Writing A Novel For The Hell Of It...

Most people don't want to do a damn thing just for the
hell of it, except for maybe:

• take drugs
• have sex
• drink alcohol
• overeat

let alone go to all the trouble to write a frigging novel...  but, I am sure that there are some people, who, like myself, simply enjoy writing.

With that said...  let me share my process with you...  I don't consider myself to be a very creative person, and yet, I have ideas for novels pop into my head all the time.

Once I decide I want to explore one of those ideas, I try to decide on a Title for novel, even though the name might change down-the-road.

Then, I open WORD and set my manuscript document up with the headers/page numbers publishers prefer, along with line spacing, and paragraph indention  I always choose Times News Roman at 12 pts  simply because I like that style and it most accepted by everyone.

I don't necessarily have a Table of Content page, but I do create 15-20 Chapters and I either use large numbers to distinguish or Chapter 1, Chapter 2, etc.  And, once the chapters are created, I create a comment beside each chapter in which I write:

Chapter Outline

• Topic 1
• Topic 2
• Topic 3
• Topic 4
• Topic 5

I create this outline whether I use it or not...  and, I have written novels both ways.  I include 5 topics because I figure 3 written pages per topic especially if there is dialogue with each chapter being roughly 15 pages long.  I can add/subtract topic as those situations present themselves.

My first task is to write the INTRODUCTION/PROLOGUE to set the stage for what the novel is going to be about even though this could change as well during the course of writing.  I remain flexible so that if I get this wild hair to take the novel on a side adventure, I am not locked in place to a rigid Topic idea.

Then, I just start writing according to the first topic of the first chapter and just let it flow.  If I struggle with the topic not developing, then I put it aside until the next day and if I am still struggling, then maybe my topics have not been developed in such a way that is conducive to the writing process...  this means I start over with my topics and think of new ways the novel idea/concept should flow.

What Do Ya Need?

Many of us Americans as well as those immigrants who have entered this country
illegally want the SAME THING....   MORE...  MORE...  MORE... of everything, such as:

• more money
• more food
• more alcohol
• more drugs
• more sex
• more clothes
• more fun

I was going to add more education but that thought got me to thinking about my previous students who only wanted to memorize what they needed to know for the test and not what they needed to know to retain knowledge...  some would argue that those two statements are not mutually exclusive.

I remember a very wealthy man telling once that all he wanted to do was just earn one more dollar...

What is this obsession with MONEY?

I had a conversation yesterday with a legal immigrant who has become a US citizen and he lives two doors down from me and when we are out mowing our yard at the same time, we always stop and talk...

He is 61/62 years of age and I am 73 years of age, and we both at at that point where we are no longer interested in having the desire to acquire more money...  but instead, have acquired the desire to enjoy the live around us...  that is to say:

• enjoy the sunrises
• enjoy the sunsets
• enjoy the warm weather
• enjoy the birds singing
• enjoy watching the rabbit in the yard
• enjoy the beauty of trees

My fellow American was a builder of homes and rented out my other homes and/or apartments and owns all sorts of equipment that he during his lifetime purchased for cash because of his wealth...  and, while he enjoy being able to do that, his life was not rewarding or satisfying as he expected it to be.

SOUND FAMILIAR???

C H A N G E

 It has been said by people smarter than me that PEOPLE DON"T TYPICALLY CHANGE UNTIL THE PAIN OF NOT CHANGING IS GREATER THAN THE PAIN OF CHANGING...

and yet, people still do not want to change...  I find that incredibly interesting especially in light of the recent change in Presidential Administrations and CHANGE is so prevalent that if you stop and take a piss, you have to learn something new when you return.

Most of us live our lives in cages that define us...  who we are...  what we think...  what we say...  how we behave...  and, those cages seldom change their appearance or the space within them...  so it is very easy for us to believe the same load of shit year after year after year without ever realize that the shit we believe is WRONG...

I remember that for most of my life, my eye vision has been 20/15 in both eyes until I was about 45-50 years old and then it started to change...  for the worse...  eventually, I purchased those readers for $2.50 each but took them off when I wasn't reading.

Eventually, my eyes worsen to the point that I had to start wearing prescription glasses and after the doctor handed me the script, I said, "do I have to wear these damn things all the time?"  His response was chilling...  "only if you want to see."  Sadly, he wasn't even trying to be humorous...

BUT...  I did not want to change...  and, I did not change until I absolutely had to change.

The irony of this entire concept is the fact that I made my living in industry as a CHANGE AGENT...  re-engineering systems to eliminate waste and increase output and productivity without any loss of quality or function of use.  If you followed my guidelines and recommendations, everyone in the damn plant had to change what they had been doing for twenty years...  and, that was painful for many old timers...

Staying Young

 We, that is to say both male and females, have an unusual desire to stay or remain young as long as we can...  and, we do this by getting:

• Facelifts
• tummy tucks
• hair implants
• weight loss diets
• wearing young style clothes
• dying our hair
• teeth implants
• eye implants

and these are only a few that I know as I am sure that there are others...

BUt, the sad fact of the matter is that we all get older each day and there is not a damn thing we can do about it inside...  all we can change is our outward appearance and/or our mental thoughts.

There is nothing wrong with have young mental thoughts because those thoughts can actually help you live longer, but teeth and hair color cannot help except give you the false assurance that you will be able to live longer.

We live as long as we are supposed to live and not a day more...  Just as our births were predetermined, so too will be our deaths...  IN fact, if you were living at the edge of the universe then our future has already been seen relative to how fast passes here on earth.

think about it...

Domestic Terrorism

WHAT IT IS...
Domestic terrorism or homegrown terrorism is a form of terrorism in which victims "within a country are targeted by a perpetrator with the same citizenship" as the victims.  There are many definitions of terrorism, and none of them are universally accepted. The United States Department of State defined terrorism in 2003 as "premeditated, politically motivatedLady violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents, usually intended to influence an audience."  There is no Federal criminal offense designated as domestic terrorism.  Source:  Wikipedia

So, one might conclude that all the violence that we see being perpetrated on the streets of our cities are for the most part, examples of domestic terrorism...

Back in the 60's when the CHICAGO SEVEN trial was being conducted as they were charged with crossing state lines to incite riots and violence, that could have been construed as an act of domestic terrorism, even though we had minimal terrorist activities taking place in the rest of the world other than those conducted by the PLO and Yasser Arafat. 

BUT...  no one is charging the Black Lives Matter with domestic violence because all of their actions have been justified as a result of the George Floyd killing...  so, as long as a group has MORAL JUSTIFICATION then there is no chance that they are going to be charged with domestic terrorism...

As black continue to assassinate WHITE COPS, I wonder how long it will be before the DOJ starts charging them with domestic terrorism...  if they ever do...

It would appear that Lady Justice is not blind after all or maybe she is and cannot see what is going on in the street of our cities. 

Simply My Opinion

I have spent the majority of my life looking for faults in myself as well as others and I have never been disappointed; on the contrary, it is very easy to find fault in others but not so easy to find fault with one's self unless one displays a self-defeated attitude from the getgo, then they are more likely to find fault with themselves.

So, given this to be my basic personality, I not only look for the worst in people, in companies, but in governments as well...   and, the government that has gotten most of my attention recently is CHINA.

Not only does China have a larger army than the USA...  and,

Not only does China have a larger navy than the USA...  and,

Not only does China have a larger air force than the USA...   but, CHINA has said that they want to RULE EARTH in 15 years or by 2035...  however, this does not seem to be of any major concern to our new Presidential administration.

And, if we do a little extrapolation here...  it would be fairly easy to conclude that CHINA, for only reasons known to themselves, would have a justification based upon their 15 year goal to have INTENTIONALLY RELEASED THE COVID VIRUS on the rest of the world, and very much willing to sacrifice their own population in the process.

If it was not intentional, then it was a MISHAP because there is substantial evidence to conclude that this virus was mutated in the labs rather than coming to humans from animals...  which takes a longer amount of time to develop.

China was studying, playing with, and enhancing this virus in the labs just in case they wanted to use it against their enemies in the future, and the shit leaked out...  supposedly by mistake...  or, it leaked out, intentionally...  as an experiment to see how many it would kill and how fast it would spread.

China because of all its HUMAN RIGHTS violations has no desire TO VALUE LIFE, neither their own or others...  and, the sooner we realize this and convince the rest of the world to watch out for CHINA, the less time we will have to protect ourselves...  and, it may be too late already.

On the Horizon

WHAT DOES INFLATION MEAN? 

Inflation is the decline of purchasing power of a given currency over time. A quantitative estimate of the rate at which the decline in purchasing power occurs can be reflected in the increase of an average price level of a basket of selected goods and services in an economy over some period of time.

WHAT CAUSES INFLATION?
Inflation is a measure of the rate of rising prices of goods and services in an economy. Inflation can occur when prices rise due to increases in production costs, such as raw materials and wages. A surge in demand for products and services can cause inflation as consumers are willing to pay more for the product.

IS INFLATION GOOD OR BAD?
Inflation erodes purchasing power or how much of something can be purchased with currency. Because inflation erodes the value of cash, it encourages consumers to spend and stock up on items that are slower to lose value. It lowers the cost of borrowing and reduces unemployment.

For the most part, inflation is not good unless wages increase proportionately...  but, if that happens, then economics say that there is no inflation...  just a steady economic growth which is a win/win situation for everyone.

But, if prices increase and wages do not, then people pay more for the goods and services they have to have and do not partake in the goods and services that they do not really need...  This causes the economy not to grow.

From my perspective as a retired individual, I don't give a rat's ass if the economy grows or not as long as prices do not increase...  And, yes that is a selfish point-of-view but I would suspect most people do not want prices to go up and if anyone wants their taxes to go up needs to take their head out of their ass or purchase an inflated price glass bellybutton so that they can see better.

Playing The Race Card

 

Russian Hackers

 When the Colonial Pipeline was hacked by RUSSIA, and our gasoline flow was delayed causing gas lines at

stations for several days...  that directly impacted me...  and, I was annoyed and somewhat pissed off...  BUT NOW...  these RUSSIAN HACKERS, maybe the same ones, maybe new ones, have attacked our MEAT SUPPLIER which will cause red meat prices to increase...

HOWEVER...  this time, it is of little concern to me because I stopped eating red meat over a decade ago and while I like to eat GREASY CHEESEBURGERS, I have mentally convinced myself that this eating habit is unhealthy...

My diet nowadays consists of chicken, turkey, beans, and fish...

Maybe it is finally time for the USA to use this as an excuse to change out diets.

the Quantum Revolution

As you read these words the world around you seems pretty solid, pretty stable: The device you're using seems to exist on its own, with its own properties of shape and weight and color. So does the chair you're sitting in, the table your coffee cup is resting on and the coffee cup itself.

But that solidity and independence is a kind illusion or, at least, so says the very physics that lets these words appear on the screen of your computer, smart phone or tablet.

That physics, called quantum mechanics, represents the most powerful theory human beings have ever developed. And while we scientists know how to use it to make all those digital devices, we do not know what it means. We don't know what it's telling us about the fundamental nature of reality. It is into that chasm that acclaimed theoretical physicist and author Carlo Rovelli leaps with his new book Helgoland. Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution.

It's a leap you will want to take with him.

Quantum mechanics is now more than 100 years old. It was born at the turn of the 20th century as physicists probed the atomic and subatomic realms. Much to their chagrin, reality turned out to be a lot weirder at those scales than in the "classical" realm of ordinary experience. The theory they developed to control the objects of their experiments was an intellectual triumph. Almost all of the technological miracles we live with now — from CAT scans to computers — can be traced to that achievement. But quantum mechanics never really "explained" the strangeness of the microworld. It just gave us a method for making incredibly accurate predictions and building stuff.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Raising Taxes

PERSONALLY...  I really really really really really really like the idea of the WEALTHY paying more in taxes so the rest of us lazy slobs can continue to be lazy; BUT, unless you are like Bezos, Gates, or Zuckerberg who are actually thrilled at the prospect of pay more taxes to an inefficient, incompetent, depressed Federal Government, then you are going to find some way to HIDE your frigging money away from the prying eyes of the IRS, typically in offshore bank accounts or relocating your operations to a jurisdiction that has less taxes, so that you can in turn sell your lower cost goods to an unsuspecting American public at a substantially higher profit than you were earning before...

Come to think of it, you might be the ones who are encouraging the Democrats to raise taxes...

It does my heart good to see wealthy people, especially those who are arrogant and egotistical and look down their noses on the rest of us to finally be backed into a corner by a halfwit Democratic President and a Vice President who thanks the good Lord that she WAS NOT born white.  But, I have no idea is she really believes in a higher power or not, so I cannot say that this comment has any merit to it or not.

All I can say now is that it is a good thing that Forrest Gump was released in 1994 and not 2021 because if it were the latter then it would have been cancelled before the first seat ticket was sold.

Slaves

Racial Intermingling

 

When I was in high school in Cairo, Egypt, Americans and Foreigners regardless of color and ethnicity would spend time together...  that is to say we would date, attend parties and other gathering together, and vacation with each other without the slightest bit of concern.

When I was in college in North Carolina, there were very few minorities attending that college other than females and a handful of foreign students and that difference did not prevent us from socializing outside of attending our classes.

When I was in the military, our ship, the USS Recovery, was a salvage and rescue vessel with a crew of 86 which included officers.  Since officers and enlisted personnel did not fraternize with each other, there were virtually no minorities on our vessel with which to intermingle.

When I was working and during my career of 45 years, I very seldom socialized or intermingled with co-workers unless it was at a company sponsored event; therefore, there was never an opportunity for me to socialize or intermingle with any minorities other than females.

Now that I am retired, I live in a small community, and while there is no community restraints from allowing blacks or foreigners into our community, no blacks or foreigners have ever elected to live here except an new friend of mine called Daniel and his wife, who is Mexican and his wife an American Caucasian.  We talk when we find ourselves outside mowing our lawns at the same time.

During my monthly chemo visits to the hospital, every once in a while, I am attended by a black nurse who treats me the exact same way that she treats all her other patients and I respond in kind.  My Oncologist is Egyptian and I trust him implicitly with my health and have never once questioned his judgement as to how I should be treated.

SYSTEMATIC RACISM DOES NOT REACH OUT TO ME NOR DO I REACH OUJ TO IT...  and, it bothers me when I hear the mainstream media claim how prevalent racism is in the USA...  because I do not see it and I have have never seen it...  although I have heard people talk about it and make racist comments.

Five Hundred Thousand Dollars

 How long would this amount of money last if a couple retired in East TN?

ASSUMPTIONS:

1.  both receive $1,200 in social security ($2,400)

2.  both have no other source(s) of income

3.  both are debt free

4.  couple own their home valued at $200,000

5.  both have a medicare  supplement

6.  both are 67 years of age

7.  both are in relative good health

8.  both have conservative lifestyles

9.  expenses are less than $4,000/month

10.  both have inexpensive hobbies

This means that each month they will deplete their savings of $1,500 or $18,000 which equates to $180,000 every 10 years or $540,000 after 3 decades with both individuals now being at the age of 97 years old with a deficit value in savings (not including any interest earned) of ($60,000); however, with their home valued at $200,000, the couple still has a net worth of $140,000 using the equity in their home to guarantee any loan they would need to create...  or, decide to create a reverse mortgage with a local bank or credit union.

NOTE:  The couple would still have enough money saved to live to age 97 even if inflation maintained a constant rate of 2-3% increase each year.

HOWEVER, these financial consideration would not be realized if this couple were living in other part of the United States and are related to the East TN area only.

OBVIOUSLY...  $500,000 is not much money considering the vast amount of wealthy people living in the USA today, but there are still some areas of the US that are still conducive living rather well for less...  and, East TN is one of those areas.  Once the assumption has been made of no debt and a simple lifestyle...

I should know because my wife and I have been retired in East TN for over five years.

A Complete Life

 

At 73 years of age and easily looking down the road and seeing the end of my journey, it is confidentially easy for someone like me to look back on their life and state with complete certainty that my life has been complete...

Obviously, I was raised WHITE which to many blacks is a sign of automatic privilege but that was not the case with me, although, I was raised to have solid religious beliefs and a propensity towards the Democratic Party as it relates to the general public.

But, outside of being WHITE all my life, I graduated high school as well as college and graduate school and spent a few years in the military.  I have been married twice, owned all my homes, achieved a debt free status and maintained it, travel throughout Europe and the Caribbean, as well as the US, Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico, and Canada.

I am the father of exceptional daughter who would be exceptional even if I was not her father.  I have experienced the pain of two dying parents and have owned several vehicles, stereo equipment, electronics, and home theater systems.

I am a survivor of two still on-going cancers (Melanoma and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma) and have also survived a lethal heart attack because I had kept my body healthy earlier.  No other internal organ damage done as a result of over 12 years of chemo, radiation, surgery, chemo, and immunotherapies.

I have had the mental determination and ability to stop smoking without any other aids, loose weight, and complete a 45 year career reporting pseudo intellectual assholes who by the grace of God had superior positions to my own and could therefore direct me according to their imbecilic plans.

Rather astoundingly, I have managed to actually save enough squirreled away monies to pay the living expenses of our current lifestyles for my wife and I to extend out lives to 95+ plus years should the occasion arise for us to live that long.

All my life, I have maintain the desire to have either cats or dogs live in my house with me, although have pleasantly discovered that cats are easier to take care of than dogs, but in some cases, are not as friendly as dogs or perhaps as stupid in some cases.

I have never been wealthy and never really wanted to be wealthy although I have fantasized about wealth and what all it could do for me, but even if I was in possession of wealth, I doubt that I would change my current lifestyle, except maybe fly first class more often.

I don't play golf and never wanted to and while I was an avid JOCK in high school and college have very little desire to watch, attend, or follow professional or college athletics.  Therefore, all the sports channels on CABLE are irrelevant to me.

My brother and sister and I do not get along and as my brother has told me who is 8 years younger than me, we have nothing in common; although, I believe our parents, if they were still alive, would disagree with him.  The 3 of us have different lifestyles that do not mess when together and the reality of any family reunion results in not have much to share with each other, especially since I am the only cancer/heart attack victim in the family.

If I were to die today, would I have wished for a more complete life than the one I have had...   I don't think so...  but then again, we don't know for sure how that will be until we get there, do we?

Social Dominance

Mental health symptoms appear to influence how people respond to being placed in dominant and subordinate positions, according to new research published in PLOS One. The study indicates that manic symptoms and depressive symptoms in particular are related to psychological and physiological responses to social dominance.

“A couple years ago, I worked with colleagues to review the literature on social dominance and psychopathology,” said study author Sheri Johnson, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley and the director of the CALM Program.

“I was amazed by the rich number of studies suggesting how important social dominance is to many different forms of psychopathology — anxiety, depression, mania, psychopathy, among others. Moreover, there was human and animal literature, and researchers had tested biological, social and psychological facets of the dominance system.”

“Still, though, the literature was fragmented because researchers were not using the same measures to study the various psychopathologies,” Johnson explained. “I wanted to fill that gap, and to do so using careful methods chosen from social psychology, where researchers had done so much work to think about how we can test reactivity to social dominance cues.”

The researchers conducted a laboratory experiment with 81 undergraduate students, who had previously completed psychological measures of depression, social anxiety, manic tendencies, and psychopathic traits.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

CATS... Cats... cats...

 We are the proud but not always so happy owners of three male cats...  two are yellow, and the third one is original Siamese...  and, believe it or not, all three are completely different.

One of the yellow cats cries out an annoying whine when he wants something.

When the other yellow cat wants something, he just struts over to me, sits down and stares at me until I feel guilty enough to get up and see to his needs.

The Siamese never really tells me what he actually wants, he just jumps up into my lay, lays down and expects to be rubbed until I finally figure out on my own what he wants.

Since these cats were acquired about the same time, they are all about 10 years old and we anticipate that they will live another 10 years...  after which my wife and I will probably sell this house and move into an apartment.

We are not always happy with these cats because of all the fur that they shed and the fact that one of them always seems to be getting sick because of rapid eating...  so, we are constantly having to watch carefully where we step especially in the night.

Emptying out the litter box everyday does not really bother either one of us...  and, when go off on vacation, we have always been able to find someone to take care of them.  However, when we finally return 6, 7, 10 days later, the two yellow cats are pleased to see us return, but the Siamese continues to remain pissed off that we left in the first place and will not come out of his hiding place to let us see him for 3-4 hours...  and sometimes, he won't come out until the next day.

All three cats are house cats, except one of the yellow cats can be trusted enough to go outside, spend 20-30 minutes doing whatever, and return to the back door to be let back in.  We have installed a motion sensor outside that plays music inside when he is back at the door waiting for us to let him in.

End of a Month

There are not many certainties in life like birth, death, paying taxes, spacetime, quantum physics, and the notion that time can only move forward and that each day we got older not younger.  With that change in age comes the notion that we live through the beginnings and endings of twelve months each year which is again repeated each and every subsequent year until we die or end ourselves.  To that point, today, represents the last day of May which is always followed by June.  May is blessed with 31 days, representing one of the longest of the twelve months...  and I am really not sure why May got 31 days and June only received 30, but I am sure that it has something to do with the stars.

In case you did not know, the stars guide, form, and shape our daily lives and for some, who worship the stars, it is believed that  our existence came from beings who came from the stars...  and that conceptual logic is not far off, especially when one relates it to Christianity and Jesus saying "My kingdom is not of this world."  However, I have never heard any religious leader referring to Jesus as being an extraterrestrial, even though that is basically what he is or was...  but, we have not yet accepted the fact that our Creator could have been or might have been an extraterrestrial as well.

BUT...  what do we know about May other than it having 31 days?  It is a transitional month as is April between the cold months of winter and the warmer months of summer...  referred to as springtime since the spring season is always between winter and summer just as the fall season is always between summer and winter.  Yet, the fall season is or has become not as cool always as the spring.

The last Monday of May is always the day we celebrate Memorial Day and this day is more than just another Federal Holiday but a day that we remember and honor all those Veterans who died protecting  the freedom that this country has stood for since 1776., although many people just see it as another holiday or another long weekend but not necessarily a 4 day weekend, unless the previous Friday was taken as a vacation day. which many people do as a way of extending time off without eating into vacation days.

I used that same logic in the military.  I would take leave between two weekend in which I had to stand duty.  So, I would get 9 days in a row off and would only use 5 of my 30 vacation days..  If one could manage this 6 years each year, then they would have 54 vacation days instead of 30, since the military owns you 24/7.

But, I digress...

Consciousness

The history of science includes numerous challenging problems, including the “hard problem” of consciousness: Why does an assembly of neurons—no matter how complex, such as the human brain—give rise to perceptions and feelings that are consciously experienced, such as the sweetness of chocolate or the tenderness of a loving caress on one's cheek? Beyond satisfying this millennia-old existential curiosity, understanding consciousness bears substantial medical and ethical implications, from evaluating whether someone is conscious after brain injury to determining whether nonhuman animals, fetuses, cell organoids, or even advanced machines are conscious.

A comprehensive and agreed-upon theory of consciousness is necessary to answer the question of which systems—biologically evolved or artificially designed—experience anything and to define the ethical boundaries of our actions toward them. The research projects described here will hopefully point the way and indicate whether some of today's major theories hold water or not.

After prosperous decades of focused scientific investigation zeroing in on the neural correlates of consciousness, a number of candidate theories of consciousness have emerged. These have independently gained substantial empirical support, led to empirically testable predictions, and resulted in major improvements in the evaluation of consciousness at the bedside.

Notwithstanding this progress, the conjectures being put forward by the different theories make diverging claims and predictions that cannot all be simultaneously true. Moreover, the theories evolve and continue to adapt as further data accumulates, with hardly any cross-talk between them. How can we then narrow down on which theory better explains conscious experience?

The road to a possible solution may be paved by means of a new form of cooperation among scientific adversaries. Championed by Daniel Kahneman in the field of behavioral economics and predated by Arthur Eddington's observational study to test Einstein's theory of general relativity against Newton's theory of gravitation, adversarial collaboration rests on identifying the most diagnostic points of divergence between competing theories, reaching agreement on precisely what they predict, and then designing experiments that directly test those diverging predictions.

During the past 2 years, several groups have adopted this approach, following an initiative that aims to accelerate research in consciousness. So far, several theories of consciousness are being evaluated in this manner to test competing explanations for where and when neural activity gives rise to subjective experience.  TO READ MORE, CLICK HERE...

Komic Korner Kartoons