Cancel Culture

I am surprised to see this from California.

“Cancel culture and the efforts to silence differing opinions and voices should be a growing concern for all of us,” said state Sen. Melissa Melendez, R-Lake Elsinore. “A climate of intolerance has been established and has stifled healthy and normal debate. Anyone who values their own freedom of speech should be concerned.”

Why Marriage Sucks – Part 22

I could write an entire book on why marriage is a horrible institution.

On my website, a bad marriage is defined by any marriage. They are all bad.

This post might jump around a bit.

Marriage is basically agreeing to put up with someone else until either you die or you get sick of them and someone in the relationship leaves.

Why? Because society makes you believe that marriage is the way to go. Look at all of the benefits that marriage brings you? It’s ok. I’ll wait.

Hell Weekend Begins

I guess another term for it would be major system upgrade.

I’m not sure how much writing I’ll be able to do over the weekend but I am hoping to keep to the schedule.

I’ve gotten a brilliant idea to write a screenplay for my next big thing. I’m still working out what the movie would be about.

Personal Quote

Sometimes when I am in the bathroom in the morning, I’ll be thinking about a topic and just proceed to create a great quote from it.

The key to remembering everything is to NOT remember anything.

You are probably shaking your head. “This is complete doublespeak and poppycock!”

I assure you that it is not.

Our brains are horrible at remembering anything. If that is true, then why rely on it? While we may remember events, do we truly remember them in every perfect detail? No. No, we do not.

The trick is to make sure you write your brilliant ideas down somewhere. It could be the phone that you are carrying with you. It could be an app like Drafts on your Apple Watch that lets you dictate a quick note that syncs to your phone or laptop.

I have a waterproof writing system in the shower which is how I remembered my quote to share with you right now.

Get it down and you’ll always remember!

HDWGH – Story 21 – Supermarket Shuffle

HDWGH – Story 21 – Supermarket Shuffle

From The How Did We Get Here Series

Now: 71 year old grocery shopper Helen Ford is standing in front of the local grocery store in handcuffs. Police have her surrounded and are in the process of interrogating her. She is obviously confused and terrified.

Before: Gordon Hoffman was late for the “drop.” His regular girl Abby couldn’t make it this morning so the daily cocaine drop for the day was left up to a kid named Jordan Wilkerson. The drops were always made in plain site at the local grocery store. So far, no one in his drug chain had been arrested or even questioned. Who would think that drug deals were happening in the grocery store? Gordon thought the whole idea was brilliant.

Jordan looked at the hand written instructions with a bit of puzzlement. He had issues with dyslexia but he often sometimes omitted or added words that weren’t there. To Jordan, the note read “Look for a 71 year old woman. They will be near the cucumbers at precisely 0815. All you have to do is slip the package into the open carry bag that will be around their shoulder.”

What Jordan actually read was “Look for a 17 year old man. They will be near the cucumbers at precisely 0815. All you have to do is slip the package into the open carry bag that will be around their shoulder.”

Gordon Hoffman was still 5 minutes away from the store…so…

On time and on cue, Jordan dropped the drugs into Helen Ford’s purse at precisely 0815. He had certainly got the time and place right. This story would have stopped right there…except for one other thing.

While getting her purse out of her handbag during checkout, the drug pouch fell out and spilled all over the counter. The check out lady was Marcy Walker whose son Gabriel had a serious cocaine problem so Marcy knew instantly what it was, let out a few curse words in Mrs. Ford’s general direction, and called the police.

Frickin Laser Beams

Looks like we’re going to finally get some Star Wars style weapons after all.

CW lasers may be effective enough for now, but fall short of science fiction. They just aren’t capable of firing at that speed. While they can melt their targets, burn them or mess with optical sensors by zapping them with high-intensity light, they are nowhere near vaporizing the outer layer of a drone like the USPL can. The UPSL improves on CWs massively. This thing is rugged enough to withstand being beat up, but can aim with precision and do irreversible damage. It can turn pieces of a target to vapor, screw with sensors enough to make them useless, and also overpower the innards of the electronics from the Dark Side.

Yes.

Facebook Ban Revisted

Facebook Reverses Australian Ban on News Sharing

I’m not sure I’d call this a reversal. Facebook isn’t going to pay in the way the Australian government first wanted them to. They had to amend the law so that Facebook could live with it.

Australian authorities plan to introduce further amendments to the proposed law so that the government may not apply the code to Facebook if it can demonstrate a “significant contribution” to local journalism, and a two-month mediation period before enforced arbitration comes into effect, allowing parties additional time to reach a private deal.

That doesn’t sound like a reversal to me.

Population Control

I just thought of a brilliant idea.

How do you weed down the population?

Float a story about the Earth being flat. The people that believe it…

…they’ve gots to go!

Like I said, brilliant.

Flashbacks

Flashbacks were the subject of a course that I am taking on fictional writing.

I have used them in the things that I have written but I admit, I use them sparingly. They can be a great tool but they can also make the story unwatchable or unreadable.

Case in point.

DC’s Arrowverse.

I had to stop watching the show because every show has an incredible amount of flashbacks in it.

It is a great example of what not to do. At least, in my opinion.

The show could have been greater without it.

Goodbye Facebook News in Australia

Good for Facebook.

You won’t hear me say those words very often.

Facebook made a decision to turn off the news feeds for Australia.

Australian users cannot share Australian or international news.

International users outside Australia also cannot share Australian news.

“The proposed law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between our platform and publishers who use it to share news content,” Facebook regional managing director William Easton said.

“It has left us facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia. With a heavy heart, we are choosing the latter,” Easton added.

HDWGH – Story 20 – All Washed Up

From The How Did We Get Here Series

Now: Twelve year old Roxanne Davis is standing under a tree in her neighbor’s yard. She is soaked from head to bare toes in urine. She is doing a bit more than crying. It could actually be called wailing. The boys in the treehouse above are trying desperately to remain quiet.

Before: Tom “Scooter” Johnson and Randy Perry loved their new treehouse. They loved everything about it except for one small detail. They had to climb down what seemed like a million foot holds if they needed to take a pee. They loved to climb, but seriously? Since Randy was the brains of the outfit, he decided that they could use a small pail and just pee in that. When no one was looking, they could just dump it out over the side. No one would ever know and they could stay in the treehouse for a longer period of time.

Once the pail filled up, Tom picked it up and looked down below to make sure that no one was standing around. From his vantage point, the coast was clear. He dumped the pail over the side. About a second later, he heard a combination of screaming and crying. The boys looked over the side and at first, couldn’t see anything. After a minute or so, a young girl emerged from under the tree. She was drenched from head to toe in urine and crying. Randy whispered to Tom about the statistical possibilities that must have been involved in dumping the urine on that precise location.

It was a feat of precision that only two boys in a treehouse could appreciate.

Bad Human Behavior Continues

I am having too much fun writing my current series.

The absolute dregs of society. People who project violence and sometimes hatred on others. Sometimes the violence is somewhat justified and sometimes it isn’t.

I can’t believe how much fun it is to write this kind of stuff down and have it form a cohesive story that is baked into a science fiction adventure.

Human violence. Alien violence.

Fun for the whole family.

Stay tuned.

Half Assing Science

I think that any scientist working on the climate has preconceived notions. We may call that an agenda but I don’t think I’d go quite that far.

Climate warming or Global Warming is a dynamic issue for two reasons.

  1. It depends on population. Let’s face it. If I get rid of half of the world’s population then this instantaneously becomes a much different discussion where the scientific numbers will fall right back in line with what scientists “think” they should be.

  2. The planet’s weather system is dynamic. That means that it may be warm during the 1970s in summer time but much colder in the 2000s. What most reports leave out is the fact that while some place in the world is getting warmer there is also a place that is getting much colder. One pole is losing ice. Well, the other pole is gaining it.

Water levels rising is temporary and wouldn’t be the first time.

My personal feeling on these matters is that as humans, we have a complete misunderstanding of a much bigger picture that scientists simply cannot get their head around.

Why I wrote the article is here.

Shitty Human Beings

I know someone who is married.

Yes. That alone can be a scary thing but what I’d like to point out is the following.

In most healthy relationships, the woman always gets the new car. This is for many reasons but mainly because she is the mother and the kids need as much safety as they can get. Especially, when in a car.

That is not the case for a friend of mine. Her husband has the new car. This lady is driving around with a set of windshield wiper blades that hardly do anything to clear the windshield while she is driving. In the winter time, in the snow, where visibility is paramount and can save lives.

He can’t even be bothered to change her oil. He’ll change his and even told her that he’d change hers “next week” but failed to do so.

I’m not going to post the name of this particular person but I somehow feel like public shaming might actually work here. Can you imagine what would happen to him if his co-workers found out how he is treating someone he supposedly loves?

I think it would be a great way to lose friends quickly. No one wants to be associated with a husband that can’t be bothered to take care of his wife’s car.

I will add just for affect that he once let her brakes get so bad in her minivan that she was nearly killed? I don’t quite remember if her child was in the car with her or not.

Let me leave with a question ladies. If this were your boyfriend instead of your husband, would you still be willing to marry him?

A Comment About Time

I had a rather interesting thought today about why I may become bothered when I get a call or a text or an email or an instant message outside of normal working hours.

I think the answer is a perceived “give” and “take.”

For example, I am giving the company I work for 12 hours.

If anyone contacts me outside of those 12 hours, it may feel like they are “taking” or “stealing” my time.

They obviously are not. The work needs to get done and not everyone in the world is on my schedule.

I always enjoy taking a moment and trying to figure out why I might be feeling the way that I do. As I get older, it is a more practiced exercise that I enjoy.

When I was younger, probably not so much.

A Good Story

There are a few stories in this collection of short stories I am currently writing that I personally think are great stories.

The story I am currently working on highlights the very worst of humanity in the beginning of the story. It will progress to something else entirely and for reasons that only a science fiction story can deliver but I have to admit that I am having a blast writing it.

In one way it is a good thing but in another way, I find it sad that it is so easy to write how bad human beings can be to each other. There isn’t one of these scenarios that you couldn’t easily imagine as actually happening.

I can’t wait until these stories are published.

General Thoughts

I have a quick drive by style post about something that I think is important to the world in general.

Diabetes and blood glucose readings.

I read an article yesterday about Apple getting close to having the technology to read blood glucose levels without puncturing the skin.

That is a game changer.

Can you imagine what would happen to the industry in general if they introduce a watch that can do that?

My friends equipment to allow him to constantly monitor his levels costs hundreds of dollars per every 10 days. It is ridiculous.

If Apple puts those types of criminals out of business, I would be a very happy individual.

HDWGH – Story 19 – The Portwinkel Shuffle

HDWGH – Story 19

From The How Did We Get Here Series

Now: Nort Portwinkel lays face down on his families bathroom floor, dead. He is nude except for what is left of his tee shirt proudly displaying the words “Quiet Riot” with a curling iron sticking out of his rear end.

Before: Nort Portwinkel’s sister Katie was starting to piss him off. She had been in the bathroom for about an hour an Nort needed to get ready for a concert in the city’s downtown baseball stadium. It was one of his favorite bands of all time. Katie kept telling him that she’d be done soon but it was becoming obvious to Nort that she was just being a bitch. She had nowhere to go. He did.

Nort decided to accelerate her departure by breaking the door in. When he did, he found his sister sitting on the toilet on her cellphone completely nude and utterly mad and embarrassed. She had been “sexting” her boyfriend this whole time. Katie not wanting to be the only one embarrassed pulled her brothers pants down revealing his absence of any underwear. Now, we had an awkward situation to say the least. Nort began to spew profanities at his sister until she had had enough.

She picked up her legs and kicked Nort driving him back into the bathroom counter where Katie’s hot curling iron was plugged in awaiting her use. With the perfect alignment that only ever happens once in a lifetime, the curling iron did two things at the same time. The sudden force caused an electrical short while it entered Nort’s rear quarter. Nort didn’t have time to scream. The electricity ravaged his body until he fell to the bathroom tile dead with a smoking tee shirt. His sister just stared straight ahead still nude and wondering how she was going to explain any of this.

Selling Global Warming

It is extremely difficult to tell everyone that the Earth is getting hotter when in fact, it is getting colder in some places.

Case in point, this story.

Freezing drivers were stranded for hours in traffic jams in Germany and COVID-19 vaccination centres were shut in Britain on Tuesday as Europe was pummelled by the heaviest snow in years.

But wait, there’s more…

Snow is expected to decrease in the coming days, according to forecasters, but temperatures as cold as -20 C mean travel conditions will remain hazardous.

With the wind-chill factor, temperatures could feel as low as -30 C at night, forecasters have said.

Heavy snow has also fallen in other countries across central and northern Europe, including Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark.

My opinion has always been that the Earth is constantly changing and that will mean some parts of the world will get warmer while others get colder. In a few years, things will shift but you’ll always have cold spots and warm spots. They just won’t always be in the same exact spot on the globe. That is why you have record temperatures constantly. You would if everything was shifting around all of the time.

Makes perfect sense to me.

The Next Big Thing

Last night I began work on the 5th story in my 60 Pages project.

I have already laid out the nine story ideas I want to use but surprisingly enough, I’ve been following the structure. I am picking and choosing the order that I am writing them out.

I may end up choosing to write different stories for the remaining four. I am not sure. There is really only one idea that grabs me. In addition to that, I’d love to write something about Marilyn Manson and undue process. Society has literally turned into a guilty before proven innocent mind set.

I’m so excited to be where I am in only a few short months. The basic premise for anyone who wants to become a writer is just…write. Keep writing. Write often. It doesn’t matter what it is or even how good those first few things are. It will get better over time. My writing still sucks but I feel like I am getting better at it. I do it everyday and in many different forms. I write a journal. I write a blog post. I write short stories. I write emails however, we won’t count those. That is the kind of writing I’d like to steer clear of but life pulls me in.

Ok. Wicked little post about nothing in general or possibly just a writing update.

Have a super sparkly day!

Cold

It is roughly 17 degrees Fahrenheit.

For you types that use the Celsius scale, that would be -8.333 degrees.

I’m happy to see that things are still capable of cooling down with all of this global warming going on.