Looking To The Future

Tucson Weather Today

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Although I have not been active lately in filling the blog with interesting content, I fully intend to return to it in the near future.

I just don't know how soon that will be.

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This Is Who I Am

   

A Writer Is One Who Writes... Right?

     

Tucson Weather Today

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The PC has improved the world in just about every area you can think of ... New kinds of entertainment and social media. Access to information and the ability to give a voice to people who would never have been heard.
--Bill Gates

Well, I spent way too much time recently trying to write fiction, and I discovered that I am not a fiction writer after all. Not even in the NaNoWriMo silliness.  So I guess I will just go back to scribbling down some of my life's daily happenings into my blog here, as I have been doing for a couple years now.

Blogging seems to satisfy my desire to communicate with others enough so that I can enjoy most of my time each day doing what I really want to do, which is reading books, napping, and watching movies, and viewing humorous and well-crafted television shows.

We'll see how it goes.

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Did You Know . . .?

Farmers sometimes donate their extra pumpkins to zoos for the animals to eat and play with. Elephants love them.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On November 3, 1998, former professional wrestler Jesse "The Body" Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota with 37 percent of the vote. His opponents, seasoned politicians Hubert Humphrey III and St. Paul mayor Norm Coleman, spent a total of $4.3 million on their campaigns. Ventura, the Reform-Party candidate, spent $250,000 -- money he raised by selling $22 t-shirts and accepting $50 donations from his supporters. His only political experience had been his years as mayor of Brooklyn Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, but his laid-back, straight-talking, libertarian approach to politics resonated with many Minnesotans -- especially young men who had never voted before. "I voted for Jesse because he was the most honest," one young constituent said. "If he doesn’t know something, he says he doesn’t know." Two years after leaving the governor’s mansion, Ventura moved to Mexico.

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WORD FOR TODAY

zeugma [ZOOG-muh]
noun
The use of a word to refer to two or more words, especially in different senses.
Examples: "He caught a fish and a cold" or "She lost her ring and her temper."

source

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Dennis Miller

(born November 3, 1953)

Dennis Miller is an American stand-up comedian, talk show host, political commentator, sports commentator, actor, television personality, and radio personality. He is known for his critical assessments laced with pop culture references. He rose to fame as a cast member of Saturday Night Live in 1985, and subsequently hosted a string of his own talk shows on HBO, CNBC and in syndication.

Roseanne Cherrie Barr

(born November 3, 1952)

Roseanne is an American actress, comedian, writer, television producer and director. She began her career in stand-up comedy at clubs before gaining fame for her role in the sitcom Roseanne. The show was a hit and lasted nine seasons, from 1988 to 1997.

Kenneth Ronald "Ken" Berry

(born November 3, 1933)

Ken Berry is an American sitcom actor, dancer and singer. Berry has appeared in multiple television shows, one with his friend and mentor, Andy Griffith. Berry starred in the successful comedies F Troop, Mayberry R.F.D., and Mama's Family.

Kate Capshaw

(born November 3, 1953)

Kate Capshaw is an American actress, best known for her portrayal of Willie Scott in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. During production of the film, she met director Steven Spielberg, whom she later married.

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Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

This Is Who I Am

   

Who Do I Think I Am?

     

Tucson Weather Today

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For the last few days I have been rambling  on about how I should write and post in my blog some Sunday School stories myself, about how wrong the church is when they indoctrinate innocent children into believing the church's dogma.

But after thinking about it for quite a while and doing some research on existing Bible Stories, I came to the conclusion that doing so would possibly merely make me one of them. I would be pretending to know more than I really do know. Just as the various denominations do. I would hate to be accused of harboring feelings of hubris.

So, I changed my mind.

And I decided to just go ahead and keep doing what I have been doing with the blog all along, writing about whatever pops into my head at the moment. That way I can speak my mind without setting myself up as a know-it-all.

And I can happily keep on enjoying myself while indulging in the craft of writing.


I will, however, continue to mention some of the shocking events that happen when people commit horrible acts in the name of religion.

Such as:

The media has reported that a young mother, identified as Kepari Lanieta from Enga Province, was tortured with a hot iron rod and burnt alive in front of a crowd.

Hemant Mehta and other bloggers reported about this horrific story coming out of Papua New Guinea in which a six-year-old boy died after being sick… and his relatives not only blamed 20-year-old Kepari Leniata for committing the crime, they accused her of sorcery and burned her alive.

Religion in Papua New Guinea is predominantly Christian with traditional animist and ancestor worship still found in some places. The courts and government in both theory and practice uphold a constitutional right to freedom of speech, thought, and belief. A large majority of Papua New Guineans identify themselves as members of a Christian church (96% in the 2000 census)

Link

And I might re-post some information I read in other blogs or a newspaper, both online and in print form.

Such as:

A Clarksville, Tenn. man says he quit his job last week in order to save his soul.

Walter Slonopas, 52, resigned as a maintenance worker at Contech Casting LLC in Clarksville after his W-2 tax form was stamped with the number 666. The Bible calls 666 the “number of the beast,” and it’s often used as a symbol of the devil. Slonopas said that after getting the W-2, he could either go to work or go to hell.

“If you accept that number, you sell your soul to the devil,” he said.

Bob LaCourciere, vice president of sales and marketing for the Revstone Corp., which owns Contech Casting, said that Slonopas‘ W-2 was labeled with 666 by the company that handles Contech’s payroll. It refers to the order in which the forms were mailed out, he said.

Link


HISTORICAL CLIP


Former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, accused of raping 18-year-old beauty-pageant contestant Desiree Washington, is found guilty by an Indiana jury. The following month, Tyson was given a 10-year prison sentence, with four years suspended.

Mike Tyson rose to fame in 1986 when he beat Trevor Berbick and became, at age 20, the youngest heavyweight champ in boxing history. Born June 30, 1966, in Brooklyn, New York, Tyson had a troubled childhood and was sent to reform school in upstate New York. By the age of 13, he had been arrested 38 times.

His boxing talent was discovered and he flourished under the tutelage of legendary trainer Cus D'Amato. Tyson turned pro in 1985 and the following year became heavyweight champ, a title he retained until 1990, when he was upset by James "Buster" Douglas.

Mike Tyson

In July 1991, Tyson met Desiree Washington at a rehearsal for the Miss Black America pageant in Indianapolis. Washington accompanied Tyson back to his hotel room, where, in the early hours of July 19, he allegedly raped her. Tyson claimed the sex was consensual. The world-famous fighter was indicted by a grand jury in September of that year and convicted in February 1992. In March, he began serving his term at the Indiana Youth Center near Plainfield, Indiana. While in prison, he reportedly studied Islam and the writings of Mao Zedong and Malcolm X. He was released, after serving three years, in March 1995.

Post-prison, Tyson briefly recaptured the heavyweight title in 1996. However, the notorious pugilist continued to court controversy. In 1997, during a bout against Evander Holyfield, Tyson bit off a piece of the heavyweight champ's ear; as a result, his boxing license was temporarily revoked. Tyson also had run-ins with the law and spent several months in jail for assaulting motorists after a traffic accident. Additionally, he battled drug addiction and faced financial problems after squandering the multi-million dollar fortune he had amassed. Tyson's professional career ended in 2005, when he quit during the middle of a bout against Kevin McBride.

His first marriage was to actress Robin Givens from February 7, 1988 to February 14, 1989. Givens was known for her work on the sitcom Head of the Class. Tyson's marriage to Givens was especially tumultuous, with allegations of violence, spousal abuse and mental instability on Tyson's part. Matters came to a head when Tyson and Givens gave a joint interview with Barbara Walters on the ABC TV newsmagazine show 20/20 in September 1988, in which Givens described life with Tyson as "torture, pure hell, worse than anything I could possibly imagine." Givens also described Tyson as "manic depressive" on national television while Tyson looked on with an intent and calm expression. A month later, Givens announced that she was seeking a divorce from the allegedly abusive Tyson.

Mike Tyson had dropped out of high school as a junior and never graduated. In 1989, along with Don King, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Central State University, in Wilberforce, Ohio by university President Arthur E. Thomas.

From:History and Wikipedia

An honorary doctorate . . . Go figure.

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WORD FOR TODAY

hubris [HYU-bruhs]
noun
Excessive pride or self-confidence.
synonyms
arrogance - hauteur - haughtiness - pride - insolence

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


George Stephanopoulos

 Born Feb 10, 1961
Age: 51 years old

George Robert Stephanopoulos is an American television journalist and a former political advisor.

Stephanopoulos rose to early prominence as a quick-witted communications director for the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign of Bill Clinton, subsequently becoming White House Communications Director then Senior Advisor for Policy and Strategy before departing in December 1996. Today he is chief political correspondent for ABC News, co-anchor of ABC News' Good Morning America, host of ABC's Sunday morning This Week, and primary substitute for ABC network anchor Diane Sawyer on ABC World News.

In recent years, he has co-hosted ABC News' special live coverage of political events with Sawyer and Charles Gibson and launched an ABC News.com blog, George's Bottom Line.

Jimmy Durante

 Born Feb. 10, 1893
Died Jan. 29, 1980

James Francis "Jimmy" Durante was an American singer, pianist, comedian, and actor. His distinctive clipped gravelly speech, comic language butchery, jazz-influenced songs, and large nose helped make him one of America's most familiar and popular personalities of the 1920s through the 1970s. His jokes about his nose included referring to it as a Schnozzola, and the word became his nickname.

Laura Dern

 Born Feb 10, 1967
Age: 45 years old

Laura Elizabeth Dern is an American actress, film director and producer. Dern has acted in such films as Smooth Talk (1985), Blue Velvet (1986), Fat Man and Little Boy (1988), Wild at Heart (1990), Jurassic Park (1993), October Sky (1999) and I Am Sam (2001). She has won awards for her performance in the 1991 film Rambling Rose, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress. She was awarded a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for her portrayal of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris in the film Recount (2008). Since October, 2011, Dern has starred in HBO’s Enlightened. In this role, she won the 2011 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Television Series Musical or Comedy.

Lon Chaney Jr.

Born Feb. 10, 1906
Died July 12, 1973

Lon Chaney, Jr. (February 10, 1906 – July 12, 1973), born Creighton Tull Chaney, son of famous silent film actor, Lon Chaney, was an American actor known for playing such characters as The Wolf Man, The Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster and Count Alucard for Universal. He is also notable for portraying Lennie Small in Of Mice and Men.

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Hubris is one of the great renewable resources.
--P. J. O'Rourke

How Does A Blogger Choose A Subject?

Tucson Weather Today

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I have been asked why I sometimes include those pictures and links to celebrity information about those whose birthdays fall on the current date . My answer is "Why not?" It requires minimal research, provides some light distraction from the serious side of life, and it's fun. So, again... "Why not?"

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Misogyny is a fancy word that means the hatred, dislike, or mistrust of women. There is no law against it... yet. Not until all the thoroughly brainwashed self-styled 'Progressives' can manage to slip one through Congress and impose it on the broad backs of the ignorant masses. -- (That's us, you and me) -- I'm not sure why, but the subject has been nagging me to get busy and write a story incorporating misogyny in a seemingly new and original way.

My somewhat limited research has yet to reveal any new facts or to stimulate the creation of same... but the idea germ is there and if anything arises I will hopefully be alert enough to grab onto it.

Hope it doesn't take too long.

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While recently reading a book review I noted down the following passage -- "...he calls his friend an asshole and taunts him about the size of his penis." I wrote this down in my notes folder because it seems to be a characteristic that a character in a story of mine might someday need to exhibit.

The above is just a brief glimpse into my thought processes.

Ignore it if you like.

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BORN ON THIS DAY

LeVar Burton

(Geordie La Forge)

Born February 16, 1957

ALSO

Margaux Hemingway

granddaughter of
Ernest Hemingway

born February 16, 1954

and died on Jul 1, 1996

If you are curious as to why I chose Margaux as today's Birthday Girl... well, then you certainly don't know me very well.

Right?

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So . . . how do I choose what subject to write about in my daily blog? I don't. I usually just sit down at the keyboard and start to type, hoping a subject (or a random group of subjects) will choose me.

Does that appear to be a cop-out?

Too bad.

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”You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.”
--Albert Einstein

Nothing to say . . .

I've decided to stop blogging.

But I could change my mind

at any moment.

Leaving The Nest

My grand-daughter, having graduated from university and having obtained employment is moving into her own apartment today. Leaving the nest, as it were. I have given her some of my furniture and the family will be here with a truck to pick it up shortly. And I have been busily getting the stuff ready for its departure.

So, there is no time for blogging this morning.

Tomorrow, perhaps . . .