Hello again....

For those of you, however few you are, who do follow this blog and its author you would have noticed the extremely long period of which there have been no posts. If not, well ..

I have been busy with work actually. I have been writing, which is good. That is really good. Things have been difficult on  the homefront but they are coming back together now. Albeit rather slowly but still in a positive direction. This means that my personal writing will likely also follow the same path. I hope.

What to do, what to do. Stay tuned and you will find out when I do.

Quick DBD Update

Wow, it feels like forever since I last posted something here!

I have been very busy of late and as such I have neglected some of my other projects. Then again.. money comes first and that is the reason that I have been busy - because I have been working!

The good thing is that the work I have been doing has been writing. So to make a long story short... I spent all that time in the past trying to get some decent writing work and I finally found it. Not only that, but the guy that I am working for is a decent guy. I could not have asked for a better "employer" so to speak.

QuitSmokingCommunity.Org

Quitsmokingcommunity.org is basically who I am working for. I am writing a couple pieces for the site and maybe getting in on a couple other projects.. who knows. All I know is that I am getting paid on time, working for a guy who appreciates communication (and communicates in return), and overall is a nice guy. So I cannot really complain except to say I wish I would have found this sooner.

Other than that, life has just kept me busy. On another note.. I officially took down LookingforEarth.com. It was a fun project while it lasted and it would have been a great site had I been able to put the time and effort into it that it needed to grow. Oh well...

Anyway.. I know this is not much of an update but duty calls. I will continue to put time and work into this blog it is just not going to happen this week.

Observations of a Boxer: Part One

I apologize to any of you who looked for this piece yesterday. I had said that it would be ready one June 4th but there were some circumstances beyond my control that prevented me from getting this out on time, along with a few other things. However, it is ready now so here we go. I hope you enjoy it as I am planning on making it an on-going series depending on how well it is received. Off to the races!

Introduction: Dakota

My dogs name is Dakota and of course, she is a Boxer. She is pure Boxer through and through. While she has no flaws with regards to her breed or how she should present herself, she does have one trait that sets her apart from the rest of her kind. She is smaller than she should be.

Dakota was born the runt. Perhaps this is the reason she was not adopted like her brothers and sisters. Either way, being a runt these days is not the death sentence that it used to be. In the past the runt would not have  the size or strength to feed like the rest and sometimes this would cause them to really stand out amongst their peers. Lacking food, attention, and just simple nutrition, runts would sometimes be killed as a way of showing mercy. I'm not sure why that was considered mercy back then, but there are a lot of things that people did then that do not make sense.

Today however things are much different. Dakota's early days were still not completely secure as she was born to what some people call a backyard breeder. The person that owned her at the time must have thought the ways they did things in the past made sense. Or maybe he was just looking for ways to save money and have less mouths to feed, because Dakota was slated for termination. That's right, she was to be put down.

Now I'm not exactly sure how it happened but somehow a person who knew the breeder decided that they would take Dakota and save her from her untimely demise. At this point however it became a race to find someone who could take and care for Dakota permanently. From messages through mutual friends, Dakota ended up in Michigan with a friend of someone we knew. Word went out that a puppy needed a home and a fuzzy picture was posted. Well, it was lucky for us, not Dakota, that we saw the picture and decided it was time we had a dog. We had been searching off and on for one but the right dog and situation never arose. This time however, it felt right.

So we made the trip and picked her up. From the first time she looked at me and I at her it was sealed. This was my dog. It has been 3 years since that day and Dakota is still the same size she was last year. People say that she still has more growing to do but I am convinced that she is done. She is still a good sized dog. She is about 64 pounds, but it is not her weight but rather her height that is a bit below average for a female Boxer. That is fine with me though because to me she is the perfect size. Not too small and not too large, but perfect.

So her smaller than average size aside, she is absolutely perfect. Everything about her says Boxer and believe me, if you have never had a Boxer you should really consider the breed for your next dog. They are the best! They are tough, yet completely tame and great with kids. They absolutely love to cuddle and I don't think I have ever seen another dog who loves to snuggle next to their family members so much. They are not the biggest fans of the water yet they can swim as if they have done it their entire lives. All dogs love their adopted family, sure. But a Boxer is a bit unique. I think they have a love for their adopted family that has no rival. They will protect their master with their lives and will do the same for everyone else they love. They are great dogs. Dakota is a great dog.

Observations

Our daily walk differs occasionally by way of our path and length. Lately it seems however that I am noticing something new about Dakota every day. Sometimes I wonder why she does what she does and other times I just shake my head. Occasionally she does not behave all that well but most of the time she does. I am still working on her "training" or her "obedience". I know, I know.. three years old and I am still working on it? Well.. I never claimed to be the worlds best dog trainer. It is not that she is a complete disaster of a dog. It is just that she has a mind of her own. When she wants to smell something or walk a certain way, she does not heed my call. We are working on this though and she does show improvement. I think her biggest flaw is her instinct to chase a bird or squirrel.

My daddy took me for our walk today. I was excited to go because everybody else in the house was gone already. Sometimes we go early and sometimes we go a little bit before lunch, but he always takes me for a walk. I like walking because I get to see all the things outside. I really love smelling  the flowers. On our block there are a lot of different flowers and they all smell nice. I can smell the flowers on the second block before we even get close so I get even more excited.

I usually try to pay attention to Dakota's marking routine. Where she marks, how much and when. It is interesting actually when you start to see a pattern. I would have never thought that a pattern in her marking would emerge. I always thought it was relatively random. I noticed that whenever I see a big plant like a hosta she will pee on it. So as I watched it more and more I could sometimes see that she peed on the plant because another dog had done so as well. The plant was wet so I assumed it was from another dog but I suppose it could have just been water too.

I keep hearing dogs bark when we walk by certain houses. I know I should not worry but since I cannot see them it kinda freaks me out. We just have to keep walking. Pretty soon we will be far enough away from their house and I will not have to worry about it anymore. It wouldn't be so bad if they were in their yard and I could see them and bark back at them. 

It seems strange to me sometimes how Dakota will talk (bark) to some dogs and not to others. Do they have a secret language? I remember watching a show called Dogs 101 in which they discussed the various barks that dogs had. They asked dog owners if they could recognize certain barks and they could. It seemed amazing to me but after having Dakota for a couple of years I realized that I could do the same. 

 More To Come

This being the first "Observations" essay, I didn't get to all that I wanted to. The second will be a bit more in depth and will likely include some pictures as well.

New DBD Computer Services Site

Good Morning To All!

 

I just completed the workup on a new Computer Services site. The site is live as of now, but that does not mean there might not be some issues. Of course, I looked through and tested all that I could but as anyone who has done something like this before knows, the only way to truly iron out all the bugs is for it to go live under real circumstances. So I published the site live. Check it out --  DBD Computer Repair Services

In case anyone is questioning the decision to use Wix for the site creation, let me explain my reasoning here so that hopefully it does not come up again. One of the biggest questions one could ask is, if you are soliciting for business as a computer repair tech, or someone with advanced knowledge of computers, why use a site like Wix or anything like it to create your website? Why not create it yourself?

I have thought about this long and hard in the past and even asked myself the same question. The answer is relatively easy to be honest and it all comes down to time. I am a very busy man and what spare time i do have away from family and other duties is spent with my writing or here. The last thing I want to do is use that valuable time coding a website and going through all the various testing that is required to get something like that working flawlessly. Sure, it would probably look good and it is always the most customizable option to code it yourself.

Thing is, the site creation companies that exist now have gotten so much better than they have been in the past. The options that are available, even for free, are options that give me exactly what I need. So why spend the time and money doing it all myself when everything that I need is made readily available and for free.

So you see.. it was really a very easy decision to utilize Wix for my secondary site. So far it has worked out very well and I could not be happier. Now if I could just drum up some business everything would be grand! 

That Lost in the Ages

There are always eras in which people live and associate with. Different times and different people who live within them. In the 1950's things were vastly different as they are now. People thought different, dressed different, and when they looked at people in various stations in life their perceptions were very different than they would be today.

In the 1970's all these things have changed. People were a lot more forgiving of certain transgressions. But even so, there still lived those who were around in the 50's and they were not so eager to let go of their convictions. The same happens today. There are those who have a very different mind-set from those who have come of age in this last decade. The ideas and ideals of these people can be very different and coming to an understanding on various topics can be just as difficult.

Today I see much of this in the aspects of the people around me. The older generation (I say this with all due respect) has a great amount of difficulty adjusting to the fast paced lifestyle that is the norm today. Social media and technology has brought people together in numerous ways and taken them apart in just as many. It is a rather contradictory sight when you consider it all.

Those who have been born a stranger to technology yet are open and willing to accept it are slow to come to the forefront but they can still play the game. Those who are a part of the revolution are only sometimes willing to accept the older folk but when they do they are instantly wiser. Is that a coincidence? I think not.

What about the young who will pass us all up on the way to their present? They will take our technology and evolve it into something new and something strange. It is at this point that we become the "they". When this takes place we should all be wise to accept the invitation to come to the party - that is, if we are to receive one.

Google and their new Cube Lab

For those who know me you know that I am a big fan of everything Google. At the heart of this fascination is the fact that Google does everything they can to explore, experiment, learn, challenge, and create things that give people the ability to use technology for what it was meant for - but in a better, more efficient manner. This also allows for unconventional and new methods of doing things with the tech we all have in our lives. This excites me because not only does it give people with advanced knowledge of computers and technology more tools but it also helps to bring along the novice as well. Speaking of the novice computer user, as they come along for the journey with the advanced users and experts, Google provides them with the tools they need to learn and experiment with the technology being used by the experts so they too may one day share in that distinction. It is just marvelous! 

New Experimental Frontiers

Google is well known for its powerful search engine on the internet. They are also known for some of the various other ways the search engine can be used. Things like calculators, translators, and weight conversions are but a small few things that you can use Google for. And unless you have been living under a very large rock, or living at the bottom of the ocean you would also be familiar with Google Glass, Android, and Google Maps and Earth. If I was to make a list of all the various projects that Google is involved in or the companies they own or have a stake in we would be here all day. Let's just say that Google has grown to be a major company in this country (and the world) and they have no plans on slowing down at any point in the near or distant future.

I think that for anybody who likes to keep up with current technology or news about what is just over the horizon, one company to watch would obviously be Google. This is made even easier considering the Google Chrome Blog has been keeping relevant news on the site and informing the public about new experiments. Yes, "Chrome" is the name of their web browser. But think about just how important that is for a moment.

Everything that we do these days, or almost everything anyway, has a start on the internet. Our communications, many of the programs that we run, or the data that we collect or send out. All of it is either coming from or going through the internet. So if you are building something that is supposed to work better than anything else out there the best place to focus your energies is with a browser. That is precisely what Google had done years ago. They developed Chrome.

Chrome has had its ups and downs just like any browser. Personally I have been using Firefox for the last few years. While Firefox is my default browser I still use Chrome occasionally or when I am doing something specific that requires the use of Chrome. As for Internet Explorer... I have not used that piece of junk for a few years now. I have been using Chrome more and more lately and I expect that at some point in the near future I will make a complete switch between Chrome and Firefox. The point is that the browser Google has created in Chrome is a great piece of software and it serves as the starting point for many of their internet based projects/experiments. This is why the Chrome Blog is a great place to get information about upcoming projects.

The Cube Lab

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Rubiks Cube. As an homage, Google has launched what they are calling the Cube Lab. The lab is a website that gives users various styles of Rubiks Cube puzzles to not only play around with but they can also create their own. The amount of work and brainpower that has gone into this website is immense and I sincerely recommend that you check it out when you have the time. It is definitely worth a look.

The Cube Lab is a great piece of work. Google has done a marvelous job putting sites like this together and if you never take a look at any of them you are really doing yourself a disservice. The best way to describe what the Cube Lab is would be to let Rubik's Cube creator Professor Erno Rubik explain it. The following  is a paragraph taken from the website's "about" page:

"The Cube was born in 1974 as a teaching tool to help me and my students better understand space and 3D. The Cube challenged us to find order in chaos. Since then, technology has made fantastic progress in bringing new possibilities to how we learn and how we tackle bewildering complexity. Chrome Cube Lab takes full advantage of that progress by encouraging curiosity and problem-solving skills—the very reason the Cube was created in the first place. I can’t wait to see people learn about three-dimensional objects through their browsers and to test the limits of what is possible when the Cube gets re-jigged using cutting edge web technologies. Cube on!”

...Professor Erno Rubik


Links to the sites mentioned in this posting:

The Chrome Blog 
The Chrome Cube Lab 

 

New Menu

For those who pay attention to detail you may notice a new drop-down menu has been added to the front page of the blog. This will make it much easier to navigate through the various stories and articles that I plan to start adding soon.

Some of my writing of short stories as well as the novel I am working on has been moving rather quickly of late. As a result, I wanted to give myself someplace to publish some of these as they are finished. Of course this mostly applies to the short stories as they are the ones that I have finished. I have, at present, 2 short stories that I will be publishing within the next day or so. I just need to do some editing and proofing then they will be all yours. This is where the menu will really make things easier.

You would think that something like a menu would be a simple process, especially in a place like Blogger. Unfortunately Blogger does not provide a menu system that fits my needs so I had to look elsewhere for something that would work. I eventually found something and although most of the coding was already done for me, there were a couple of tweeks and additions that I made on my own. This of course always causes some additional problems to work through.

At this point everything should be working as it should, but if anyone happens to notice a menu item not working properly please let me know. I will be doing my best to handle anything that pops up.

Thanks again and hopefully this addition will make it much easier for you guys to navigate through the new stories and other works that I will be posting very soon. Enjoy!

The Ignorance of Others

Yesterday was meant to be a wonderful day. I had volunteered to be a chaperone for my daughter's 4th grade class on their field trip to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. Having chaperoned 2 previous trips for my daughter over the course of the last couple of years I knew what was expected of me and I always try to enhance the experience of the children in my group. My daughter seems to love it when I go with her and her classmates because I try to make it a very entertaining experience, wherever we are going.

As much fun as we were having throughout the day, there were multiple incidents with various other museum goers that just utterly drove me crazy. The "incidents" that I am talking about would be the multiple counts of ignorance and outright bullying that I witnessed over and over again. Having gone to a ton of public places throughout my life I am very familiar with such actions and come to expect a certain amount of it. As a matter of fact, I am always mentally prepared to deal with things like this no matter where I am because, well to put it bluntly, it just happens. You cannot avoid running into someone who has absolutely no regard for other people. That is, in the case of adults. However, what about experiencing this in children?

Who and Why? Is it their upbringing?

Certain people are just rude. It doesn't matter where you are or what you are doing you will eventually experience the rudeness of others. We have all seen it, someone cutting in front of someone else in line. A person just bogarting their way in front of another person while they are reading a plaque on the wall. There are a variety of ways that people can be rude to their fellow man, or woman. There might even be times in which you or I have been the one committing the rude act.

What about children however? Sure, there is a certain amount of rudeness that comes from kids of various age groups. But in most cases I think we see or recognize that most children might be acting in such a manner simply because they don't know any better. Maybe they are being rude because they don't know that they are affecting those around them. Or maybe, they are acting this way because it is just how they act at home or it is how they were raised to be. I know for a fact that there are certain people that have told their kids, "do what you want to do and don't worry about other people. You get what you want, what you need, no matter how it bothers the people around you."

How do I "know this for a fact"? Well, because I have talked to people over the years and this is what a couple parents have told me that they teach their children. I even had a friend once who raised his kids with a similar mantra. "Surely" he told me, "in a world as cruel and as harsh as this one, we should teach our children to be as aggressive as the person next to them, as the person they are in competition with." To a certain degree I can understand where he was coming from but at the same time there has to be a degree of compassion for other people.

So where or how do we draw the line between caring for ones self and making sure you do not hurt or harm other people? That is hard to tell sometimes, especially where children are concerned. I have always taught my kids that they should always make sure they are safe and get what they want in life. However, you always want to be conscience of those around you. Are you taking something for yourself at anothers expense? If so, then you must reconsider your actions. 

Cultural Differences

I like to think that at the heart of every situation there is a commonality that exists that allows people to understand each other. At the same time, no matter how much people might want to ignore it, there is a distinct racial division amongst people within this country. I think we all need to reassess who we are and how we are different AND alike. We need to realize that no matter what our differences are in regards to appearance deep down we are all human. That fact and that fact alone is all that matters. So why is it that we have such divisions amongst one another when it comes to race? I don't think I will ever find the answer to that question.

That being said, I have lived on this planet for almost 40 years now and I have seen quite a lot. I have lived in very cultural diverse areas as well as places where things are so bland they strive to add diversity. So I feel I have the right to speak my mind when it comes to racial issues because I have lived through them just like anyone else has. There are people out there who will speak on issues they do not understand because they do not have direct experience. They are speaking their thoughts on issues they really have no right to talk about because everything they say is essentially a theory not a fact.

Yesterday at the museum what I witnessed was the same thing that I have seen before. For some reason however I was angered and frustrated much more yesterday than I have been in the past. Maybe it was because it was so blatant and maybe it was because my frustration level with it had reached a boiling point. I'm not sure, but what I do know is that I had to write about it to make myself feel somewhat better about it. Maybe writing this piece about the experience will give me the chance to vent my frustrations and at the same time hopefully enlighten others to it as well.

There were a large variety of rude and ignorant acts that I saw yesterday and about 98% of them were carried out by kids from the ages of about 9 to 13. These are definitely kids who are old enough to know better. The last 2% were adults who surely should know better. In one incident we were walking up to an old steam train to see what it looked like in the drivers compartment. I stood to the side of the stairway to allow my group of 4 kids to walk up and into the compartment. I wanted them to be able to see all of it without being in their way myself. Suddenly a group of Latino children walked up the stairs with their chaperone. They all (about 6 of them) rushed up the stairs and literally pushed my kids out of the way and stood directly in front of them. The adult with the group followed right behind the kids and pushed his way in as well. He even stretched and leaned over one of my kids blocked her view entirely so that he could see better. I immediately walked up as far as I could on the stairs and lead my kids back down and out of the exhibit. I figured it was best to just leave the area before more anger and frustration grew.

Another time we were watching a very large avalanche simulation machine describe and show how the grains and rocks in an avalanche move down a slope. There were controls at the base of the machine so the kids could control the machine and see how different environments and different materials effect the avalanche. We waited our turn behind a black kid who just seemed to not want to leave even though he obviously had no clue as to what he was doing. When he finally left I guided my daughter towards the controls and she grabbed them in hand. I explained to her what they did and how it worked so she could understand what she was doing. She operated the apparatus for about 1 minute when 3 black kids her age crowded around us. They got very close and started talking so loud that my daughter and I could not hear one another.

Then as they inched in closer and closer, one of them took his hand and while my daughter was still operating the machine he pushed her hand off of it and grabbed  the control. As he did this he started to try and wedge his way into where she was standing, until I intervened. I asked them to kindly move back and give us some room and explained that my daughter was till using the machine. I said when she was done they could have their turn and that everybody should get a turn. The one who grabbed the control from her seemed to get it, but one of the other kids actually said, "forget it cracker its my turn now!" Keep in mind that this kid was probably about 9 or 10 years old. I was more shocked that he would say something like that to an adult more than anything else at that point. I gently put my arms down on either side of my daughter where she was standing so they almost formed a wall around her allowing her to freely use the controls. By this point however she just wanted to leave the area. I don't know if she was just upset or finished learning about avalanches but either way I was very upset.

Needless to say we left the area about 5 minutes later and continued on through the museum. The interactions and confrontations did not end there however. Not only did we run into more ignorance and rudeness throughout the day but I also continued to see such acts against other people as well. For example, at one point we were by a large scale model of the city of Chicago that has a few model trains going around the large model city. There was an Indian family looking at the exhibit and preparing to take a family photo standing in front of it. As they lined up for the picture there were a couple adults (not with their group) who were obviously standing back so as to not interfere with the picture.  However, there were multiple black kids who were deliberately walking in between the picture taker and the rest of the family completely not caring what was going on around them. The family taking the picture had to reset multiple times and finally moved to a new spot, unable to take the picture where they wanted to. It was almost sickening.

Salvaging the Field Trip

Although the experiences I had just described made it difficult to really enjoy ourselves we did end up having a good time. It is hard not to when you are chaperoning a field trip with your child and their friends. The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago is a great place and they have a bunch of fun and educational exhibits. I think my daughter really enjoyed the day and that was all I could ask for.

As far as the people who exhibited a complete disregard for their fellow human beings goes I fee sad for them. I think as they continue to grow up they will either realize their actions define them or they will not. For those who realize this truth they will hopefully do what they can to become a person who is not only good to themselves but to others as well. Those who do not see this will likely live a life filled with agony and despair. I know, that might be a bit of a stretch but there is a whole section of our society who feels that it is pointless to get along with other cultures and that they are doing their culture a favor by alienating it from that of other people.

I know from experience that nothing good ever comes out of putting yourself in a corner and ignoring both the people and the environment around you. We should always embrace the cultures of others as a way to learn more about them. If we could all see one another as a fellow human being and not as the color or culture they portray on the outside we might have a chance to get along and learn something. The ability to learn and adapt is one of the major things that separates us from that of the animal kingdom. Why would we want to ignore what other people can teach us only to remain stationary in society? I think the more we learn from each other the closer we can get to having a true understanding of the world we live in.

The Ukrainian Crisis

There are quite a few conflicts in the world at any one time. Think about it, when was the last time that you remember the news not talking about a war, conflict, or any other military action somewhere in the world? My entire life I cannot think of one time, one solitary moment of peace. Can you?

 The Past

I am half Ukrainian and half Polish but All American. I have always been an extremely patriotic individual. But that does not mean I have forgotten my roots. I really wish that I had more time with my grandmother to be able to find out more about that portion of my family and heritage. The biggest thing I remember being told was a story of when my Grandmother and Grandfather running from the Nazis through Europe on their way to the United States, as most did during that time. I remember hearing about how they would routinely hide in trenches or abandon and burnt out homes as they fled the chaos and calamity of the war raging around them. My Grandmother was pregnant with my father at the time and my uncle was probably around 10 years old I believe. 

My father ended up being born in Austria and when they finally made it to the United States they settled in Pennsylvania. Over the years they all learned really good English and did what everyone else did.The eventually moved to Chicago and when he grew up and got married, had children, and started a life devoid of all wars. We lived for a while in a place called "the Ukrainian Village". It was a Ukrainian community in Chicago that tried to keep Ukrainian customs alive in new generations of people growing up in America. 

I am mentioning this because our country, America, has done a wonderful job through the generations building a country with a wide variety of people, cultures, and ideals. Although some might argue that point and claim that the crime and racism that exists is a clear example of why it is not working, I think most would agree with me that it is. So what about the rest of the world? What about the Ukraine? I am asked often by those around me who know what my heritage is what my thoughts are about the crisis that is going on over there. I am asked how I feel about it or if I know more than they do.

A Cultural & Real Separation

There is a lot going on over in Europe that I have no idea about. I'll admit, I don't really pay much attention to what is going on over there. Why would I? With what has been happening over in the Ukraine I have been paying attention to the news a little more but I still never made a huge effort to search out or find specific programs geared towards information on the conflict. From what I do know however it does see like there are some really bad things happening over there and it does not appear to be slowing down at all. On the contrary, it seems to be gaining momentum, not losing it.

I cannot say for sure what it will take to end the conflict but it does seem like some neighboring countries might need to get involved. And why not? Some of what is happening could very well spill over the Ukrainian borders and into their lands. Now, on top of the troops that Russia has been amassing on the borders, pro-separatist militias are taking over various government buildings and areas. People are fighting and dying and I think it is just a matter of time before everything escalates into full war. 

It is difficult for people here in the US to get involved in what is happening there. We just do not have enough information or enough cultural knowledge to really know what's best. The various factions and ideals that people are fighting for are foreign to us. Russia built certain portions of the country and populated others. Russia also dominated the Ukraine for many years and when they finally got their independence it was long overdue.  The problem is that it was relatively recent and there are still a lot of people there who are Russian at heart. It makes for a difficult situation and again, one that the United States should stay out of. That is, unless the prevailing government, the true government of the country sincerely asks us for help. Should that happen we will really need to determine what is right and what our previous obligations might be. How bad do we want to piss of Russia?

Spiderman 2: Just How Good is it?

As much as I love to watch movies and televisions shows, well.. anything that tells a story really. But as much as I enjoy that, as a writer the one thing that I typically stay away from writing reviews of movies or television. Unfortunately I do not have a good reason why, I just do not write them. However, in this case I will make an exception simply because the movie was just that good. I am talking about Spiderman 2.

The Overall Setting

Another thing that I don't do quite as often as other people is go to the theater. With all of the media technology available to the general public I find it far too convenient (and comfortable) to watch movies or any other video for that matter in the comfort of my own home and on my own couch. This time I was surprised however by the eldest of my offspring. My beautiful 16 year old daughter bought two tickets to the 3D IMAX opening night showing of Spiderman 2. If I did anything right as a father it was to instill a love for all things Spidey in my kids.

We had what I thought were really good seats in a not so crowded theater at 10pm. I opted for the no popcorn and no drink watching style because there is no pause button when your in the IMAX theater with nearly 50 of your neighbors. I did not want anything to pull me away from the movie. So my daughter and I sat through the previews and eagerly awaited the opening scenes. I must say that I didn't expect the movie to open on Richard Parker (Peter Parkers father) and his wife Mary on the run from something and leaving poor little peter with Aunt May and Uncle Ben. The story tries to build some back story and maybe pick up a little from where the last film left off.

After the excitement with the Parkers comes the good stuff. While Gwen Stacey awaits Peter at their high school graduation ceremony he is busy trying to help the police stop a highjacking of some high-grade plutonium from Oscorp. Like most movies this entire scene is filled with action, crashes, and explosions. The best part however is the work and special effects done on Spiderman himself. There is a minute or so of him flying really high and web-swinging between skyscrapers coming very close to the ground before pulling himself back up again on a web from his wrist.

I had a really good feeling about the films special effects and attention to detail when I saw Spiderman make his first appearance falling gracefully  to the ground and swinging into the action. You could see the wind moving around the loose bits of the suit on Peter's back as he cut through the wind like a professional skydiver. Everything just looked very realistic. The little details like that are things that are missed sometimes and it is those small details that many of us are looking for. Attention to detail.

 Special Effects

Today the words special effects just does not seem so special anymore. The movies made today are usually filled with various CGI scenes and other camera tricks to get the director the shot that they want. Sometimes there is more money spent on the computer generated graphics that what some high level CEO's make in Chicago or New York. Thing is, with all that money being spent there are a lot of movies that would have been better off investing that money elsewhere. The CGI work on a film can either make it look beyond fantastic or just make it look cheap. It is an art these days to be able to take the CGI work done by some very talented individuals and merge it with the live action shots and edit it all together. The team that worked on Spiderman 2 deserve an oscar!

When I originally saw the trailers for this movie I was pretty upset about a couple things. They were assumptions really, but from what In was seeing and what I remembered from past films I saw the whole Jaimi Foxx as Electro thing as a mistake. Then when I saw how they decided to present Electro I thought, "oohh.. mistake number 2." You know what though.. I have never been more wrong in my life! First of all Jaimie Foxx did a marvelous job of portraying the juxtaposition of his characters personalities. He was wonderful as the loner, shy, alone, introverted genius and equally as terrifying as the powered up and mad as hell Electro!

The lightening effects used were very realistic in my opinion and beyond that the angles and type of shots they used to capture the action and where they blended the CGI was just fabulous. Man, there's a word I do not use that often. Still.. I found myself thrilled at the prospect of the big fight between Spidey and Electro just based on seeing how they made his powers evolve and change. Then, as he used them against Spidey and objects like walls and cars, it just looked great. Afterwards I was excited about Jaimie Foxx and happy they chose him because he did a great job and I am not sure if anyone else could have played that role quite like he did.

As the Story Goes...

One of the biggest ongoing arguments with any and all of these so-called "comic book movies" is will they or wont they stay true to the original story? Then people argue that maybe they shouldn't. Maybe they should use it as a basis only but explore other ideas as they build the story. I for one am a believer that the comic book should not be messed with. I feel that there are certain things that are shall we say.. adjustable. Yet, other aspects of the original story should be left alone. If you're going to make a movie based on a comic book it is just like doing a remake or making a movie from a book. You have the basis for your story and you should stay true to the story and the vision the author had for their characters. But the visual medium gives you a little bit of a different outlook on how you can present those things to the audience.

With Spiderman you have a character that is universally loved by all and there are a ton of people who are more than aware of the original story. So to mess with the story is to doom your project to fail with the true fans from the start.  A great example of this is the web shooters for the Toby Maguire movies and the Andrew Garfield movies. They decided to make Spiderman have organic web shooting ability in the first movies but in the present Andrew Garfield movies they made it so that Peter Parker had to design and develop the web shooters - just like in the comic book. This was something that might have been seen by some as a small part of the story but to the true fans it was something that really turned them off right from the start on the Maguire movies.

The same can be said about the Mary Jane and Gwen Stacey relationships with Peter Parker. Both movies took a different path on this but again, the Garfield movies got it right once more. With a character that has such a loyal and devoted following as this one does it is hard to go against the grain. They tried it with the Toby Maguire versions and because of that they had an uphill battle from the start. The present incarnation of Spiderman is so much more a movie that follows the original story and because of this the fan base is really getting behind it. At this point and especially after Spiderman 2 has been released if I was Toby Maguire I would be embarrassed to show my face in public.

Turn on the Lights

I'm not all that excited about the new X-Men movie and there is at least a year and a half until the next Spiderman, if there is a third movie. I would think there would have to be. Everything is made in threes these days. Overall I was very happy with this movie and I am sure if I tried really hard I could find a few faults with the movie. I don't want to do that though. I have always hated when a movie critic would over-analyze a movie and tell people it was no good as a result. There is a time and place for that type of examination of the final product but it is not necessary for the fans. Our job is to enjoy the movie. It is entertainment and that is precisely how we should look at it.

As far as entertainment goes I was excited, thrilled, anxious, happy, and sad throughout the film. This movie was well worth the money to see. If my opinion was worth anything I would try very hard to get everyone involved with the film to hear my opinion. If my opinion mattered I would want them all to know how much I absolutely loved the movie. How much I was happy they made the film exactly how they made it and just how happy I was about all of their acting. This movie was a thrill to watch and I will surely see it many more times before the next one comes out.

I have been a comic book fan for a very long time and Spiderman has always been my favorite. When they started making comic book movies I think I was one of the happiest geeks on the planet. So I have seen every comic book related movie produced in the last 20 years and I have loved most of them. When the first Spiderman came out you could not imagine my joy. I enjoyed it, but overall it was not what I wanted. That being said, you should already have guessed that I absolutely love this new movie. However, I will take it a bit further than that. As far as any and all comic book movies are concerned, Spiderman 2 is the absolute best comic book movie ever made!!

The Bible Series: Examining the Truth: Part 2

"The Wickedness of Mankind"

Sometimes it amazes me that God could have been so cruel. It is a big contradiction that a supposed very loving God would stoop so low. I do not assume that these articles I am publishing will make me any friends. Quite the opposite actually. I grew up Catholic. As such, I have heard it said a couple times that I do not believe in God because I was raised Catholic. Is that true? I would imagine so. It was the very strict Catholic prayer rituals and various other "rules" that first made me start to ask questions. In addition, the fact that I was inquisitive was frowned upon and that in particular got me more curious. I thought to myself, "why is the fact that I am wondering about these things a problem? Why is gaining more knowledge something that I should not seek?"

There is a lot about God that I will explore during this series of articles. I am not yet sure how far this will go. How many articles will I write and how far into the Bible will they go? Right now I am just playing it all as it comes. The one thing that I have always had a problem with in the Bible is the outright cruelness of God. God has always been touted as a loving God, a forgiving God. So that being the case why should he be so mean?

Noah

"When mankind had spread all over the world, and girls were being born, some of the supernatural beings saw that these girls were beautiful, so they took the ones they liked. Then the Lord said, "I will not allow people to live forever; they are mortal. From now on they will live no longer than 120 years." In those days and even later there were giants on the Earth who were descendants of human women and the supernatural beings. They were the great heroes and famous men of long ago.

When the Lord saw how wicked everyone on earth was and how evil their thoughts were all the time, he was sorry that he ever made them and put them on the earth. He was so filled with regret that he said, "I will wipe out these people I have created, and also the animals and the birds because I am sorry that I made any of them." But the Lord was pleased with Noah.

So.. the entire world, that he created, had turned to evil. God was very displeased with the thoughts of the people. So is this to say that 100% of the people that inhabited the world were evil and deserved to die? The children too? How evil could the children have been? Maybe it was that God knew they would grow to be evil and that there was no chance they would ever be good? I find this very hard to swallow.

What about the rest of it? Before this portion of the story the Bible talks about the descendants of Adam and Eve. It goes on to describe who beget who and how old they were when they died. For anyone who is familiar with the Bible it is no surprise that the people back then lived until about 600-900 years old! Well.. that too is hard to believe. But, I suppose scientifically that could be possible. So I will leave that one alone. However, the supposed supernatural beings that roamed the earth, where did they come from? The Bible never describes where they come from before the point in which it mentions them. Who were these supernatural beings? Why did they decide to take all the beautiful women?

So all of his creations, from the people to the animals and even  the supernatural beings.. they were all so evil that they deserved to die. This hardly seems like the forgiving God that I was told about as a child. I could go on a murderous spree killing hundreds and if I truly repented and asked for forgiveness I would get it. Yet everyone else on earth needed to be wiped from the face of the planet? 

Many of the stories in the Bible seem to me to be written by people who had nothing better to do with their time. I know that is not the case, but it seems like that could have been a feasible answer. I have always said that the Bible, well, religion for that matter, is humanities explanation of where we came from before anybody had a clue about the truth. When a society exists and does not know of it's origins it leaves a big empty hole in the middle of their souls. People need to have some sort of reason for being who they are and they need to believe and understand that reasoning. Hence the Bible and the story of God.

Noah was meant to be our salvation. God loved Noah because in a time of evil he was the one person who deserved to be saved. See this too does not make sense. This is one area where I believe the people who made up the stories of God made a mistake. The world was evil and the people in it did not deserve to live. So God wiped them out. All the animals, the people, the birds and the fish... everything. Everything except Noah and his family. Given that Noah was God's one "good guy" he was instructed to build a boat with which to save his family and the animals so they could reproduce and repopulate the planet.  Again, we are treated to Gods strange ways because he tells Noah to also bring 7 pairs of "ritually clean" animals.

What is a "ritually clean" animal? Well, as far as I can tell these are the animals that are fit for sacrifice. This is another problem that I have always had with religion. Why is it necessary to sacrifice a perfectly good animal to God? What does he get out of it? Seriously. This is yet another example of why the Bible was made up by man. Only humans would think it necessary to sacrifice an animal to a God. This practice goes back eons. People have always thought it a good idea to kill an animal as an offering to their God. Why? I have no idea what significance this plays in a religion. But it seems odd that followers of God would also require it to be done. Even stranger that God himself would ask that it be done. Wouldn't you say?

Noah Makes A Sacrifice

So it is said in the Bible that when the rains stopped Noah prepared an altar and on the altar he burned one of each of the 7 "ritually clean" animals as a sacrifice to God. God was "pleased" with the smell and then decided that he would never again punish the planet or kill everybody because of what man does. So basically God admits to being wrong. How does an all-knowing deity make a mistake and kill billions of people and then say, "oops! Won't do that again."

So now Noah is tasked with repopulating the earth. One family to bring about a new civilization. Seems a bit difficult if you ask me. Think about how this would have to happen if it was true. Not only would Noah have to get his wife pregnant, but also his daughters too. His sons would have to do the same to their sisters and also their mothers. As a matter of fact, there are various places within the Bible in which incest run rampant. It is a pretty much accepted practice back then. So is having multiple wives. Where did all of this come from. Was it God that told people it was ok to live this way? It must have been since God apparently controlled everything. Maybe they were just following what their father Noah had done.

This is yet another example of the people making the Bible fit their way of life. Of course they were not about to write a book or tell a story that would convince people to stop doing things that they enjoyed. So they wrote the various things into that story. They made it acceptable for people to sleep with family members because that is what was happening then. Imagine if that was how we still lived now.. eww.

It is rather strange to me that people can look at the stories held within the Bible, try to model their lives after its teachings, when a good portion of the book is just so nasty. The book is filled with murder, rape, incest, and supernatural beings. Giants roam the planet because they are the offspring of the human females and the supernatural beings. I can only imagine those being angels. What other supernatural beings could have been around then? Either way, in some cases I think people would have a better chance if they modeled their lives after some other story.. say Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief. After all.. both are just made up stories. At least in the latter no one is having sex with their daughter and killing animals on altars all in the name of God.

The Bible Series: Examining The Truth. Part 1

Part 1 - "The Greatest Story Ever Told"

Follow along with me while I begin a new project. I will look at various stories from within the bible and we will discuss the facts behind the stories. I know for a fact that many times over this same thing has been done and in some cases this might even be the same as beating a dead horse. Still, I want to go through this exercise because among other things this will allow me some insight into some of the themes in common literature as well as our own historical sense of who we are and where we come from. After-all, most of the world believes what is written in these pages. I want to see how people can be fooled so easily. Join me.

The Question: Why would anyone who is capable of rational thought choose to believe in a God who is all-knowing and in utter control of the entire Universe?


I have always had a difficult time coming to grips with the fact that there is a being out there who had, in his infinite wisdom, chose to create the Earth and all of its inhabitants. Then in a stroke of genius decides to for lack of a better word, play with his creations as he did. Take Adam and Eve as just one example. He supposedly created these two and then gives them commands or "suggestions" to do whatever they want except to eat the fruit of one tree. He then tells them the name of that tree: The Tree of Knowledge.

So he is intentionally baiting them to disobey him. Why would he give them the freedom to choose what to do and then give them an order to not touch one thing in this wonderful garden? It is almost as if he is testing them. So, if he created them in his own image why would he need to test them? Did he doubt his creation? If he was all-knowing and wise why would he doubt what he had made? This makes no sense to me.

Ultimately they failed the test, if it was a test. Afterwards he (God) gets mad and then and only then are they ashamed and forced to wear clothes because now they know that they are naked. Before the fruit debacle they were walking around naked because they had either no clue or did not care that they had their junk hanging out. There are all kinds of parrallels drawn from this story to our current (and past) selves. There are way to many to debate here. So let's pick up on another story. Shall we?

We will be going backwards a little bit, back to the very beginning, back to creation. In the beginning there was nothing. The Earth was a dark and desolate place. Well.. sure it was, until it rotated some more and then it became daytime. The bible states that God had created the light. "Let there be light", and there was light and God was pleased with what he saw. So essentially if we are to believe this we must ask ourselves, "what existed before God created the light - the Sun?" Well apparently there was nothing. So let's examine this for a second.

If there was nothing but darkness until he created the light, that would mean that there was no Sun until that point. Science tells us that when our solar system was created, it was created around the Sun. It was our Sun that generated the gravity necessary for the rocks and asteroids to coalesce into larger and larger pieces until finally a planet was formed. Well, multiple planets actually but we are only concerned with one at this point. So we have the Sun and then we have its gravity and eventually we have planets. So with this being a fact of science, I ask you how can God (or anyone for that matter) have observed an already established Earth (with oceans according to the bible) and decided to create light and thereby the Sun? Seems impossible if you ask me.

This is part 1 of the new and ongoing series in which I examine and dissect the so-called "greatest story ever told". Well, it is a story actually. I intend to prove that it is indeed just that, a story. Check back with me won't you?

Putting it out there.

Looking through the available job postings on a couple well respected "blogging" sites is rather depressing. It seems that in order to get a "staff" job writing for someone or working as a ghost writer somewhere requires a lot more than I thought. Looks like I will have to up my game a little here.

In the past I have tried to stay away from some of the personal writing that made blogging popular years ago. I was a bit more comfortable writing about generic topics or about things that I had an interest in and then researched. Lately however writing as an outlet has been a bit more helpful than I had anticipated it would be early on. I never really enjoyed airing my personal laundry on anyone, least of all the world, but sometimes it is a good thing to get it all out. Especially when the only person or thing you are facing is the white screen of a laptop. It is easier to speak my mind to a object that will not squint its eyes at me or make weird noises when I say something surprising.

There is also a sense of a sort of disconnect here. Yes, I know that after I hit "publish" it is "out there". But while I am writing everything, and while I am thinking about what to say I am faced with no response and no embarrassment. It is really easy to get things off your chest when there is nothing stopping you. Only after you have finished saying everything is there any fear of rejection or embarrassment.

Now my dog is whining. Looks like it is time for a morning walk. Hope the world enjoys my anguish for the time being.

Cable and Mobile - Teammates or Adversaries. Part 1

There will always be people who are controlling what others are using. In the 90's the cable companies became giants selling television to the consumer that they could not get anywhere else. Today data is the commodity and the cable companies are still in the game. While they managed to remain a player the mobile companies have made their way into the market and are quickly gaining more and more real estate. With this comes the ever present battles for the money that is attached to all of the various products that they have for the consumer. One such product is not something that you can touch, feel, or even see. Rather it is something that we all use but has very rapidly become one of the most important things in all of our lives today, the data that we all need so much.

DATA Wars

Back when the connections were slow data was not an issue. Nobody needed to worry about their data usage because nobody was able to download anything large enough to matter. Streaming was not a thing back then and companies like Netflix did not exist. Even so, it did not take long for entities such as Netflix to start getting into the game with ideas and business models that did not exist before and with it came a need for a slice of the pie.

Of course the cable companies were not used to people trying to move in on their business because it did not happen all that often. And when it did they were not too worried because they would either win out in court on some trumped up patent lawsuit or they would just crush the competition in other ways. Regardless they remained their own god and really answered to no one. Such was the case when they started putting caps on their bandwidth and using "bandwidth throttling" to control what their customers could use.

When the mobile companies came into the fold it was an entirely different game. The cable companies did not see that they needed to fight with them too much. On the contrary there was an opportunity for an alliance. They could pool their resources and both industries could eat up the consumer. Of course this worked well until the data that consumers used became the biggest need they had and both the cable companies and the mobile companies had the means to sell it to them. This was the start of the DATA Wars.

The ultimate loser in this scenario is the customer. It does not matter how you arrange the players or what they are fighting over. None of it matters because no matter what is going on or how it is working out the consumer losses every time. See, you would think that in our capitalistic society that the customer would be the winner. You would think that the competition between the two entities would spur lower prices and better products. After all, isn't that the model that our markets were founded on? All of these "assumptions" would be correct. That is, if your assuming that things should be this way. The problem is that none of it has happened this way. Both industries have found ways to screw the consumer while fighting the competition. Why? Because the consumer does not have any choices in the matter, because the consumer has shown a dire need for the products, and because the government that is supposed to be the oversight here is not doing anything but allowing the companies to do what they want. So again.. the customer losses every time.

Our Backwards Society

Nigella Lawson. Does that name ring a bell with anyone? I have to be honest, until this morning I had no idea who she was either. Never heard the name before. This morning however I read the name on the @Todayshow twitter timeline. They did a report on her because apparently she was banned from flying from London to the US by the Department of Homeland Security. Why did this happen? Was it because she posed a threat to the country? Was she some sort of security risk? Was she accused or convicted of some heinous crime? Actually, none of the above are true. So what did she do wrong that would be a justifiable reason to keep her from being allowed into our country? She admitted in the past to using marijuana and cocaine.

There are probably a hundred or more reasons why this should not even have been possible. Is this happening because someone who has the power to make this restriction possible does not like her? Is it because there is some other rule or law that we, the people are not aware of? How could someone who simply admits to smoking marijuana in the past even be considered dangerous when we have multiple states in the country who allow it both medically and recreationally? It should be obvious to many people within our land that we have various interpretations of what our laws mean and who or what they protect.

There are a lot of things in this world that are wrong with how we live and who we listen to. In many ways the information that we have is tainted. This is true in a very large variety of industries, but I will start with the medical industry because it covers a variety of topics itself. Take for instance e the way that we as a society look at marijuana. Here is something that we have for many years treated as a very dangerous drug when in actuality it is not that dangerous at all. By comparison, caffeine is almost as bad for you as marijuana yet one is considered illegal.

As a matter of fact, let's take a look at the caffeine situation as I call it. I have been perplexed by this for some time now and here is why. We advertise caffeine as a "pick me up". As something that can get you "going" when you are tired or worn out or just otherwise need a boost of some kind. This same methodology has been used for the energy drinks that have hit the market over the last few years as well. When the energy drinks first came onto the scene people were a bit unsure what to make of them. Over the years they have been accepted and the market has even grown tremendously. What do we owe this growth to?

Cocaine was, as most of you should know, legal for some time and even included in soft drinks. Pharmacies sold it and doctors prescribed it commonly. It was used by a great number of people. Then when the government stepped in and decided to make it illegal that all changed. I guess rightfully so. I mean cocaine is a very dangerous drug right? People can and have died from using and basically abusing the drug. So, our government doing what they do best stepped in and said essentially that for the good of the people this drug will no longer be used medically and is illegal in every sense of the word.

So that brings us back to caffeine. Look at the similarities between the two. I wont go through the long list because I'm sure you can use your imagination and figure out how these two drugs are similar. But I will say that they are both stimulants and they both give you a "boost". Now we use caffeine every day. We get a dose of it in our coffee, in certain other drinks, and even in medicine. Bayer aspirin (among others) have amounts of caffeine mixed in with the other active ingredients in their drugs. Ok so where is the problem? The problem in my mind is how we push or advertise the drug and how it then is looked at in our perceptions. 

We advertise caffeine as something to give you a boost. We are basically saying in not so many words that if you want a chemical or artificial pick me up because you are too tired to face the day then drink some coffee. If you need to get up and moving quicker take an energy shot. Give yourself a dose of an artificial stimulant in order to get the desired effect that you are looking for. This is in my mind pretty damn close to how people looked at cocaine in the past and still do. As a way to get a "boost". Now of course the recreational use of the drug is seen differently. I get that. But where is the difference in the marketing of caffeine or other energy inducing drugs that are legal and cocaine? See this is the gray area in our society that we all neglect to face. 

I took a huge detour from the original topic of conversation in this essay. Nigella Lawson and her issues getting into the US. Our views on drugs in this country are so skewed that it is almost laughable. As a matter of fact I am pretty sure most other countries do laugh at us for the way we view most drugs, marijuana especially. This is a drug that is now finally getting some long overdue respect among not just the medical community but in society as well. Most people you know have probably tried it and if they have they might even still be regular smokers. Of course there are a great many scenarios in which smoking marijuana is not advisable. Take trying to find a job for instance. How does smoking a joint in the privacy of your own home get to be a determining factor in whether or not you should be able to hold a job? This makes no sense yet employers continue to fire people for marijuana use. 

There are a lot of things that we need to deal with in our country and I'm sure least of which is any of the topics in this essay. At least that is moist likely the opinion of those opposed to marijuana use. Either way it is something that we need to continue to fight for because there are people who could benefit greatly from its use and the there are those who just want to wind down after a long day. The reasons are many and they are not for me to judge. Point is, it should not be illegal and the day that it becomes legal throughout the country is the day we will have taken a great step forward as a society.
 

A Poem by a Very Talented Young Lady

Icicles,

Sparkle, frozen.

Falling, dashing, freezing.

Icicles are very cold.

Chilling, shining, dazzling.

Clear. Frigid.

Water.

The Short Term Change

Even though it might be against my better judgement I am going to have to get back into writing for some of the so-called content farms, guest blogging, and anything else that pays. Money is tight and if I do not do something soon then all hell will break loose. Can't have that now can we?

The problem is, and the reason why I stopped writing for these places some six months ago was because I felt it was diluting my talent. What little talent I might have that is. I felt that when I was writing various 500 word articles/essays on topics that were clearly SEO motivated I was not staying true to the reason I was writing in the first place.

Now I am not trying to say that I have some altruistic view on the world and that I am going to save everybody with my pen. No. What I am trying to say is that I at least felt that maybe I had something to say. If not that, then at least to get my stories out there. I have over 200 short stories either started, half-written, almost finished, or completed. I have been working on these for a couple years now and I wanted very badly to get these published to some degree. I thought for a while there that I was kinda on a roll. Problem is that I started having to write for money and as soon as I started doing that I got away from everything else that I was doing.

I will post an update in a couple days on how things are transpiring. If there is anything that some of you might need done or need help with let me know. I am always open for some actual writing work that can take me away from some of the dribble.

Universal Truths - A Series (at least the start of it anyway)

As promised long ago, here is something that I have been working on. It is the beginning of a series that I have put a lot of thought into. The piece that I will publish here, now, was written over a couple of days time and is in very "rough" form. I am putting it out there because I just feel like I have not put much out lately and I just felt like I should. Let me know what you think. Or don't. Enjoy.

"Universal Truths"

The universe that we know it should come as no surprise to anyone, that we have only seen a portion of what this great space has to offer. Humans are but a small piece of the puzzle and as such have only glimpsed the same. There are various lifeforms that exist and many great secrets that are known to only a few. Some of these have existed for millions of years while others are still even younger than those on Earth. The planet that humans call home is but one in its home galaxy that harbors life. Among the universe there are many more galaxies that harbor the same. 

The great question that everyone on Earth might ask if they were to be offered a small piece of this information would be, "is there something more for humans in the universe? Will they ever be anything more if for now they are but small creatures among the many larger ones?" The only way to answer such a question is to say that patience will be their teacher, and pain their knowledge. Humans have a very long way to go before they can reach such enlightenment. 

The universe itself is even bigger and full of much more than even the greatest civilizations are aware. The secrets that are exposed to some are not exposed to others, yet they all search for knowledge. This search for knowledge has lead many to their demise and still others to their salvation. There has been life and death and rebirth among the stars. Some beings have already come and gone possibly never to be seen again. There are even those who are only known to some and others known to no one. The path that lies before all creation exists for them to find and then for them to follow. Not all have been so.

The stories found in various archives have been stored for the ages. There are those who fancy themselves keepers of such knowledge and others who seek to destroy it. There are those who wish for their own power to grow greater than anyone has ever known and those who just wish to live in peace. Waring races and races forced to fight for their salvation. Sometimes the only thing  that guides ones path is where they exist and when. This has been true for some that have come before and for those then that no longer exist. Where will your path take you and yours?

The realms that are known to the great ones have been alive for many, many eons. They have long and rich, storied histories filled with pain, love, death and life. It has been their path to play a part in the bringing of these stories to where they are now. The powers that exist and that are known are not always understood by all. In some cases understanding comes at a price. 

Where is Earth in all of this? What is happening on Earth right now? At this moment? To be honest, not that much. Earth has found itself locked in almost perpetual war for almost 90 years. The resilience of the human race is the one thing that has kept them alive through everything. There are viruses and animals looking to kill them and among that, there are humans. They want to kill humans more than anything else. 

The human race has gone through a variety of changes over the years. The world, Earth, is about 300 years older than the time that you are familiar with. A lot has happened since your time. Of course the almost 100 years of war notwithstanding, scientific discoveries, technological feats, and other things that some have dreamed of and others that people have not. There have also been certain mutations to some things on Earth. Some that people have predicted and some that have not. 

I will get more into the mutations later. For now, in order to understand everything that is happening there has to be some understanding about the universe around us first. There is great beauty in death and ugliness in birth. Things that people see are not always what they might first percieve them to be. That is the first lesson that one must learn before being able to see more of what truly lies in front of you. 

There were small portions of what ancient civilizations of Earth had found or had come to know that are either part of who we are today, or have been shown to be a part of something bigger. Did they know what it was they were doing? Were they just on the fringe of a knowledge that we are still searching for? These are things that we will most likely never know. But, what we do know, and what I can share with you now is that certain things that you have been told to be a myth, certain stories that you have been told as a child, these all have a bearing of truth in them. How do things become stories in the first place? Usually these things happen, in one way or another, and at some point after someone who was there or knows of someone who was tells the story to another. This story, over time can be distorted but in many cases it is the truth that becomes mangled. It is the things that we see and believe that play havoc with what we know to be possible and what we are told in these stories. 

Of course physics and science always play a role in these stories as well. People always come about and will say that this or that could not happen because it is just "impossible". Well, what is impossible is that what we know about these "sciences" is not the entire truth. In other words, we just do not know enough. There are things that have taken place that would turn everything that we know about the world upside down. That is, if we were to really understand what it is we were seeing. But we do not. We would see it right in front of us but since we could not understand everything that is at play we would confuse ourselves with what little knowledge we do have. This "knowledge" would interfere and take what we are seeing with our eyes and tell us that we did not see what we know to be the truth. This is how people go crazy sometimes and yet how some others gain enlightenment. It all depends on where you are in your belief of what you have witnessed. 

Like I said, all of the previous stories of our world, the myths and the cave paintings, and the stories of the gods.. all of these have some bearing in truth and all of these stories have years of pollution by those who have told the stories as well. A good example of what I am trying to tell you is something that everybody wants to believe in your time. The stories of vampires. Am I about to tell you that they are real? No. Sorry to disappoint you. However, where their story came from is almost as crazy and when I am done telling it, you might just wish that I said yes. Vampires are real, because the truth is not as nice. 

The common story of vampires holds true that they need to drink blood to survive. This is probably the only part of their story that remains true from the stories told. It is likely that the stories were embellished to keep people from getting curious enough to get close. The vampire you see is actually a creature from another world. A world in which unlike Earth did not have a lot of gravity holding things down. Well, what it did not hold down was them when they arrived. You would think that if their world did not have a lot of gravity, then when they came here wouldn't our higher gravity keep them from moving around as much? Wouldn't they be almost unable to move? In a way yes. The first scouting party that came here did encounter that exact problem. However, they are a much older race than humans and their understanding of science and technology far greater. This is especially true since they arrived here during  the dark ages. 

The Earthlings they encountered were nothing like them. They were clad in armor and had no understanding of electronics or other technology. It took the creatures about 40 human years to develop the technology to allow them to live and breath our oxygen rich air and to survive our higher gravity. However, once they did they were unable to be stopped. Of course, we did not have to worry about stopping them because their own people did that for us. It became known that they were running uncontrolled on a foreign planet and they sent others to capture them and bring them home. The really interesting thing about this is that they used a large dog-like creature to track them. This is likely where the stories of werewolves came from. Large dog-like creatures hunting vampires? Sound a bit familiar? Like the stories of the long wars of vampires and werewolves?

So where did the blood drinking come from? That is a good one. The vampires found that the only way they could try to stay hidden from the large wolves that were brought from their home planet to track them was to cover themselves in human blood. So they murdered people and would bath in their blood to stay hidden. The stories of the people disappearing had to be hidden because the trackers could use this information to find them. So of course you could see how after years and years of half-truths being told and strange stories of people disappearing and being taken for their blood could turn into stories of blood-thirsty vampires. Many of the stories of our history have something to do with outside forces or are somewhat explainable by other accounts. There are many more like this. Many more that I will tell you if you want to hear them. But you must be careful how far you tread. Many of the truths are hard even for people who know more about the universe to handle. For a human to be able to do the same is unheard of. Then again, that could just be due to the fact that no one has ever told a human before. You are the first.

Federal Budget and Space Exploration

It should come as no surprise to many that the federal budget has included a bit more "spacey" items than expected. There are two that stand out in my mind and I have a feeling that many other people feel the same way. The first is the desire to put more money towards the exploration of Europa, a moon of Jupiter. The other, and I just found out about this one yesterday, is that Obama would like NASA to capture an asteroid and bring it into orbit around the moon. Now if you have not heard about these sort of plans before you are in for a treat.

The Europe portion of the budget is exciting for many reasons. However, I am going to spend this time talking about the asteroid. There will be plenty of opportunity to discuss Europa. The asteroid is a very interesting idea and one that has been tossed around for the last couple years. If you are someone who is interested in astronomy and what we are doing about space and space exploration, then you are somewhat familiar with the idea.

For those who are not, it is pretty straight-forward. We find a suitable asteroid that is the right size and location. We go out to it, grab it, and tow it back to lunar orbit. As for how we "grab it" the jury is still out. There are a few really good ideas but none that are definite winners. Regardless of how it is done, I am just happy that it is being considered or planned. However you look at it, the fact that our government is putting money into NASA and specifically programs that are aimed at exploration of things that matter and makes sense, is fantastic! This is definitely something that I will be keeping an eye on and something that I will talk about quite often.

Zero Punctuation and a Review of Killzone: Shadowfall

Over the years you end up collecting a fair amount of things that you like that others have put their time into. In other words, fun little internet pages of joy. In my case one of my favorite is a little series of what I lovingly call flash rants by a guy named Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. He does a series called Zero Punctuation in which he reviews video games (and sometimes other things but mainly games) with snarky and well thought out comments and one liners.

His reviews are not really the type that you might be used to or even expecting but he does a fine job of going through many of the finer points in a game as well as many of the games uh, shall we say, not so fine points? Yea.. I guess we can go with that. Most of the time his reviews of the games are not really on the positive side because let's face it, there is always some sort of fault to find in many of the products put out today. Here is where this little piece gets to the point. I know, you have all been waiting patiently.

While the games developed today often have a great deal of time invested in them it is an accurate description to say that even though this is the case, there is an ironic amount of things put into a game that should not be there. What do I mean by "should not be there"? Well, a lot of things really. It can sometimes mean a game about war and fighting that has a love scene right in the middle of the action. It can mean a racing game that all of a sudden throws in a poker mini-game. It can also mean a game about killing zombies that makes you, out of nowhere, find a cure for your sisters hatred of men.

Now none of these examples are real and none of them are from actual games. But they are meant to illustrate the point that developers today will often times spend time building in pieces of a game that really make no sense to the narrative. Why do they do this? Who knows. But this is what Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw is great at finding and pointing out in his series.

If you have never had the pleasure of watching one of his videos you should do yourself a solid and find some right away. I am including one in this post that he did for a next-gen game called Killzone: Shadowfall. I am including this one for a couple reasons. For one it is a great game and it is exclusive to the PS4 which I am a big fan of. Secondly, I am including this one because even though he does he natural best and pokes fun at some of the obvious discrepencies of the story it is actually an overall positive review of the game. This is actually a rarity for him. Most of the reviews are somewhat negative in feeling and this one stands out as being quite the opposite.

Either way, enjoy the video and like I said, do yourself a favor and find some more. You can find him on the Escapist website or just search Google for his videos or his name. You are bound to come up with something. Sure, I could include some links for ya but that would take all the fun out of the search wouldn't it?

The Escapist : Zero Punctuation : Killzone: Shadow Fall