A Lowly January

On May 1st, my blog will be eleven years old.

I have been steady.  I have posted between 14 to 30 posts every month.  Right now, I am at a low, with only 14 posts this month.  My traffic is also at a low.  I will be under 1500, most likely.  Unless this ramble catches on like wildfire.

I deserve an endurance award if nothing else.  Many people drop and add new hobbies all the time, but I have been turtle-like in my abject determination to turn this into a must-see blog destination.

In persistence, I have won.  In success, I have failed.

I have a lifetime ban on running ads, so this can never earn money.  Traffic, most months, peaks between 2,000 and 3,000.  And that's been true for years.

My last blog post was more than a week ago, the longest non-vacation I have ever had,  My new routine allows for less writing time in the morning.  I have been prioritizing diet and exercise, and my work hours are unpredictable.  It is hard to get in a writing rhythm.  I thought semi-retirement would help with this, but it hasn't.  I depend on a routine schedule, and I no longer have that.

I have not lost my fire for writing. And I wish I could concentrate more on my fiction than this blog.  But that hasn't been true, either.  I'm just not writing as much as I used to.

The Extra Credit Club is at a stage that requires edits and polishing.  I feel like it is a great book, but it will be a mature reader book, which means some of you won't be interested.  I will probably try to market it to a publisher or agent, which means that even if they do decide to publish it, it may be months before you see it, even if you are interested.

I have to work out this balance.  The accounting career is not going anywhere.  It will be there for at least the next three to five years, if not longer.  So I have to work out an accommodation.

I still hope to do my blog.  Like it or not, it has to become more and more a shill for my other writings.  Personal writings, like updates on my family and pets, politics, nostalgia, and entertainment stories, will continue to exist, but they may become rarer.

As an accountant, I'm always fascinated with the numbers I see on the blog.  How many people view how many people follow, stuff like that.  I have to stop being obsessed with that and let it be.

Again, those who find it amusing that I 'shill" my books are just going to have to put up with it.  Because I'm going to do my best to become a full-time shill machine.

That's just the way it's gotta be.

Rebel Without An Editor

Yep.  That's what self-promoting your writing is like.  Sitting at a table, in a mostly empty room, patiently waiting for someone to notice you are there, and then trying to get up the nerve to make your writing sound worth buying.

Yep.  Like a toddler who just made a mudpie, I think I have done the greatest thing ever, and wait for the adults to excitedly squeal over my achievements.  At many places, the most common comment I get is, "Yeah, I don't read."  I don't think they mean they're illiterate.  I think they mean they don't read for pleasure.  In particular, they find fiction repugnant and a waste of time.  Whereas, my motto is, "Fiction!  Don't leave home without it!"

Yep.  I know that I need more editing.  I know that it is a flaw.  But...spoiler alert...editors cost money.  They cost substantially more than the money I could make selling any self-published book I could write.  Some things an editor might tell me, I might listen to and recalibrate my work.  Others (No prologues!  Too many characters!  Show, don't tell!  Conform to market and genre standards!) I would ignore.  I would love to make money and for more people to read my stuff, but ultimately, I want to tell my stories my way.

Yep.  I know that some of my friends laugh at how much I 'shill' my writings.  But in reality, I don't do it as near enough as I should.  I lose focus and concentrate on my newer writing projects.  Tragically, I have thin skin and am easily persuaded not to push as hard as I could.

So, for my fans, new and old, I'm not going anywhere.  I am renewing my 'shill bones' and intend to push harder than ever.  I may need a rhino skin transplant, but I'm going to do my best.

For those who find my 'shilling' amusing?

Prepare to be amused.

Southeast Georgia Winter Tuesday Tidbits

This morning, it was 29 degrees, and the feels like was 23!

There was a tiny bit of frost on my car.

It was a little chilly, or as my Southeast Georgia friends would call it, a MEGASTORM!

It won't stay that cold for very long.  It rarely does.  There is no snow.  When it drops this low, it's a dry cold.  When it warms back up to the 60s?  That's when we will have precipitation.

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Personal Health Week Two:  weight continuing to slowly creep down, same with blood pressure, and finally, glucose levels have joined the decline party!  Still have miles to go, and I have to accept that the changes I'm making are permanent.

Saw myself in a mirror at church and realized, with horror, that the part that I am most eligible to play is Alfred Hitchcock. Oy.

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Streaming?  Season Four of Van Helsing.  One of those I started and now, by God, I am going to see it through.  Not the worst series in the world.  Just good enough to keep me intrigued enough to see what is going to happen next.  At least the vampires in it are not glowing boy toys.

Reading?  The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly. This is a trial/legal drama, one that was made into a movie a few years back with Matthew McConaughy.  This may be how he got to be a sponsor of Lincoln cars and do all the those Lincoln commercials.  Trust me, the book makes a lot more sense than those bizarre commercials.

Movies?  Saw Dolittle at the theatres.  Look, it's a children's/family movie, so you can't expect perfection.  It was entertaining, with some impressive celebrity voiceovers.  Robert Downey Jr.'s accent, however - it would have been better just to claim that Dolittle was an American living in England.  Growing up, the Doctor Dolittle books were my favorite children's literature.

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The trail to convict and remove the greatest modern evil this nation has ever faced starts today, or as Midnight Mitch McConnell calls it, the Big Nothing.  He'll do everything thing he can to shunt it aside, make it run at one in the morning, short circuit it, bury it, and proceed to Trump's grand exoneration speech.

And my Trumpeteer friends will be going, "See?  We told you there was nothing there!

Sigh.  The whole world has become the OJ trial, with each of us seeing only what we want to.  Trump's entire team is filled with TV lawyers and performers designed to obscure and deny the truth.

If nothing else, we'll get to find out if the term moderate Republican means anything anymore.  I don't know what disgusts me more,  The rabid true believers like Lindsey Graham, or the woosies who feign objection and then just faint and fall in line.

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Benjamin is back at college once again.  Alison is at work.  I'm working more, although I am stubbornly taking today off.  How much more I can do that, I don't know.  But I need to begin serious editing of The Extra Credit Club.

Oh, and there might be a trial or something on TV.

Or, thanks to Midnight Mitch, I might need to gear up for a late night.

Hansel Exposed! The Audio Version!

Choose Your Speed!: Saturday Political Soap Box 234

How fast do you want to go?

The only real decision in voting in the Democratic Primary is trying to determine how fast you want to go.

Do you want to get to the achievement goals of improving our society and bringing us into the future quickly or slowly?

YOU BE THE JUDGE!

16 RPM

Want to play it safe?  You really don't have too many problems with the way things are except for the erratic orange clown in charge, and how he endangers everything we hold near and dear?  Only looking for incremental improvements in health care and the environment and the economy?  Then JOE BIDEN is your candidate!  He will follow the Obama model of surrendering large chunks of the agenda to get done what he can by impressing moderate Republicans and bringing a handful on board for minor incremental changes.  Things may move forward, but the pace will be slower than a Zanaxed turtle.  MICHAEL BLOOMBERG is also in this group, but God help us if in the current environment if we to another billionaire.*

33 RPM

Want things to go a little faster, but still prefer modest change to faster change?  Want to see the current system basically intact but with some expansion of things like health care and working towards checking climate change?   Then PETE BUTTIGEIG and AMY KLOBUCHAR are your candidates!  There would be slight differences in their calibrations.  Pete might move faster and wish to progress farther on some issues than Amy is, but both have their limits as to how far they want to go.  Pete has a sharper vision, and Amy has a greater streak of pragmatism.  But both should move faster than Joe.

45 RPM

Want to move forward faster but with at least some caution and desire to bring as many people on board with your priorities as you can?  Beleive that parts of the system are corrupt and need major reform? Then ELIZABETH WARREN is your candidate!  Elizabeth has changed her Medicare For All plan into one designed to do everything we can as quickly as we can - to build the consensus step by step.  She is clear on where we need to go, and how to finance it, but is willing to take steps to build it on a solid foundation.  TOM STEYER may fall into this speed as well, but really, I do not want to talk about billionaire candidates.


78 RPM

Want us to get there at what the movie Spaceballs calls "ludicrous speed?"  Then you want the one and only, the great progenitor of truth, justice, and the TRUE American way - BERNIE SANDERS.  He's not messing around with moving us to where we need to be on all the issues I care about.  Also (maybe) in this category is ANDREW YANG, because he is voicing concerns about what our economy is really going to look like in the next ten to twenty years.  He is proposing solutions to problems that have not even occurred yet.  On a side note, however, Andrew Yang's platformed changes in health care blows BIG TIME.


Me personally, I prefer the 45 RPM speed, moving forward in a specific direction, but working towards building the consensus that will keep us from flying off the rails again.

But really, choose whatever speed you like.  At least you will be moving towards something better and different.

Because do you know what speed the opposition is moving at?


MINUS 78 RPM

That's right.  They are spinning us backward as fast as they can.  You know, the ones where when played backward, say stuff like, "I am Satan."


So, compared to that, even Joe Biden seems pretty darn sweet!



Impeachment Update:

Yeah, I'm not posting on impeachment and the upcoming trial very much.  What can I say?  Every day, it becomes more evident and more apparent how criminal and dangerous the narcissistic, racist clown really is.  Should he be convicted/found guilty?  Hell, yes.  Should he be removed?  Double hell yes!  Will he be removed?  Not in our current reality.  The best we can hope for is that enough Republicans join in demanding witnesses and that when the American people see it, they say (at least 60% or more) "Damn!  He's guilty as F... and the Republicans are trying to sweep it under the rug, but damn, that rug is now really lumpy!"

I know.  Not very likely.  But...truth, justice, and the American Way, baby!  Gotta keep up the neverending fight!





*yes, I know.  Trump is probably not really a billionaire, but he plays one on TV, and the Trumpeteers are snookered into believing that he is one.

The Imperfect Job: A Kingdom Story

The perfect job did not exist.

All you could hope for was that the level of imperfection was something you could tolerate.

The coffee was prepared by someone else before she got there.  How was it possible that it tasted like convenience store coffee that had been sitting in the pot for several hours, bitter and stale and barely drinkable?  Maybe Reynolds came in at 3 in the morning and fixed it, and by 8 AM, it had acquired its full crusty glory.

She tried to mask its flavor by putting in two packets of dry creamer and an unhealthy swath of processed sugar.  Yes, she realized that so much sugar was not good for her, but it was either that or Sweet 'n' Low, which was the rough equivalent of adding battery acid to and already bitter cup of coffee.  She kept meaning to bring in Stevia and liquid creamer, but that was a difficult thing to grasp with her slow-moving morning mind.  She saved what limited organizational ability she had for the job.  There was nothing left over for anything else.  She felt privileged just to be able to remember the way home at the end of the day.

There was a small refrigerator, but it did not make ice.  That was a major work shortcoming. Ice is civilization, to quote the author Paul Theroux.  It was just another of those imperfections she would have to tolerate.

"Good morning, Dabs!" cheerfully greeted her workmate Sarah.  They shared a cubicle in the central office.  Sarah was tolerable, but way too bright and chipper in the morning.   Most of the time, she liked to talk about her pets or kids or husband, but sometimes Sarah would stray into politics.  Dabs had long ago learned an important lesson of office life - it was A-Otay to talk about religion and politics at the workplace, as long as it was THEIR religion and politics.  If you dissent, why then you are violating the decorum of not discussing politics or religion.  Agreement within thee Christian Reich framework was all that was allowed.  Thy Kingdom come, everyone else shut up or suffer the consequences.

Dabs smiled fleetingly at Sarah and then took her seat, firing up the computer monitor in front of her.  Sarah had adornments all around her part of the cubicle, bible quotes, and pictures of her pets and family.  Dabs only had a photo of her son, his high school graduation picture.  She loved her son immensely and reminded herself that it was for him and her daughter, who was just starting high school (Bennett Christian Academy, which was the best she could pick from now that public schools were no more).  Her son had been drafted and was currently fighting in the Mexican Wars, and she worried about him every day.  She used to pray, but she was no longer sure who to even pray to.

They did not know that she didn't pray.  There were plenty of public prayers, and she dutifully participated in all of them.  Best not to stand out in that regard.  Her husband found that out the hard way.  As of today, he had been in the Christian Reeducation camp near Tifton for two full years, with her having no idea when or if he would ever be back.

The firm started each day with a group prayer, usually led by Reynolds, one of the two partners who ran the place and siphoned off virtually all the income.  But without any workplace regulation, without any wage standards, it was easy for the partners to do.  She could not complain.  She was paid what she was paid.  And she would be fired if she told anyone what that was.   

The pay was, of course, substantially inadequate for the needs of her family.  Her husband earned nothing while in the camps.  She had to sell her home with negative equity and move with her daughter into a one-bedroom apartment.  Her son sent her part of his military pay, and her daughter was working while trying to attend school - she was doing her best, but her grades were suffering.  Dabs wasn't sure of the consequences of those lower grades - there were few opportunities for women in the Kingdom, mostly low rung office and retail jobs.  The only really lucrative positions were to be the wife of a televangelist and/or politician.

Reynolds was there now, ready to start the daily prayer.  Before he began, he admonished everyone to work harder, and that, if not, they were considering on farming a lot of the work out to India, who had accountants and bookkeepers willing to work for less and be more productive at it.  Dabs thought it peculiar that people who had come to power in part by ginning up fear about immigrants taking your job and your country, were so willing to throw real working people in their own country under the bus.

No, the job wasn't perfect.  Not by a long shot. But it was better than concentration camps or serving in pointless wars, or living in the streets.

Still. It would be nice to at least have some ice.

Reduced Range Tuesday Tidbits

Let's start with a completely unrelated, dissociative, and unseasonal photo.

It's still winter here, but who would know with current highs in the low 80s?

My experiment with no longer posting The Strait Line on my main Facebook feed continues.  Numbers are down but not as horribly as I feared.  That means, with rare exceptions, people were either not seeing them or ignoring them.  I know.  Hoping people will view and read anything may be unfair and too much to ask for nowadays.

Nevertheless, I persist.

Personal Health

I have been attempting, since the first of the year, to modify my diet and increase my exercise.  The primary goal is to prevent the prescribing of Metformin. 

I am recording everything I eat, accounting spreadsheet-style that accounts for several critical nutritional categories,  including calories, carbohydrates, dietary fiber, sugars, and sodium.  I am trying to get fiber to be 20% or greater of carbohydrate calories (e.g., if I have daily 100 grams carbohydrates, I should have a minimum of 20 grams fiber).  I also record any blood pressure, glucose, or weight readings.

Results?  My weight is going down, blood pressure is going down, and I have yet to make progress on glucose levels.  That last is very frustrating to me, but I don't intend to give up.  If I have to take Metformin, I don't want it to have been without a battle to avoid it.

At the Movies

The Oscars have been announced, and as usual, I have only seen one out of the nine movies nominated.  That's thanks to a guy's afternoon last Friday where Dean Crane and Chris Starling and I saw 1917.  I liked it.  It was like pretty much one long take without cutaways or significant time jumps unless the main character was asleep or knocked out.  World War I was a huge event that shaped the world and our lives, and it has largely been forgotten by most. 

I hope to see some of the other films nominated, but it may take a while.  I will see The Joker, although I am uncertain of how I feel about it.  Joker is a villain and a horrible, psychotic character.  I don't know how I feel about a movie that may make him sympathetic. I also look forward to seeing Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

BenJerMan

He continues to thrive at Georgia College.  He got all A's his first semester.  At present, he has no roommate, as Vapor Man has gone elsewhere.  He may be assigned a new one, but so far, it's just him.  We may have to pay more money if one is not found.  Sounds fair, right?

That's about all I want to cover this time out.  With over 2,000 posts, the one thing you can be sure of - they'll be more later!

Be Careful What You Wish For: Saturday Political Soap Box 233

There is no doubt about it.

I wanted President Trump to be impeached.  And, yeah, I'm one of those who've felt he's been committing impeachable offenses since Day One.  Not everyone felt that way, particularly Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and a good chunk of the Democratic House.  But the evidence of Ukranian extortion was so blatant, even Pelosi could not shunt it aside.

So, yes, I wanted our narcissistic, racist President to be impeached.

I also want him convicted and removed.  Furthermore, I want to see him perp-walked and imprisoned for his many crimes.

These parts of this are not likely to happen.

Or are they?

The big news last week is that John Bolton is now willing to testify in the Senate trial.

Granted, McConnell is reluctant to allow any such thing, but if four Republican Senators say they would like witnesses, particularly Bolton, he might not be able to stop it.  It takes a simple majority of 51 to set up/revise trial rules.

So, whether he gets to or not, Bolton wants to sing.

Why now?

Why?

John Bolton, former National Security Advisor (and other related roles in his career as the nation's leading war hawk), cheered the Trump decision to take out a prominent General of another sovereign state, one who is perceived to be the number two person in his country, just behind the Ayatollah.

Should not this make Bolton happy and supportive of Trump?

Well, the fuse is lit now.  He knows, better than the rest of us, that no matter how skittish Trump is for future actions, that the chain of events flowing from this is unstoppable.  We will spiral to a war with Iran, and for someone like Bolton, the sooner, the better.


I despise Trump, with every fiber of my being.  But the truth is, he is not in the same war hawk league as some of the people that have been around him.  Trump's foreign policy is chaos personified, but he is instinctively an isolationist, and a big 'greed is good' guy.  He looks at the quivering in the stock and oil markets and thinks, hey - maybe this destabilizes the economy and puts my re-election at risk.

Don't get me wrong.  Trump is a dangerous child who has no idea what kind of harm his destructive actions can lead to.  The shooting down of a Ukranian airliner is an indirect result of the instability he caused. And that will hardly be the end of it.

Now that the fuse is lit, it makes it more critical than ever that, in Bolton's view, we are guided through the fire properly.  He has seen up close, and personal how erratic and ignorant Trump is.

Who are the major figures behind the desire for a war with Iran?  Outside of Bolton, they include Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Vice President Mike Pence (two Mikes! It's a shame that Bolton's first name isn't also Mike - that would make it a triumvirate of Mikes!  The name Micheal Bolton isn't taken, is it?).  Bolton has geopolitical neocon philosophy reasons for wanting it.  Pompeo and Pence?  It also has something to do with Christian Reich theology that, I am sorry, completely escapes me - I'll have to do more research.  Something to do with fulfilling biblical prophecy?

The bottom line is, it may be in the best interests of these three to replace the erratic Trump with the simple-minded but laser-focused Pence.

We may be witnessing a coup, a manipulation that will lead us further into war and the nightmare world of Christian dominionists and neocon war hawks.

I've understood for a long time that Pence is no prize.  But I thought he would at least be more restrained than Trump and would have trouble mounting an effective campaign to win outright in 2020.

But I may be wrong.  Pence may be more dangerous than Trump.  He would continue all of Trump's policies and lead us more surely into war.

This is a nightmare.

There is no good way out of it.

We may have to pray that the election results in November end and repudiate this insanity.

We have to win in November.  It won't be easy, but we have to.

Everything is at stake.

My Dramatic Setback

Our Town coming to the Okefenokee Heritage Center in Mid-March, sponsored by Purlie Productions. Tryouts at the Okefenokee Heritage Center this Saturday, Jan 11 at 6 PM.

I attended the play tryouts of Our Town last night.  Unfortunately, my schedule and personal circumstances preclude me from participating in a significant way with the production. But I did want to come and show my support. 

This has the potential to be a great production and has assembled an excellent support team behind it, including Amara Grace Jeffords as Director.

It is not my first brush with Our Town.  It was also my first brush with acting failure in college.

After being in a couple productions a year in high school, my involvement with acting dwindled to almost nothing in college.  Here is the number of plays I tried out for in college - ZERO.

I did participate with the University of Men's Glee Club, who had won the International Glee Club competition the year before (think Pitch Perfect male edition).  In my two years in the group, I had one solo part, a few lines in Gee, Officer Krupke from West Side Story.  I sang as if I were a 62-year old female social worker.  When I sang it at Carnegie Hall, the audience interrupted the song to applaud me.

But all was not roses and kittens.  I had only one acting class in college, Radio and TV Acting, and I struggled hard to make an impression on the artsy professor that ran the class.  The TV assignment I had was a key part of Our Town, the malt shoppe scene, where the high school athlete, George, professes interest in the beautiful young Emily.  I thought I was pretty good, but the Professor did not.  First, having only done theatre, I was probably too broad.  Second, he kept wanting me to act like a jock, and as hard as I tried, I couldn't capture what he wanted.  I have always been as far from a jock as you could imagine.  Also, it was the first romantic scene I had ever participated in.  I got too close to the girl, and she smelled like cigarettes, something I had not had to deal with before.

Nevertheless, even with all these obstacles, I did the best I could and worked hard to overcome them.  I worked as hard as I could to get something right as I did anything else in my whole college experience (except maybe College Algebra).  I thought I improved immensely.

There were tons of acting exercises.  I did not do well with those.  They are a challenge to my shy nature.  But, again, I did the best I could.  To this day, I cannot stand to do acting exercises and will do whatever I can to avoid them.

When my grade came, it was a B.  In all my years of academic experience, it was the grade I was most ashamed of.  For the only time in college, I went to the Professor to try to get an explanation.  Instead of explaining why I didn't get an A, he explained why I was lucky to get a B.  He seemed nonplussed that I thought my acting was "A" material.

After college, I started into community theatre at about 23 years old.  There have been more successes than failures. Even the successes, though, I have found fleeting and impermanent.  Nothing I do leaves much of a mark or record.  There is always somebody better and more well remembered.

I have few places where I am conceited.  I do not consider myself a good actor.  Even with setbacks, I see myself as a great actor.  But as I get older, I realize that that doesn't mean anything.

I still want to do some theatre.  I still get high off a good performance and absorbing the audience's reaction.

But still, in the back of my mind, there is that nonplussed Professor - why does this kid think he is so good?

Ok, maybe I'm not.  But sometimes, for a few brief seconds, I do feel like I'm somebody.

And it's hard to give that up.

The End of Christmas

According to my Episcopalian calendar, Epiphany was yesterday, and that brings the Christmas season officially to a close.

We took our outdoor display down Sunday, but it may be a while before we put away all the indoor stuff.  That's okay.  We're in no rush.  We don't mind the reminders of the season.

The picture above is of a display we have that sits on top of a blanket chest.  They're hard to make out, but the creatures there below are mostly dogs.  When it's not Christmas, Alison puts a small step ladder on the chest, and it turns into the Isle of dogs.  It's pretty cool.  I'll have to show you a picture sometime.

It was a nice Christmas break, spending time with our son, Benjamin.  He is back up at college now, ready for the challenge of a new semester.  He may also have a new roommate.  We're still waiting on word about that.

I'm heading into a busier season for my work.  I'm going to hang onto as much time off as I can for as long as I can.  I would love to get an established routine rather than each week being different.

That consistency may help me with my writing,  I will be starting the second round of edits for The Extra Credit Club.  My big new writing project will be the second volume of The History of the Trap.  If I can fit it in, I also want to do some shorter fiction to submit to fiction magazines and to resume my audio dreams.

I have health challenges I need to focus on.  I have three months to see if I can reform myself enough to avoid starting metformin.  I don't want to be diabetic.  It makes me feel like such a failure and a loser.  If I'm going to have to be, I want it to at least know that I did what I could to change myself.

As far as current events go, the world has turned darker.  The Australian wildfires have claimed some one billion animals.  Our ignorant, racist President has lit the fuse to a war that could consume us all.

There will be a trial in the Senate.  It will most likely be a sham, as Senator McConnell controls it.  At its conclusion, the Con in Chief will do a victory dance and claim exoneration.  But, hopefully, more people will know.  More will understand.  Hey, I'm trying to be optimistic here.

 Anyhoo...

It's now officially out of season, but what the hey, I'm out of control...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

On the Dark Side of the Force: Saturday Political Soap Box 232

I started out right.  I promise.  I woke up, put on my positive pajamas, wished everyone a Happy New Year, posted positive things, and was ready for the hope of a shiny new decade.  Maybe this year would be the conclusion of the Trump nightmare (resignation, conviction, 25th Amendment, defeat in November), and perhaps we would start grappling with the issues that dog us (climate change, universal health care, income inequality, racism, the cost of college, the influence of big money in politics - just to name a few).

But by the third day of the year, all my optimism had fled.

One of the biggest stories of recent years, the vast wildfires and heatwave engulfing an entire continent, Australia, is barely a blip on our American radar.  How many more warnings do we need before we wake up to the devastation that global warming will cause AND IS CAUSING NOW?

I just finished the book On Fire: The Case for the Green New Deal by Naomi Klein.  It makes it clear what needs to be done, and that the time for half measures is over.  It will require a lot of coordination between countries and a complete overhaul of our economic system.  It will change the way we live - but not for the worst unless you think happiness only comes from excess consumption and swimming in waste and pollution.

Is there a way out?  Yes, at least to make it considerably less worse than our current course.  Will we take that way out?  Sadly, no. No, we will not.  There are too many wealthy and selfish interests pushing us the other way.  We have an administration that is not only not working to fight against global warming, they are galloping steadily in the opposite direction - they are gleefully making it worse.  And the United States is not the only problem.  The Australian Prime Minister is a climate denier, blithely fiddling while his nation burns.  The fascist President of Brazil is accelerating the burning of the Amazon rain forest, destroying the lungs of the planet.  And it is hard to tell new developing nations to slow down and be cautious when major industrial nations refuse to do the same.


This was quickly followed by the initial steps towards, if not World War III, at a minimum a bloody regional conflict across the Mideast.  President Trump, without authorization or consultation with Congress (not even informing Democratic leadership, which he is obligated to do), unleashed this hell.  Was General Soleimani a bad guy?  From our perspective,  yes, he was.  Will this stop Iranian aggression?  No, of course not.  It will do the opposite.  It will spark and intensify the flames of hatred.  They will retaliate, and then what will we do?  We will respond, but most likely not in kind - we will disproportionally atttack, with ever moe intensified violence, creating an uncontrollable spiral that will lead us all into madness.

You think this was okay?  We've killed, in the last 18 years or so, hundreds of thousands of Middle Easterners, and not of all them have been hardened terrorists.  I daresay 90% or more have not been terrorists. How would you feel if they retaliated by a drone strike that took out our Vice President or the military head of the Joint Chief of Staffs?  You think we would go, "Oh, my!  We need to stop our military aggression and behave now!"  I DON"T THINK SO.

I doubt if Trump has thought through what this means.  He just followed a wag the dog instinct and thought this little incident would take impeachment off the front page, and give him a few days of positive headlines.  I'm not sure, as incredibly disgusting as Trump is, that he fully understands that this will lead to things he can't control.  Trump is disgusting and vile, but he also has the added bonus of being dangerously incompetent.


And then I see that Democratic moderates are trying to propel themselves forward by unfairly demonizing and savaging my SIGNATURE issue, true universal healthcare - Medicare For All.  I have to accept the reality that my favorite candidate, Elizabeth Warren, is fading in large part because of her stand on Medicare For All, a lot because she is being maligned by Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who is rising in the polls because he is willing to sacrifice decent health care on the mantle of fear-mongering and embrace the spirit and support of the wine cave (please understand if Mayor Pete becomes the nominee, I will support him enthusiastically - every Democratic contender is light years ahead of Trump and any Republican).

The one bright spot is the resurgence of Bernie Sanders. I would prefer a female nominee, but there is no denying the strength and consistency of Bernie.  He outraised all others, including Mayor Wine Cave, by almost TEN MILLION DOLLARS ($34.5 vs. the next closest's $24.7 million).  And he did it from small donors, more total donors than has ever contributed to a campaign.

Back on the dark side of the force, the establishments are aligning against him, and no matter how popular, they will not allow him to be the nominee.

So, we're back in the dark again.  I'm scared, and I don't know how we're getting out of it.

Sometimes, I think we're just marking time until AOC is eligible to be President.

If we can hang in that long.

Seeing Through a New Lens: Friday Flash Fiction

“This is amazing, PaPa! I can see the moon!”

“I’m glad you can see the moon.  But that’s not what makes this new lens so incredible.” Professor Moraty gently took the planetarium's telescope from his young grandson.  “Let me show you what it can do.”

He focused on the moon and made some crucial calibrations, twisting dials and punching buttons.  He smiled with satisfaction and invited Billy to look again.

“Oh, my gollies!  Is that the Moon Rover?”

“Yes, it is, Billy!”

“It’s moving, PaPa!  It’s moving!  I can see Moon Rover traveling across the surface of the moon, even though it 284,000 miles away!”

“Yes, Billy.  You are a very smart boy.”  Billy was only eight, but he had already skipped two grades.

“How is that possible?”

“It’s a very powerful lens, with an incredible range.  It’s able to pick very small objects, particularly those in motion.”

“So, it’s got a built-in motion detector? Like what turns on our porch light when a squirrel runs by?”

“Not exactly.  But close enough.”  As precocious as his grandson was, he did not want to get bogged down trying to explain advanced scientific details.

Billy stared through the lens for a few minutes, as the telescope seemed to adjust on its own to track the Moon Rover’s movements.  Soon, though, Billy wanted to see more.  The professor took back the telescope and made new adjustments to it.

“Wow, PaPa!  What is that?”

“That is one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa.  That shining surface you see is an ocean of ice.”

“Gee, skeeterkins!  Are we the first ones to see this?”

“Well, I don’t know.  Certainly, we are the first to see it from this planetarium.”

“Let’s find what’s moving!”  Billy pointed to a button on the telescope’s thick column.  “Is this the motion detector button?”  Before Papa could answer, he pressed it.  The telescope moved slightly, and then calibrate. 

“I’m not sure what you’d find moving.  Europa is 390 million miles away.  That might strain even this new lens.”

Billy looked through the lens again.  “Something’s bursting through the ice!”

“You mean, there’s a water vapor plume?  Sometimes the gases build, and they shatter part of the ice and send a plume of water skyward.”

“I don’t think that’s what I’m seeing.  Something’s coming out of the ice!”

“What do you mean?  Something?”

“It’s…it’s….wow!  It’s like a lobster, but huge!  And it’s kinda like a bear too!”

“Nonsense, Billy.  Don’t tease your PaPa.”

“It’s a lobster bear!  I swear!  And it’s looking right at me!”

“Let me see.”  The professor gently tapped Billy aside and looked through the lens.  The sight caused him to yelp in surprise.  He was looking at a large creature, it’s torso and head out of the waters. It had a lobster-like exoskeleton, but with its head protruding beyond its helmet, it was indeed bear-like.

Professor Moraty punched a different button that started the images recording. “I need to contact the University.  And NASA.”  He wasn’t sure about NASA.  Not yet.  He wanted others to confirm what he was seeing, and he didn’t want to lose control to the government, at least not right away.

He looked back at the creature.  It still seemed to be staring right into the lens.  How could it know?  Even if it could see the light or emanations from the telescope. The time delay in reaching it would prevent it from reacting already.  It must be an illusion of some kind.

Then one of its lobster-like claws opened up. Inside was a three-fingered hand.  Two of the fingers curled back, leaving the middle finger still standing straight up.

“Is it waving?” said Billy.  “I’ll bet it’s happy to see us.  I’ll bet it’s glad to know someone else is out there.”

Maybe.  But probably not.  Unless flipping the bird means something else in whatever culture this creature is steeped in.   What are the odds of giving the finger being a universal gesture?  “No, Billy.  I don’t think it knows it’s being looked at.”

What were the odds?  That we’d finally found extraterrestrial life, and it was mad because we’d violated its privacy?

The Professor and Billy had seen through a new lens, and the universe would never be the same.

My Best in Movies 2019

Oh, I love me some lists!

This list is my 10 favorite movies seen in 2019.  It is any movie I saw in 2019, regardless of the year the movie was made.  In two cases, they are movies I have seen in previous years but saw again in 2019, and since I wasn't making lists in 1972 or 2003, I include them here!

And yes, I'm a huge science fiction fan, so my list is chunk full of those kinds of movies. Deal.  Or make your own list.

10)  Yesterday (2019) Well, hey!  The first on this list is kinda a rom-com.  But, yeah, it's also kind of science fiction.  The world has a major blackout, and pretty much everyone forgets the Beatles, except for one guy (with an awesome memory and some musical ability), and he becomes a significant force in music when he releases the songs of the Beatles.  Hanesh Patel stars as a talented man struggling to do the right thing, and also in love with a young woman and friend played by Lilly James.  The successful rom-com part is that the two have great chemistry together, and you actually care whether they get together.  There are also enough alternate reality elements to keep someone like me entertained.

9)  Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)  One of Quentin Tarantino's best.  Violent but engaging, with great music, cinematography, and editing.  Yes, I have seen it before.  With Doug at the Gwinnett Mall - you know, the mall featured in Stranger Things 3.  It had gone so far downhill in the ensuing years that it was scheduled for demolition.

8)  Within Our Gates (1920)  The first silent film that has been preserved that was written and directed by an African American, Oscar Micheau.  A stunning tale that includes a brutal rape and a lynching, it addresses the struggle to keep a school for young blacks open in the south.  Frank and open about the racism of the time, it is a compelling answer to Birth of a Nation, the popular racist movie that championed the Ku Klux Klan.

7) Captain Marvel (2019).  Sue me, incell comic fans.  I liked this movie.  I liked her strong and confident character.  I look forward to seeing more from Brie Larsen as Captain Marvel.

6) Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)  The first of these movies took us by surprise.  Sequels usually disappoint, but this one did not.  By far, the best movie I have ever seen based on a video and/or board game.  Gret action sequences, but most importantly, it's the funniest movie I saw all year.  LOVE the playful transfer orf character identities.  The whole cast is outstanding, but I particularly admire Jack Black and Awkwafina as Ming Fleetfoot.

5)  Cabaret (1972) Yes.  I've seen it before, at the Temple theater in downtown Saginaw.  I don't always like musicals, but when I do, I love them.  The thing to live among the Nazis' theme is especially poignant today.  I rank the song Tomorrow Belongs to Me as the most emotionally devastating musical sequence I have seen on film.

4)  Vice (2018) Brutally honest portrayal of an American monster.  More successfully manipulative than Trump could ever dream of being, Dick Cheney comes across as human, in a way that makes the negative in him even more evil.

3)  Avengers: Endgame (2019).  A tour de force ending to a great storyline.  Yes, some characters will be missed, but they got some great sendoffs.  But let me tell you this, as a comic book fan who has read THOUSANDS of Marvel comic books - nobody in the Marvel universe stays gone. 

2)  BLACKkKLANSMAN (2018) Man, this was a great movie!  When I picked it out to watch, I had no idea how good it was going to be.  A black cop contacts white supremacists via phone, develops a relationship, and, to further the undercover mission, a white cop played by Adam Driver makes the direct contacts.  It is based on actual events and plays out in a compelling and well-directed storyline. If you have not seen it, I give it my highest recommendation. This is the movie that should have won the Best Picture Oscar instead of Green Book.

1) Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)  Good Lord, people!  What did you expect?  I'm a huge Star Wars fan who's seen every movie in the epic at the theatres when each came out, and this is a great ending to that saga! 


Honorable Mentions:  Spider-Man: Far From Home. Glass, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Deadwood: The Movie, Bird Box, Green Book, and Shazam!


Looking forward to another great year at the movies, both at the movie theatre and streaming from my home!

I'm Tom Strait. And This is 2020

Happy 2020!

Thanx and a hat's tip to Barbara Walters for a meme that starts the new year out right!

So, is this a new decade or not?  I guess the new decade technically doesn't start until 2021, but technicalities don't always rule the day.

It feels like a new decade.  If I say the twenties, thinking to last century, I instinctively put 1920 into it.  So, yeah, maybe 2020 isn't the start of this century's twenties, but...nah, it feels like it, true or not.


No personal goals here.  I just want to enjoy life and my family to the fullest.  I'll just do the things I love; stay active, be caring, inevitably stress about things I can't control, consume and participate in my great passion - storytelling.

There are things that I pray will emerge in this new decade - true universal health care, a Green New Deal, a higher minimum wage, greater unionization, and, of course, we all know what the super biggie is -  the end of the Trump Presidency.  Whether by conviction, resignation, or voted out, somehow, our national nightmare has to come to a conclusion.

Of course, there are many pitfalls to the decade as well.  Many negative trends need to be reversed, first and foremost, global warming. I know there are many reasons to be pessimistic, but as this decade begins, I would like to concentrate on hope.

Best wishes to you and your family as we embark on the journey through a new decade!