I Remember

Yep, I remember 9/11 and I damn sure remember who did it!

Naked Nuts

The only saving grace in this news item Freaks is the temperature in San Francisco. It’s usually very cool even in the summer by late afternoon. That fact, and apparently not the nitwits running the craziest city on earth, is what will limit exposure to the ‘naked guys’ from the infamous Castro District of our lovely city by the bay. Instead of simply ordering the police to arrest these whackos and fine them until they alter their behavior, a new law is being considered – no sitting anywhere naked without something underneath. Really?! Every time I read about an act of idiocy beyond comprehension like this new law the song ‘Mad World’ starts up inside my head. I’m sure allowing the inmates to run the asylum by the bay will be fabulous for the tourist trade, not to mention anyone in their right mind ever bringing their kids to the city. Let me just finish with this comment… eeeeehhhhheeeewwww!

Seal Dive

I went diving Saturday morning with my new video camera case and old Nikon L18. I didn’t expect much due to the ocean roughness other than some more rather grainy movies, but it’s still a kick to actually record stuff now. To my surprise a huge seal played tag with me out in the kelp bed far off shore. When he whipped around me the first time to check me out, it was incredible. I’ve been diving off Otter’s Point and Point Lobos for decades and this guy was the biggest I’ve seen. I only recorded one stint with him swimming away with me following because he would come out of nowhere, not giving me a chance to even point the camera for a close-up. I’ve also recorded a segment of what it looks like from way out there in the kelp bed. A dive where I have to kick out to the calmer and deeper kelp bed’s outer region is usually a couple hours in the water, including climbing back over the kelp bed toward shore after most of the tank air is depleted. It’s a tedious endeavor and one that must be done slowly. By the time I reach shore I have to stand still for at least five minutes before taking off my fins because it still feels like I’m floating in my head and lasts for hours to a lesser degree. At least I remembered to bring my own regulator this trip.  :)




 

Who's Next?

The religion of submission kicked around another new idea in Egypt to promote worldwide healing – old school Extermination. A few of Islam’s beloved disciples in Pharaoh land decided if Christians were to be exterminated and all trace of their places of worship to be burned all would be well. This is a classic example, although only surprising to our media and politicians cringing every time Muslim hate groups here yell Islamaphobia because they feel slighted when asked to abide by the laws of our nation while living here. See, many naïve imbeciles in the media and even congress think that well, if we just let them massacre the Jews, peace will reign for the rest of us. Well folks, after they’ve come for the Jews, guess who really is next. Unfortunately, there are too many sheep running in the same circles who would sacrifice Christians next in a heartbeat.

The Soldiers Medal

Staff Sergeant Matt Blain heard the trouble call – an armored vehicle had tipped over in an Afghani raging river Heroism. Shedding gear as he ran, Matt saw one of the passengers had been ejected from the vehicle and was being carried away by the water. He dived in and pulled him to shore before diving again into the water in order to rescue the three men still trapped in the armored vehicle. He single-handedly pulled open a five hundred pound door according to one of the trapped men, Captain Jim Fallon, to facilitate the rescue. For his bravery, the army issued him a very rare ‘The Soldiers Medal’ for heroism outside of combat.

Sergeant Blaine is a veteran of Afghanistan with a ‘Purple Heart’ when a land mine he had stepped on but was too light in weight to set off blew up the Humvee behind him at the end of 2007. After shrugging off the blast, Blaine helped the other soldiers out of the damaged Humvee.

When told about the medal on the phone, Blain told them to mail it to him. He didn’t want to be singled out because he had not been the only one to rush toward the vehicle in the river. The army sent a Colonel instead with a contingent to pin it on him. I know a lot of folks wonder what kind of soldiers are fighting for our way of life in a hellhole like Afghanistan – soldiers like Staff Sergeant Matt Blain. Oh hell yeah!

Insanity

A guy up in Idaho has three grizzly bears come into his yard where his kids play Grizzly. He shoots one dead, scaring the others away. Local authorities: yep, no problem. Federal Nitwits: Waaaahhhh… endangered species… $50,000 fine or a year in prison. To try and put this guy in prison is so stupid, the idiot behind it should be fired immediately for wasting the country’s time or put in an Idaho yard with three grizzly bears so the dolt can show the rest of us the way to handle the most dangerous creature in the USA. When three of them traipse into a guy’s Idaho yard it makes me wonder exactly how endangered they are, and what rung of the ladder our kids occupy on this species list.

Writing

I passed the forty mark on my query send-outs for HARDCASE, my first person POV thriller. Years back when I was reading Ms. Snark’s agent blog while trying to get a clue as to what would interest an agent, it seemed an impossible and humorous task as I read all the stuff authors should never do. There seemed to be an insurmountable number of items that doomed new authors in general to forever be submerged within the horrible agent ‘Slush Pile’. I read the words ‘craft’, ‘cliché’, and ‘concise’ so many times they began to trigger my barf reflex.

A little time passed and other agents began sharing their likes and dislikes with us, including POV, adverbs, dialogue tags, begin in the middle and end in beginning (or something like that), no this… no that… no… well, you get the drift. These revelations amused, confused, and defused a multitude of writer wannabes like me, I’m sure. I couldn’t have been the only one reading new releases breaking each and every ‘No-No’ and yet getting into print just the same - and selling.

A little more time passed and I noticed writers I myself had followed for many years making public statements not only about politics, but about other writers. The most mystifying was Stephen King deciding to grade the writing ability of Stephenie Meyer. He claimed to understand the attraction to the stories but he claimed - ‘Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good.’ To a rube like me if an author manages somehow to climb the literary Mt. Everest of not only getting their material published, but also selling millions of copies along with generating a string of Hollywood movies, that author’s writing might not be pleasing to King or one of the other Gods of the written word, but so what? There are many writers out there who write ‘series’ type books I enjoyed immensely, but when they’ve forayed away from the series I disliked their efforts. It didn’t mean they couldn’t ‘write worth a darn’. It meant only that I didn’t care for the story. I’ve read all the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovitch, but her efforts outside the series have put me off from reading anything else but the series. It had nothing to do with her writing and everything to do with the story. Anyway, we had entered a new era of celebrity critique.

A little more time passes, and here we are in the middle of publishing Armageddon with Amazon creating a self-publishing tidal wave. Agents, writers, publishing houses, and book stores (however many there are left) feel the heat building up to an inferno. It is possible this may mean a brave new world for storytellers. It more than likely will mean a lot less money for a whole lot of people. It may also mean a closer look at submissions with storyline higher up on an agent’s agenda. With my new handy-dandy Kindle I’ve been trying out a lot of free samples from many well known authors. I admit to being confused as to what the agent saw other than name recognition, and I was very happy I hadn’t plunked down cash for it. It wasn’t that the well known writers had forgotten how to write. I just didn’t like the story. In conclusion to this blog thesis, writing form is all well and good, but in this day and age of large free samplings an author better have a story. :)