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Rated: 18+ · Book · Writing · #1677545
"Putting on the Game Face"
My Blog Sig

This blog is a doorway into the mind of Percy Goodfellow. Don't be shocked at the lost boys of Namby-Pamby Land and the women they cavort with. Watch as his caricatures blunder about the space between audacious hope and the wake-up calls of tomorrow. Behold their scrawl on the CRT, like graffitti on a subway wall. Examine it through your own lens...Step up my friends, and separate the pepper from the rat poop. Welcome to my abode...the armpit of yesterday, the blinking of an eye and a plank to the edge of Eternity.

Note: This blog is my journal. I've no interest in persuading anyone to adopt my views. What I write is whatever happens to interest me when I start pounding the keys.

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May 9, 2016 at 9:17pm
May 9, 2016 at 9:17pm
#881709
Right now is the calm before the storm in the Exploratory Writing Workshop.

On Thursday I will get deluged with six Vignettes to review. This is where the students will demonstrate how committed they are to the Workshop. I have done everything I can think of in readiness, explaining that the first vignette is like the first chapter in a novel.

They will be introducing the reader to a story world and a Central Character. In their writing I hope to see a diversity of the tools being used that go into good writing. For example some scene setting, a little dialog, some backstory, a dash of foreshadowing, and maybe a sprinkle of symbolism. Seeing some internal dialog would be nice. What really gets me cranked is reading a before snapshot of the Central Character, maybe an unexpected supporting character or better yet an antagonist. A transition at the end that leaves a reader hanging is the icing on the cake.

Most of my students will not include a good mix of elements in their first vignette. Usually it's all backstory, or a heavy dose of dialog, like listening to a a telephone conversation. I like dialog as well as the next reader but better is a blend of the other tools and components that make their writing multidimensional. Well, they say hope springs eternal.

Some will do better than others and some will submit something written awhile back that has absolutely nothing to do with the requirements of the lesson. Its like that bell shaped curve we learned about in Statistics. There will be a good student and a weak one and between the rest will show up demonstrating their wares.

I will do what I can to make them better writers, commenting on what they did best and where they can most improve. Each lesson has a checklist and I'll use that to begin with and then address those strong and weak areas.

Experience has taught not to gush while at the same time not to beat a dead horse. I enjoy writing the reviews and look forward to getting started.
May 8, 2016 at 9:13am
May 8, 2016 at 9:13am
#881591
There are some people out there who have a knack for making connections and explaining things.

Now, one would think that a teacher would have this knack but not all of them do. Teachers are hired based upon their degrees and how smart they are, indicated by GPA, academic recognitions and published works which evidence their grasp of the subject material in a specialized area.

Just because a teacher understands something does not necessarily mean that they have the knack for making connections and explaining. Sure they make scribbles on the blackboard but often I would emerge from a college math class as befuddled with the day's instruction as I was when I walked in the door.

To cope with my lack of understanding I'd search the text book for examples and often these helped throw some light on what the instructor was trying to explain. Often, however, the textbook was not much help. It had lots of words and diagrams but often did not shed much light on what I was trying to figure out.

Often I found that a "dumbass" like myself, who was barely able to get the idea of what was being taught, proved to be someone who could best explain things.

In the Exploratory Writing Workshop I do not call myself a "Teacher" but rather a "Facilitator." Reading and Writing were hard for me in school, however the more I did it, then and in my profession, the better I became, often eclipsing those with better grades and higher degrees.

My wife, was a gifted student, who loved school and barely had to study to get straight As. To say she never paid "Rapt Attention" in the college classes we attended is an understatement. She spent more time on side interests than she did paying attention. Sure, she would occasionally look up and take note but it was never long before she was back to thinking about other things. Linda has an awesome knack for absorbing information and her bio-processor is extremely well suited for inputing large volumes of data.

Many really smart people have this ability and we see them as doctors and lawyers, and Rocket Scientists. However, there are also those, like myself, who must struggle for every glimmer of understanding. The acquiring process is, for me, fraught with agony and frustration. However, once understanding dawns I have a facility for applying that knowledge to situations and explaining it to others.

In grammar school I flunked the 5th grade and my mother got called in. I recall her telling my father that I was "Mildly Retarded, Socially Immature and Cognitively Deficient." I felt bad because the meeting upset my mother, but otherwise accepted the truth of it. I was the student from Hell, and while not a huge behavior problem was definitely dumb as a box of rocks, compared with everyone else.

I remember one day in class Mrs Jones telling us she intended to do a Christmas Project, making candles. She told us to bring from home a small empty frozen orange juice can. We would heat up some wax, suspend a wick and pour the paraffin into the can. Once the contents hardened, a little more heat and "Voila," the candle would slide out ready for decorating. Everybody in the class was excited about the project and our teacher set about gathering the necessary materials.

Unfortunately, the next day she had some bad news. She was able to get the paraffin but nowhere could she find a source for the wicks... "Oh well," she lamented, "So much for that idea."

I remember raising my hand. I was not a great contributor and she noticed me right away. "What is it Percy?" she inquired.

"Why don't we bring a table candle from home, put that in the can and pour the wax around it."

I will never forget her dumbfounded look. The answer, obvious to me, had not occurred to her. She paused, "Does everyone understand what Percy just said?" she asked.

It was my first academic triumph and my heart went "pitter-pat".

May 6, 2016 at 10:46pm
May 6, 2016 at 10:46pm
#881510
My friend Ron built me a Sig Senior, RC flying model.

I loved that model and it survived in my hands longer than any RC airplane I have owned.

Today I went out to the flying field and crashed it.

Too bad, so sad!

I have other models hanging from the walls of my garage/workshop, so it won't be a case where I have nothing to fly.

As I write this I am thinking that it sounds a lot like that Insurance Commercial where this girl is talking about her car nicknamed "Brad"

"I loved Brad," she says... "We went everywhere together, 3 jobs, 2 boyfriends... Then I wrecked Brad and I was so sad, until the Insurance Company called and told me the settlement. Then I broke into a happy dance."

There are a whole series of these commercials and they interest me because of the way the actors portray the mentality of today's young people. The reflect an insurance company's perception of how they think.

May 6, 2016 at 8:36am
May 6, 2016 at 8:36am
#881465
One of my student's asked me if a Life Changing Event (LCE) can be positive?

She had read yesterday's blog and felt it sounded extremely negative.

In response I'm thinking that events happen in our lives and we make choices that can have positive and negative consequences.

For example, say you are writing a novel and an event happens that alters the Central Character's path in life. Viewed on the surface you might see it as a good thing or a bad thing.

Say your story is about a young girl who grew up in a family without high expectations and couldn't wait to get her married off. Say she was smart, got good grades in school and received a four year scholarship to college.

Now, the reader might expect that this event would be the LCE in the Novel. Maybe it will and maybe it won't. If it changes her life and she becomes a different person than the event qualifies. However, if she simply puts in her time, graduates and perhaps gets a better paying job than she might have otherwise, but essentially remains the same... then it doesn't.

The key here is the word "Change." Does the character change as a result of the event. In the Book, Mutiny on the Bounty, Captain Bligh faces what most would consider, a negative life changing event. In the story that follows he leads those cast adrift in a small boat on an epic journey. It is an interesting story except for one thing. Captain Bligh doesn't change. Not one Iota. He is the same tyrant in the lifeboat that he was on the Bounty, and the only thing that changes are the conditions that surround his life.

In the case above, the scholarship might be viewed as a positive event, however, an event regardless of how good or bad, it might appear, has consequences that could be viewed as positive and negative. Say this girl met a "Jerk" in college, married and had a miserable life afterwards. That is negative. Or say she would have been happy with the "boy next door" despite the financial struggles that might have ensued without a college education. That could be seen as positive.

Thus the consequences of an LCE can be viewed as either positive or negative, even though the event itself might be considered for better or worse..

The point I'm trying to make (and not doing a very good job with) is that a novel starts out with the writer introducing a story world and a Central Character.(CC) If nothing else it needs to show that world and a Before Snapshot of the CC moving around in it.

Then comes the LCE. For better or worse there are consequences when the CC decides to take a new path in life that essentially changes their character. It is this change that the readers want to see as they compare the before snapshot with the change they see in the CC as the story progresses.
May 5, 2016 at 8:50am
May 5, 2016 at 8:50am
#881402
I use this Straw-man Philosophy when pondering a manuscript I'm thinking about writing.

It is based upon some assumptions about what a good novel contains and provides a roadmap on what I will need to include in writing it.

It starts with the following assumptions.

The world is in a constant state of flux. Everything about us is constantly changing and when this happens there are natural forces which seek to adjust the equilibrium and keep the universe operating in harmony.

When we are born there is a default script etched in our DNA which lays out the destiny we can expect if we choose to do nothing to change it. We will grow up, marry the girl next door, have kids, gradually get older and eventually die. In the course of our lives we will be inclined to accept this script and go with the flow, unless something otherwise happens to force us out of our rut and undertake a new path.

Fate, which wrote our script does not want to change it, because that means doing a lot of things that were unintended in order to adjust the future that will change if somebody decides not to play ball and make a lane change into the future. Fate warns us that if we elect to deviate from our preordained lot in life there will be consequences, painful ones. "Are you sure you really want the grief you will bring upon yourself " she whispers as we comtemplate making a drastic course correction in life.

Sometimes however, things happen called Life Changing Events. This does not happen often. For many it never happens, but for some, it strikes out of the blue, like a bolt of lightening, once or twice in a lifetime. When such an event happens and the someone it touches decides to deviate from the script... they better look out. In making a radical course change in life, there are consequences, painful ones, as the wrath of god descends upon our heads. Fate does not take kindly to somebody tossing aside the canned script.

In any novel worth reading we see a story world with a central character, faced with a life changing event. Something portentous happens to jerk them out of the groove they are sliding along, and they resolve to embark upon a new path. As they change the direction of their lives, fate sets out to frustrate and discourage them, throwing obstacles in their path in an effort to make them lose heart and return to the original path laid out by destiny. In a novel this is represented by the three crisis a Central Character faces, with the last being the climax.

Even if the reader never experiences an LCE they note it immediately when it pops up. "Oh my goodness," they reflect to themselves. "This is a really big deal. I wonder how the Central Character is going to respond.
April 30, 2016 at 9:51pm
April 30, 2016 at 9:51pm
#880940
I've been in Georgia the past week and haven't gotten around to my blog. I could have but I didn't.

Today I've been busy. I'm the Moderator for a New Horizon's Academy, class called the Exploratory Writing Workshop. Sign-ups are just finishing up and my Class Roster is all but complete. I'm waiting to see if one more student comes on line to see my class filled up.

When I got home, there were two flat tires on my pick-up truck... where I'd driven over some nails to get it out of the way. That was a $40 mistake... not to mention trying to break the lug-nuts free. Finally i found a long piece of pipe. Then I dragged the floor jack out onto the apron and took the wheels off loaded them into the Van.

I've been thinking about taking a snapshot of all the nick-naks on my desk and using the blog to explain what it is about each one that attracted me. Hmmmmm. This might be more interesting to readers than the same-Oh, same-Oh blogs I've written in the past.

I'll have to give the matter some serious thought.
April 19, 2016 at 8:46am
April 19, 2016 at 8:46am
#879767
There is a lot of dogmatic ritual contained in church services. People pray the Lord's Prayer and it sounds to me like so much mumbling taking place in unison.

SO? You guessed it. I translated the Lord's Prayer to embrace my understanding and beliefs by simplifying it into words that contain the essence of what it says to me. Then I mumble along with everybody else and nobody notes that I have changed a few words here and there. Everybody is happy, the congregation with their familiar ritualistic chant and me with words, resonating with my core beliefs.

This is the prayer I say to myself.

God of our fathers, wherever you be,
Awesome is your name.
May your kingdom come, your will be done
On earth as it is in your world.
Gives us today our daily bread
And forgive us our mistakes
As we forgive those who err against us.
Grant our will dominion over temptation,
And deliver us from our sins.
For yours is the wonder, the power and the glory
Now and forever.
Amen

I believe in "Evolution" but only to the extent that it allows an organism to gradually change over extended periods of time. However, I don't believe that we evolved ourselves into existence. Something out there created the specifications and plans for all the plants, animals and insects that inhabit this earth. Every living thing contains several telephone books worth of code that has to be produced in perfect harmony. Evolution is the result of a module in that compendium of chemical building blocks that allows for some adaptive changes on the margin however, there is no way the genetic codes to life were written by a bunch of monkeys banging on some sort of eternal statistical typewriter.

Further I believe in a Cosmic Equilibrium that not only balances nature but insures that good and evil exist in the same proportions.

I could say more, but who really cares, or needs to, about the conclusions I've reached during the course of a lifetime?
April 18, 2016 at 11:31pm
April 18, 2016 at 11:31pm
#879750
Do you ever feel that your gas tank is almost empty?

Around ten O'clock in the evening I definitely feel that way. Especially on the days I have Cardiac Rehab. I feel dry and wrung out inside.

My "Eat Less Food Diet" is working. I told the therapist about it today and she looked at me as if I was from the planet Mars. "Isn't eating less and dieting the same thing?" she inquired.

That made me think and for me thinking is not always a good thing.

I suspect a nutritionist would say they are apples and oranges, making the case that what you eat and how much you eat do not share a direct linear relationship when it comes to weight gain.

I take the old school approach. If you shovel a pound of dirt into a bucket it weighs a pound more. If you shovel less the bucket weighs less.

I know, I know... it isn't quite that simple but you know what? I'm convinced that it is.

"How about exercise?" you ask.

I don't know about you but when I exercise my appetite goes into overdrive and I wind up gaining more weight than I lose.

So here again is the "Eat Less Food Diet." Eat three meals a day but for two, only half of what you ordinarily eat. Cut out soda's and munchies. (Maybe a little treat at bedtime if your acid reflux lets you.)

April 17, 2016 at 8:48am
April 17, 2016 at 8:48am
#879596
I could make this blog about politics, but If you're like me you're probably sick of hearing about it.

I could write about writing, however, you already know plenty about scribbling or you wouldn't be here at writing.com.

I could write about my RC flying hobby... then again, you probably don't have much interest or understanding about quad-copters, transmitters, receivers, servos and that sort of stuff.

I could write about my wife or to a lesser extent, my dog... plenty of love there and those two never fail to bring a smile to my face.

I could write about my neighbor Mark, who just bought a new firewood processing machine.

However, today I think I'll write about my ten acre retirement plotz.

It's hard to believe that I've been retired from the military for 21 years. In 1980 my grandfather's old farm house came up for sale on a VA repossession. All the agricultural lands had been sold and what remained was a burned down log cabin, a dilapidated barn and some ram-shackled sheds and outbuildings. I bought it. This was the legacy of my forefathers (and mothers) who came to Wisconsin and poured their lives into making a go out of dairy farming. My Uncle, Walt was the brains behind the enterprise but unfortunately he died in WW1. My grandmother, who was born on the farm, died in the flu epidemic of 1918, pregnant with her third child. I had two old maid aunts and a bachelor Uncle who worked the place until after WW2. My dad was supposed to step in after the war but he told them, "No way Hose."

The property passed out of the family and went steadily down hill until the dump burned down one Christmas Eve. So much sadness

My wife and I bought a modular home and have been hanging around ever since.

So here it is, another Springtime and the birds are chirping and my doodle is nosing about outside. The walk-on, outside cats are skulking about but without that frenetic energy they used to exhibit when they were younger.

We like it here. The house and cars are paid for, we're still healthy and the frost has gone out of the ground. As my Father used to say, "lIfe is good... so long as you don't weaken."



April 16, 2016 at 8:51pm
April 16, 2016 at 8:51pm
#879562
Recently I had three stints put in. There is no history of heart disease in my family. I attribute the need for the surgeries to a failure to adjust my eating habits to a gradual slow down in metabolism. What happened is that I got an inner-tube around my middle and all that fat wound up in my heart arteries. This is my hypothesis as to why I got the three blockages.

So what the heck do I do about it? The answer seems so obvious I hesitate to insult the intelligence of my readers by stating it. I need to eat less. I need to go from three full meals a day to two. This doesn't mean I can't eat three times a day but two of those meals need to be scaled back by fifty percent. In addition I have cut out alcohol, soda, and most of the munchies I so dearly love.

Since the surgeries I've been taking rehab three days a week. I do twenty minutes on the treadmill, forty sit-ups and ten minutes on the cross country ski machine. Every morning I weigh and if I'm over one-hundred eighty lbs. I resort to extreme measures. This translates to no sweets or carbs. It seems to be working and I'm not suffering all that much.
April 11, 2016 at 10:45pm
April 11, 2016 at 10:45pm
#879165
I have bad dreams... plagued with them, I am. Can't wait to awaken so they evaporate from my recollection like those "dews and damps" referred to in the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Have you ever read those words? The woman who wrote the lyrics was really on a roll.

However, occasionally I have a dream that's so wonderful, I hate for it to end. They are usually about my wife. In these cases I dread waking up, knowing that her smile will vanish into that fog of chaos whence dreams bubble and belch from their inexplicable cosmic pool.

This evening I flew one of my quad-copters.... known to many as "Drones." My four-fifty has a wobble I can't seem to correct. Dustin built it for me and when he saw my orientation difficulties, added some blue and red LED lights so I could see what tangent it was headed off on.

I have been slow learning how to fly radio controlled aircraft. I gave up on helicopters, have enjoyed some success with the quads and get by flying the airplanes. However, I don't have the "gift" for flight that some do. I'm glad my vision was not perfect or I might have been tempted to apply for flight school... an endeavor I would most certainly have failed at. I'm a slow learner and tend to catch on to things long after those around me have departed for the next level.

Still, I shouldn't complain. I got dealt some good cards and played my hand good enough to put food on the table. What more could I ask?

I listen to political commentary and today finally heard somebody define what is at stake in the upcoming election. In the next ten years it will be decided if the future of this country will take the road of Capitalism or Socialism. I won't live to see the consequences. I think I'll have the words, "I Told you So" written on my tombstone.



March 13, 2016 at 4:50pm
March 13, 2016 at 4:50pm
#876429
Hillary Clinton is worried, as she should be, regarding the unraveling of what exactly her private e-mail server contained. I don't doubt that she doesn't remember half of what her staff sent to her. Still she knew that those e-mails contained information that could blow her campaign for president wide open.

When asked about the possibility of forthcoming indictments she bristled and announced that it was all a big misunderstanding over the retroactive classification of documents found on her server. That she would be cleared of any wrongdoing. That none of those documents needed to be classified in the first place.

To understand better what really happened one must appreciate how classification systems work. One of the biggest complaints of intelligence gathering from the cold war onward is that by the time it got to the users, it was often out of date and unusable. This has been a chronic and ongoing problem that intelligence gathering agencies have struggled with for years. I suspect that what is currently going on is that a gathering agency forwards a copy of their product into a common file and the classification shows who will have a need to know and the ability to access the contents. The higher the government official the more they are able to see. There is also probably a classification code attached that routes and authorizes the different government agencies to read the contents. With such a system there is an up to the minute record of what is going on in the world, accessible to different governmental agencies. Mrs. Clinton certainly had a need to Know everything the State Department was privy to. She could sit behind her desk, type in her password and code, and receive up to the minute updates of the highest and most sensitive secrets the government had.

It doesn't take a politician long to figure out that some of this information is extremely valuable and foreign governments were willing to pay a premium for what we know about them. This was no doubt, an opportunity not lost on Hillary. The problem was that using the Government Server left a record of who was calling up the documents and how they were being responded to. This could not have been a good thing in Mrs. Clinton's mind. It would have really constrained her ability to wheel and deal. What she needed was a means by which this information could be passed to those willing to pay top dollar, without leaving a document trail to her office at the State Department. Hence, the need for a private server.

The next problem was how to get marketable information from the State Department Server to her private server. How she managed that I'll leave to Brian Pagliano. Somehow he jerry-rigged her secure State Department Workstation and allowed a clone server to be connected at her private residence providing her with the same access she had a work. The FBI went to her residence and got the server, and I hope also the devices located in her operations center. There must have been a room in her home that allowed staffers to "Print Screen" which was where the security markings were removed. Once this was in place she could give her access code to a minion who would fax her anything her password/code gave access to. This gave Hillary the information from the classified files she was interested in as well as deniability... as she could say, as she has, over and over that nothing on her server was marked classified. She never dreamed that the FBI would one day be in possession of all her emails; not just the ones she got from her private staff but those she sent to foreign governments, giving them a head's up and opportunity to pander for the Clinton Library.

Thus, one needs to understand, that what is going on now, is both a classification and corruption issue.

First regarding the classification issue. This is easy enough to prove. It is statistically possible to be almost one-hundred percent certain that given the text of one of Hillary's e-mails that it is an exact duplicate of a memo or update from an intelligence gathering agency. It is the same way that pledgerism can be proven if there is plenty of text and it matches 100% with the suspected source document. Further that source document had a date-time-group as a part of it and the classification of the altered copy can be determined by matching it with the original. So the explanation that the documents were classified in retrospect won't hold water long.

I suppose the next line will be "It was all a big mistake. I never intended for my staff to send me that material and they must have found where I hid the password." Putting that dodge to rest is going to require witnesses. Keep in mind that this process required a conscious stream of wrong dong. First was accessing the classified material, next printing it off on a screen -save, next cutting off (Deleting) the classification markings and finally sending it out on an unsecured internet.

The Influence Pedaling part will be much more damning. It won't take much to incriminate Mrs. Clinton. The emails should show who she was talking to, the information she was providing and possibly the quid pro quo.

So where does this leave things? The FBI will be in no hurry to forward their findings to the Department of Justice. I have read between June and July. Whenever it gets eventually provided the recommends will show overwhelming evidence of wrongdoing. When the Department of Justice gets the report, the question will be what they intend to do with it.

If they wait to indite Mrs Clinton that does not bode well for her. If it gets deferred until the new President takes office, it could be a Republican, in which case the matter will be decided on its own merit and there will be no possibility of an Obama Pardon. The question now becomes, is Hillary electable or will she see the handwriting on the wall? Judging from the crossover votes I would say that neither she nor Bernie Sanders are likely to get voted into the White House.

If she does somehow manage to get elected, I suppose she could pardon herself. A more likely scenario is that the material is so over the top, the Justice Department will offer her a plea deal. It will be a bitter pill if she has to accept it. If she does, she pleads guilty to a misdemeanor or felony, and as Obama walks out the door, he pardons her. If this plays out then the Obama Administration is free of its obligation to support the Clinton's. Bernie Sanders will be seen as unelectable. The only reason he's in the race is to serve as a foil... to dupe the Democratic voters into thinking this was ever a primary to begin with. Doesn't everybody know the Hillary nomination was a done deal eight years ago? My guess is that Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee.

Note: Computers are good at keeping records. Regardless if the query came from a clone or an authorized workstation there should have been a record that someone accessed a classified file. Somewhere along the line a red flag should have gone up. If a supervisor or IT chief sees the Secretary's Work Station being used and he/she knows they are in Timbucktu don't you suppose this would have an intelligent person scratching their heads? Further If Mrs. clinton was abroad and a highly classified file was accessed then the FBI should be able to prove that whoever accessed it had Mrs. Clinton's password/access code, and that it wasn't the Secretary but somebody else sitting behind the CRT.



March 12, 2016 at 10:38am
March 12, 2016 at 10:38am
#876335
One of the most popular flying models in RC airplanes is the "Stick." Some call it the "Ugly Stick," others "Das Stick," and the names go on... "Little Stick," "Big Stick," "Giant Big Stick," and "Monster Stick," to name a few.

The reason for it's popularity is because it is a simple design and it flies well. It can also be scaled up and down without suffering a degradation in how it handles in the air. I have a friend who has purchased 6 and crashed 4 of them. He gives me the wrecked ones and I pay him a modest fee.
I then take them into my shop and make them whole again.

Several months ago I was at a swap meet and on a table was a Giant Big Stick. The guy who built it was there with his wife and it was for sale. He wanted $100 for the airplane and $50 for the motor which was a knock off of a 60 cc DLE. In addition he wanted $10 for the box of paint that included around twenty quart cans of Poly Products. It was perhaps the best deal I ever got at a Swap Meet.

For the life of me I don't know why he let it all go so cheap and in retrospect I should have asked him. The retail price of everything I got was around $1200 and it was masterfully built and covered, except for the spray painting and installment of the electronic and mechanical flight controls.

On line was a video of how to use Poly Products which showed a three step process from start to finish.

My friend Ron told me I needed to practice before I risked ruining the beautiful, nearly completed model and I agreed. So I watched some more on line videos and started practicing with putting on fabric coverings and spraying them with an automotive touch-up gun.

I got the hang of the spraying part and early in the week applied a coat of Poly Spray which is a silvery paint that coats the surface and is designed to eliminate the opacity that often results when a painted fuselage is held up to the light. The final step will be to apply the Poly Tone which is the color scheme of the airplane. That is easy enough because Sticks are generally painted red and white with Maltese cross decals on the wings and fuselage.

The color sprays beautifully and it doesn't take much to cover and leave a nice gloss. Most of the spray paint evaporates making the end result much lighter and better than a rattle can from Walmart.
March 10, 2016 at 7:49am
March 10, 2016 at 7:49am
#876202
How is it that a politician spends $6.5 million dollars for a job that pays $150,000 a year and is good for only two to four years? How is it that a politician 'oft comes to office with modest means and after a few short years is a multi millionaire? The answer is the Influence Pedaling Trade.

Here is how it works. Once in office a politician is given a committee assignment. Some appointments are better than others but they all provide opportunities to pedal influence. Once seated on a committee the first thing that comes to a politico's mind is "Where's the Scratch?"

The scratch comes from what whoever the committee oversees. The politician is the "Scratcher" and the "Scratchee" is the special interest that needs to purchase a favorable outcome the committee has power to influence.

It used to be that these payoffs were called "Bribes" however people went to jail for that and more creative ways had to be found to avoid the slammer. The way the money passes these days has to meet the "Barely Legal" criteria, in order that the Scratchers, once exposed for the frauds they are, can throw up their hands in mock dismay and proclaim loudly that they "Broke no Laws."Hillary Clinton is the all time master of taking legal bribes and they have become her signature in the years she held office. There is a reason her trust level is always at the bottom of the polls.

Today bribes are paid via real estate deals, stock marked "Windfalls." through Non-Profits and little things like picking up travel expenses, to mention but a few. There are so many ways to pay bribes legally that anyone who resorts to a brown envelop, passed under the table, is a damn fool.

Trump is being accused of being a "Con Artist" by politicians who have written the book on it. Trump is a businessman where marketing skills are an OPEN part of the game. Con Artists trade in deceit and politicians have taken "Con Art" to an all time high. "I broke no law.." they lament when their opponents cry foul to whatever form their latest shenanigans happen to take, as if the law is some kind of high moral high standard. The law is blind to morality and represents the lowest threshold that society will suffer someone to behave!

The legacy of the Democratic Party, from Clinton to Obama, will be the deceitful pedaling of that old Marxist-Leininist bill of goods, retitled "Progressive Socialism" when their real aim is to destroy the middle class and turn us all into paupers. If you like Food Stamps, you are going to love Single Pay Healthcare and all the other great plans the Progressive Socialists have for our money.
March 9, 2016 at 9:39pm
March 9, 2016 at 9:39pm
#876179
Today was a good day, then every day in Wisconsin is a vacation.

I listened to Bernie Sanders last night describing how great Socialism is. He said the middle class is getting screwed by the upper one percent. That the wealth of the middle class has migrated to the richest people in America and the middle class has suffered accordingly.

In listening to Bernie I was amazed by how sincere he sounded. Bernie is an avowed Socialist and has spent his time abroad visiting countries that had socialist governments. He knows what a miserable system it is. He has seen it first hand. Like many academics he only sees what he wants to see. Has there ever been a country that went socialist, where the middle class prospered? Having lived in Europe let me answer that. The middle class steadily loses ground under Socialism until it falls to a level the lower class once exclusively occupied. The money does not flow upwards into the hands of the rich, it is redistributed downward to make the "Have Nots" feel better about themselves. The only change is that the upper one percent becomes those who control the government once the Capitalists are given the boot. Never mind that it is those Damn Capitalists who create the engine of a vibrant economy that allows more people to prosper. The result is that the middle class takes a couple of steps down the economic ladder, closer to the poverty level. The upper one percent gets a change of faces.

Meanwhile the rich move their money to offshore accounts or put it into tax shelters, trusts and non Profits. If things get bad enough they flee, taking their money with them. Short of that they build a better security system around their gated communities. Keep in mind that the rich already have their wealth and their strategy is to keep it. There is a diminishing set of returns on buying a more ostentatious mansion or bigger power boat. To hedge their bets they contribute to support both political parties as an insurance policy. Donald Trump makes no bones about giving to Republican and Democratic political candidates.

The wealthy like the Democrats because they can be counted onto placate society as the standard of living goes steadily down hill. The middle class doesn't believe yet that they are destined to become part of a gigantic lower class. If they ever wake up, it will probably be too late. There will be a single Democratic Party and everybody will all be too afraid to complain for fear of losing Food Stamps and a Crappy Single Payer Health Care Plan.

The wealthy like the Republicans because a capitalist, free enterprise system is the font from whence their wealth derived. The monied elite, as mentioned earlier, has more then they can ever spend and worry only about a change in the status quo. They still dabble in the economics, playing the market and investments abroad but largely are satisfied where they are.

The money that gets redistributed under Socialism is the wealth of the middle class. It gets spent on all the government give away programs. What the government doesn't get in taxes they acquire indirectly by printing currency, borrowing and dumping gold reserves. Savings of the middle class get periodically looted in those periodic "Market Adjustments. As of yet Public Lands have only been mortgaged and not sold. The government hates gold because it is a pretty good indicator of what the dollar is worth. So when the value of gold rises on the open market the government quietly begins dumping. Of course the closest guarded secret of the Federal Reserve is how much gold is actually in Fort Knox and how much the stockpile has been depleted since the end of WW2.

How come the politicians aren't talking about that?

March 5, 2016 at 8:05pm
March 5, 2016 at 8:05pm
#875846
The Republican "Fat Cats" have circled the wagons in a united effort to block the nomination of Donald Trump.

Sneering Regis is in hog heaven thinking a brokered convention is at hand, where he can bring the Party together, in that figurative smokey room and pick the next candidate. Somebody to become a marshmallow or jelly donut for the next four years.

I am not a great Trump supporter but he has done more in this election to galvanize the American People than those effete Republicans have done since Ronald Reagan. If you recall Reagan was an outsider, who despite being maligned, turned out to be a pretty good president. He brought respectability to a Party that was on the descent. Left to their own volition Republicans never fail but pick the wrong person for the job. Even if elected, their candidate seldom meets expectations. The Bushes, Romney and now the latest card of insiders is evidence of their denial and inability to realize the transformation taking place. Cruz is the slickest and nastiest insider of them all, a pretender claiming to be a champion of the middle class. If you buy his line go enroll in Trump University.

The democrats are totally corrupt and their constituents could care less. All the liberals care about is holding onto power so they can put the finishing touches on Socialism. These worshipers of Lenin, have invaded our schools, churches, courts and any other institution they could infect with their insidious and bankrupt philosophy. It is no surprise that their likely nominee is going to be a woman who under any other circumstances would be wearing a blaze orange jumpsuit and walking in laceless tennis shoes. Opposed to her is a liberal whose only appeal is a massive giveaway program, pedaled to anyone dumb enough to listen. Even the blacks are wary, but then they think Hillary is Mother Teresa.

I never cease to be amazed that the blacks are such a lock-step given for the Democrats. Have the Afro-Americans forgotten that it was the Democrats who suppressed them after the Civil War? It was the North, the genesis of the Republican Party, who unshackled the physical chains and it was the Democrats who encouraged the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Can you believe they're trying to cast Donald in flowing white robes? Once the Klan fell out of favor Democrats threw that idea under the bus and came up with an even better strategy. SOCIALISM! Take wealth from the middle class and use it to rob the blacks of their pride and self respect. The implementing plan was to keep them on the dole and threaten them with a welfare check. Let them market drugs or play sports to escape a hopeless existence. Then lock up the ringleaders, and applaud an ICON, here and there.

Who do you suppose is really behind the Democrats? Why are they supported by the moneyed elite? You'd think those with money would be Republicans, those disciples of Capitalism, the font of their wealth. The answer, in a nutshell, is that millionaires want to keep what they've acquired. Does anyone really believe we can take money from the rich and give it to the poor? Rich people can hire a battalion of tax lawyers to make sure that doesn't happen. From their perspective, Socialism is the perfect answer to a continued well being. They have no problem keeping what they already have, sending good paying jobs elsewhere, making us dependent on others for our way of life, redistributing the middle class wealth downward and making the rank and file into a bunch of nobodies.

A class struggle has been going on for a long time and the New Aristocrats are Old Money, Politicians, Wall Street and the Media. Socialism is the mechanism being used to redirect the resources of a free enterprise economy to one that is centrally controlled. The result of this redistribution is going to play out to the dismay and misery of those gulled into believing such nonsense. What does happen is that as the middle class drys up, the aristocrats get what they're hoping for. In Martha's Vineyard, there's dancing in the gated communities. They say, "be careful of what you hope for." The birth of liberty can be traced to a revolution in France that really turned some heads.

March 2, 2016 at 6:16pm
March 2, 2016 at 6:16pm
#875540
As facilitator of the Exploratory Writing Workshop I get the full range of talent and experience in my class. What they all have in common is a desire to become better writers, but as you can imagine their writing is all over the board when it comes to quality.

I see my job not as a nitpicker but rather a coach. In coaching I find the three things I like best about their work and three areas which could be most improved. My review follows a checklist from the lesson requirement and then "attaboys" for the high three and "aweshucks" for the low three.

I've noted over time, that my students tend to show two distinct modus opperendi's. Some are "Pantzers" and some "Structuralists."

In my early develop I was taught the importance of outlines. The problem I had was the difficulty outlining something that had yet to flash in my mind.

I took instead the fine art painter's approach. I did some written sketches of a scene and then worked the scenes into chapters and the chapters into a final composition. The result was I'd write a series of vignettes and let them tell me the story. After writing six to twelve of these I felt better about taking on an outline.

I feel that an outline is not something negotiable. If an author wants to wind up with a coherent and integrated novel, it is imperative.

About half my students find, after writing their vignettes, don't finish the last two lessons which deal with outlines.

There are some, I suppose, who are gifted with a high powered intellect and don't need an outline. In my lifetime I have seen people who could get by without them.

Having said that, the biological CPU most writers are born with, runs out of random access memory once it gets beyond the scope of a short story.

A short story is about a 5K chapter worth of words. A writer can push the pencil or pound the keys and achieve something on this scale. Beyond this level, however, the capacity of the human brain becomes saturated and all kinds of important considerations begin falling through the cracks.

The more I use an outline to capture sketches and integrate my writing, the more I like them.

They allows me to write in bite sized chunks rather than juggling an undoable number of balls in the air at the same time.

Further, the outline holds the balls in place while I expand the scenes in a chapter, taking the germ of an idea and expanding it to fullest potential.

I call the outline part of a novel the "operational" part.

In the military there are three levels of war. The tactical, operational and strategic.

The tactical level is local battle, something at a chapter level. Operational, is writing at the regional or multi-chapter level. The Strategic looks at the manuscript from a worldly point of view. If you follow me to this point, you get it. If you haven't, then what's the point of saying more.
March 1, 2016 at 10:56pm
March 1, 2016 at 10:56pm
#875469
"A great story starts at the good part."

"And what part might that be?"

"At the Life Changing Event,"

"What about character development?"

"You start with a before snapshot and go from there."

"What comes after the Life Changing Event?"

"The three crisis which move the rising action."

"What is the reader really looking for?"

"Change taking place in your central character."
February 28, 2016 at 9:21am
February 28, 2016 at 9:21am
#875160
The current controversy between the FBI and Apple over encryption and the latest version of I-phone, has everybody's hair on fire. My view is that what is on my I-phone is not the government's business. Once Apple creates a "back-door" it won't be long before everybody has the key.

After what happened at the Internal Revenue Service with the Lois Learner Scandal, I simply don't trust Government anymore. It used to be I respected the FBI as a bipartisan agency above politics. It will be interesting to see what they do regarding their recommendations to the Justice Department about Hillary Clinton's private email server. I suspect they will sweep it all under the rug until after the elections. What ever happened to J. Edgar Hoover?

If the price of keeping the government from snooping into our private lives is an occasional bomb going off, then so be it. A few years ago getting Apple to help would have been a "No Brainer." That was before the Obama Administration. His Regime sees the government bureaucracy as just another means to advance a liberal political agenda. The sad part is that there seems to be nobody left in Government, willing to stand up to him.

Since the Democrats came to power, the very word "Government" has become almost obscene. Our system has simply lost the trust and confidence of the people. These days a hick-up in the war on terror is suddenly a small price to pay for keeping the nose of Big Brother from getting any further under the tent.

Who would ever believe the day would come when we'd have to ask Apple to champion our Constitutional Rights? The whole notion is mind boggling.
February 27, 2016 at 8:42am
February 27, 2016 at 8:42am
#875091
For those who have not turned off the TV and are still drawn, as a fly to the flame, by the media coverage of the National Primaries... pay attention to the crossover vote.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, the Democrats are in a bind. Bengazi is not going away and the FBI will be making a recommendation to the Justice Department, one of these days, on the private server scandal. It was announced today that all but 7% of the State Department emails have been released. Hmmmm. Ms. Clinton is operating under a cloud, like that Lil Abner cartoon character of old. Everywhere she goes, it follows, casting its pall.

While there are many who will vote for her, regardless of what comes out, there are also many Democrats who will not. This is being evidenced in the crossover vote.

If a Democrat can' t abide either of their party candidates, some are likely to vote for a Republican, despite the bitter pill. Evidence of this showed itself in South Carolina last week in the Republican Primary. There was a sizable percentage of crossovers. Look closely at this statistic in the upcoming primaries. A low turnout, for either party, shows the base is not energized or the vote is going somewhere else. If the crossover trend continues it is not a good sign for the Democrats. Come November, if a Democrat can't abide Mrs Clinton or Mr. Sanders, they face the unenviable choice of either staying home or voting Republican.

In the past there has been this myth, that Democrats, fear Rubio over the other Republican candidates and believe he is the most electable. This is nonsense. If we compare the Republican candidates to foodstuffs, we can characterize Rubio as a marshmallow, Cruz as a jelly donut and Trump as a hot potato. Trump, for all his warts, might not be the most delectable but he is the most electable.

This is where trying to gauge the crossover vote is worthwhile. A crossover creates a two vote spread in a general election. A vote is deducted from one party and added to the column of the other. In Nevada the voting history was something like a 44% Republican turnout in the election before last, 33% in the last election and 76% last week. Where did all these additional votes come from? It could be they were from Independents, new voters, or an energized base, but a substantial number must have come from crossovers.

This is what is going to plague the Democrats in the next election. All Democrats are not representative of the crowd that dissed the Marine war veteran at the Clinton rally yesterday. There is a deep undercurrent of RAGE swirling about and Trump should win in November by a landslide. When the choice boils down to the "Great Prevaricator" a "Closet Communist" or "The Trumpster," who do you think will win?

All we can "hope" for is that the precocious rich kid, who never outgrew his temper tantrums, will become another Reagan... then again, hope isn't worth what it once was.

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