are as much of a threat to them as a one legged midget in a butt kicking contest. |
| Percy the Wuss Today I worked a little in the shop. I say a little because it wasn’t a whole lot. The cue of things I have to do out there is long indeed and the magnitude of what stands before me is daunting. Plus my shoulders hurt…. Woe is me… Too bad, so sad… “Quit sniveling Percy, you candy ass!” says the drill sergeant therapist from the Geico Commercial. I flinch, squint my eyes and my shoulders droop… “sorry” I meekly reply… I didn’t mean to snivel.” I think I’ll go take a shower and a Motrin. Motrin works good on me. When nothing else does I can always count on Motrin. A Sergeant-Major I knew introduced me to them and they are a wonderful substitute for pain. I wish I had a sauna. In the military when I was fried, the sauna was a good place to go sit and decompress after a grueling workout. No, I don’t wish I was back in the Military! I definitely didn’t fit the profile. Not strong enough, smart enough or charismatic enough. I was just ordinary old Percy Goodfellow. Can you imagine a soldier with the name Percy… It sounds gay and if that isn’t bad enough I have some of a gay person’s mannerisms. For one thing I’m sensitive. I used to cry watching Lassie and my brother used to call in his friends to laugh at me. So how did a wuss like me wind up a soldier you might be thinking? The answer is that despite all the things that went against me I had a knack for it. When the shit hit the fan I did just fine…finer than a lot of the other heroes and that was enough . Plus I always got the crappie jobs and managed to do them good enough to not get fired. They don’t call it fired in the Military…. The euphemism they use is relieved. Like how you feel when you poop in the morning. Relieved comes from relieved from duty…. That’s what happens when you screw up in a big sort of way but a string of little screw-ups will accomplish essentially the same thing…. You get “written up with a bad efficiency report and it’s out the door you go… Bad is defined as damned by faint praise. Somehow I always managed to avoid this and instead got “Water Walker Reports” which is what you need to get promoted. There’s an irony about the Military. If you succeed you get to stick around for another day to get your head blown off. If you fail you get relieved, sent to the rear, handed a cushy job and get to go home in one piece. Isn’t that the darndest system imaginable? Retirement is great. I get up in the morning after a night in a warm bed next to a soft woman… so what if the nightmares are a bit troubling? After an hour or two you can hardly remember what they were about. There’s nobody the other side of the bluff who is plotting mayhem and there is no salvo of high explosives raining down on your head. Then I get to eat a leisurely breakfast and write my blog. After that I go out and cut a little wood and come in for a relaxing nap. Then its out to the shop to work on the equipment, cars and trucks. Talk about made in the shade. Yesterday evening I suggested to Linda that we go to the Seven-Eleven for an ice-cream sandwich. Linda is the smartest broad on the planet but sometimes her toggle switch is in the dumb mode. “We don’t have to go there for ice-cream,” she intoned with that nasal twang of superiority…. “We have ice-cream in the refrigerator.” Now herein lies a problem common to the anal and those who store their canned goods in alphabetical order. They just can’t seem to separate the science of life from the spirit… this request of mine wasn’t about ice-cream it was about space….I needed to get out of this small space and move to a larger space. For some reason smart people often have trouble understanding the basic fundamentals of human nature. It was like that in the debates last night…. The same thing. They all sounded like a bunch of frackin lawyers quibbling over esoteric minutia when we’re adrift in a sea of human misery. Don’t get me started but maybe I’ll explain more about that tomorrow when the churning subsides in my stomach. Good night, sleep tight and don’t let the bed bugs bite. |
| The Grinned to Death Opossum Last night I had another bad dream. I was chased by a female possum down a beach and couldn’t get away. I told my feet to run but the sand gave no traction. Cold fear clutched my chest and my brow flowed with sweat. In my heart, trepedation pounded like a base drum. GA boom! GA Boom, as I stumbled back in to a palm tree. While this was happening my head must have hit my wife’s elbow because I likened it to a coconut hanging from the fronds. There was another protuberence hanging nearby and when I went to touch them she pushed me away. Falling to my knees I noticed further, in the midst of all my anxiety, a hole covered by thorns and bristly vines. (This was a dream after all and in my dreams there are frequent digressions.) So there I was, on all fours, looking into this dark opening. As I gazed therein, I saw a long dark corridor with a light at the end of the tunnel. This must be a end of life experience..., I thought… Woe is me…what am I to do… such an ignominious end, drawn in and swallowed up by this creature with the funny tail. Then I had a flash…. Like the bugle of the cavalry coming to the rescue, a tune came to mind from my distant past, blaring ever louder. “Davie….Davie… Crocket, King of the Wild Frontier. “ Like a revelation those words reminded me of once when Davy was in a similar tight spot. THAT’S IT! shrieked a voice from inside my head…. And I began GRINNING. My nemesis yawned menacingly and cocked her head to one side. I intensified the sardonic look and the carotid artery in my neck began to pulse. The creature retreated backwards as I crinkled my forehead, concentrating with all my might. Then she rolled over, unable to face the onslaught of my deadly smirk… but then, my assailiant, made the fatal mistake. Like Lott’s wife, the dummy looked back over her shoulder. My visage was now fully engaged, leering down with a fearsome and heinous demeaner. She lurched about and began to mutter and hiss. Then I loosed the full power of my toxic personality with the patented squiggly eyed stare. Arrrrr! I cried out, breathing heavy. Well that musta done it because she rolled onto her back, toes splayed and paws extended in the air. Poking her several times, I tried to get a rise but to no avail. I wanted to make sure she wasn't trying to fake me out with some subtle and sneaky trick. You never know for sure with marsupials if they’re playing possum or not. Don’tcha know, the beach was quiet and still...dead to the world….Grinned to death, just like the coon Davy kilt. Teach her to mess with Percy Goodfellow. |
| Stop Printing all that Money! The Government (Federal Reserve) can skim money off the Nation's overall worth, by simply printing more. If you think about it and I have mentioned this before, the Government can raise significant amounts of cash by doing the following things…..Raise Taxes, borrow money, charge higher fees on services, print more currency or sell gold. In order to finance the various stimulus packages, the money has come from all these sources and the most insidious is through the unrestrained printing of currency. There is only so much value in this country and printing more money simply dilutes the value of what is already in the pot. It‘s a form of taxation that touches everyone. Many citizens are screaming for a flat tax but we don’t really need one. The Federal Reserve simply ratchets up the printing presses and voila… we have the redistribution the President is talking about. In the past year the value of everything Americans’ own has been devalued by about ten percent. This has gone underreported because the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has selectively used criteria to make the numbers show what the government wants. By eliminating criteria that show the true scope of the problem (fuel and food) they have been able to marginalize it on paper. Gold has shot up in value as a consequence to show the true scope of inflation while the value of most investments, property and earnings have been stagnant or declined. Don’t look at how much you have in the bank….look at how much it will purchase. Look at what your home is worth today as opposed to what it was worth a year ago. Don’t look to the BLS to define inflation… look at how much it cost to buy an ounce of gold a year ago and what it costs today... or better yet at the bad news on the gas pump or what you pay for that cart of groceries. Finally a group of congressmen are telling Mr. Bernake to stop printing all that currency! This has never happened before and I am sure the Federal Reserve is not taking the matter lightly because if they don’t begin to show some restraint, legislation will ultimately be enacted that will seriously change the way they do business. For openers somebody is going to decide it’s time they were audited like everybody else. They certainly don’t want the full extent of their monetary machinations to be aired in public.. Just imagine what a disclosure of where the Nation’s gold has gone over last twenty years would do to public confidence. Now that would be a real eye opener. Ron Paul seems to be the only one tugging on that thread but nobody seems to be listening. In a way I sympathize with the position the Fed is in. If the economy tanks, they will certainly be enjoined in the blame. Never mind that the executive and legislative branches are largely responsible for the deplorable state in which we find ourselves. I can hear the Chairman now speaking to the President…. “You need more money? No problem “boss“, why I’ll just print another installment on what's already out there.” This tool is being abused on a huge scale and while it might be politically expedient, it’s costing Americans a huge chunk of their actual net worth. Who needs taxes when you can rake ten percent off the top and use it to pay for social programs that are fraught with corruption, waste and unintended consequences? When is the government going to realize that the answer is not stimulating a dead horse but bringing spending and revenues into alignment? |
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Love it! Especially the safety measures for us homo sapiens...
