Ad Astra!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_astra_(phrase)

I don't know who's going to check this on Christmas, but I thought I'd post anyway. I'm behind on posts as it is. I've been thinking about making two a week until I get caught up. I can't afford to skip a week.

SpaceX landed a rocket this week. I love space, so I was super excited about this. If I could go into space, I'd do it in a heartbeat. Here is the full video of the webcast. The landing's not long after 32:00. A helicopter filmed it, too. That's here. It landed right on the X. Like a boss. ;)

Since the landing was 8:30pm local time, I got to watch it live. It was awesome. It was epic. This was the first time in history anyone has ever launched a rocket to space and landed it back on the ground. Normally, the rockets are thrown away. This will drop the cost of going into space by a huge amount. Here is a post with actual details on the lowering of the costs. They're almost at the bottom of the article.

If SpaceX can reuse rockets for 15 or 20 launches, going into space will become a casual thing. Something to keep an eye out for is an announcement by or some kind of news involving Bigelow Aerospace. No, there's been no word that they're going to announce anything at all. I've just been watching them for years. With lower launch costs coming, I would naturally expect something involving them to happen.

On a more Biblical note, there are interesting verses about space.
Nehemiah 1:9 But if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there.
Matthew 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

The word heavens can mean the atmosphere or the universe in general. An interesting thought comes up. Are pagans allowed into space?
2 Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

If Satan is the god of this world, it implies his authority goes no further this planet. Are his people limited to this planet?

Psalm 115:16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.

When Adam turned over authority to Satan, it doesn't seem to have included anything beyond earth. Would God allow people who don't belong to him to leave earth? Are only God's people allowed to leave earth? Is the moon considered part of earth? It'll be interesting to see how this new SpaceX development plays out. Will the Tribulation be timed to prevent pagans from leaving earth? Or will God arrange events in such a way that his people are the only ones with authority in space? For example, pagans might be allowed to go, but the leaders would only be God's people.

In the book of Daniel, an angel tells Daniel that his answer to prayer was hindered by the forces of Satan. We can assume that happens all the time to greater and lesser degrees. If we go into space, will that hindrance vanish? Since we don't know if the moon is considered to be under the authority of earth, let's talk about Mars. If we went to Mars, would we be able to talk to God face to face or otherwise hear his voice without any hindrance? Would angelic visitations be normal there?

If the devil is bound to earth, Satanic temptation wouldn't exist on Mars. Going there could literally open up a spiritual paradise where man could commune with God free of the hindrances and temptations that are normal on earth.

Even if you're not excited about space, if you're a child of God, the spiritual possibilities of going there should be beyond exciting.

Like a Boss

There was a news article this week that lets us know Putin is a boss. If you're not familiar with the "like a boss" meme, the definition of it is sort of this: "Like A Boss is a catchphrase often used in image macros or GIFs that feature a person completing an action with authority and finesse. Similar to Haters Gonna Hate, the characters in the macros have an air of superiority and do not care how others perceive them."

It originates from an obscene song I've never heard and had never heard of until I searched for the definition. I'm not recommending the song at all.

A few examples of doing things like a boss:
Mugsy the cat slaps alligators like a boss.
This rooster's a boss.
Riding an alligator like a boss.
Trimming bushes like a boss.
Another cat that's like a boss.
Fighting fires like a boss.
Refusing to salute Hitler like a boss.
Parallel parking like a boss.

That's kind of the idea. A cow that eats lunch at a steak restaurant would be a boss. :)
The like a boss meme comes up keeps coming up. It's nearly always funny. This week there was a news story about the way Putin walks. I kid you not. It was a real news story, and it was supposed to be serious. To me it was funny but not because of what it said. If the way Putin walks is actually newsworthy, it means he's a boss. I read down to the KGB training part, and I thought, "Yeah, he walks like a boss."

I'm ignoring the negative news reports about him. I'm not endorsing any of that if it's true. This is about Putin the boss.

Putin the scientist.
Putin the submarine driver.
Putin ahorseback.
Putin the martial artist.
Putin the 8th-degree black belt.
Putin the fisherman.
Putin the hunter.
Putin laughs at a reporter.
Putin: man of action.
Give me back my pen. HAHA The guy he was talking to is a billionaire with a B. Bosses aren't impressed by that.

Putin being cool.
Playing the piano and singing for charity.
Shedding tears at his national anthem.

There's tons of this stuff online. Putin has been in the news quite a bit in the U.S. A lot of it is stories like the one of his riding a horse with no shirt on with 6-pack abs and chiseled muscles. It's funny, but at the same time Putin comes across as a man's man. He's always doing something manly and adventurous. Whatever he's doing, he's doing it like a boss. And, sure, most of that is staged.

Aside from all that, I think he actually is a boss. He's a strong, articulate leader in a time when leadership is sadly lacking in the west. In the U.S. we don't have that kind of strong leadership any more. I could make an argument that Ronald Reagan was the last truly American president. All who have come after him have proven weak. Political correctness is a cancer in American society that saps leadership. I have the impression Russia doesn't have that.

I grew up during the Cold War. Putin reminds me of the old Soviet leaders. I could envision him negotiating with Reagan in the 80s or fighting against Hitler in WWII. Despite the negative press, he has a certain class and statesmanship. He would make a good James Bond.

We need leaders in America like Putin. Not the negative things reported in the press. The good things. Putin is a patriot who loves his country. He works hard. He wants Russia to succeed. He's a statesman. We need leaders like that in America but guided by American values and principles.

From what I've seen, the United States is trying to provoke Russia into a war and possibly WWIII, because Putin is standing in the way of the new world order. My advice to the administration is not to mess with him. He's a boss.

Searching for a Motive?

If I wrote a detective novel, the only reason my investigator would search for a criminal's motive would be if his identity was unknown or if there was a list of suspects. If the investigator had all the facts of the crime, a murder for instance in which the victim was shot in the back multiple times that multiple people witnessed all caught on video, knowing the motive would be irrelevant. The facts would stand on their own merit. In the real world, a criminal's motive isn't always known. Here in the U.S., a lot of murderers take the motive to the grave with them. It's their way of making the family suffer. In those cases the facts spoke loudly and clearly. The motive was irrelevant for the murderer's conviction. Knowing the motive would have been nice but wasn't necessary.

In the time between the Muslim terrorist attack in San Bernardino and the FBI's announcement that it was terrorism, the official story was that they were searching for the "motive" to determine whether it really was terrorism. Finally, at some point it was officially announced that the massacre was indeed an act of terrorism. I never heard a motive other than terrorism. But we already knew it was terrorism. Making it official changed none of the facts of the case.

Let's go back to my detective novel. Imagine me writing a story in which the murder is clearly murder, victim shot multiple times in front of witnesses all caught on camera, but my investigator spends the first half of the book searching for the motive only to declare that the motive was murder. It wouldn't make any sense, would it? That would be a pretty bad story. Imagine that the reason for his search for motive was because his boss ordered him to do it in order to make sure the motive fit a tricky legal definition. That was the reason for the FBI's search for the "motive". They had to make it fit a very narrow legal definition of terrorism that the FBI uses.

Basically, the entire search for motive appears to have been a fictional event presented as reality. The night of the attack the Joint Terrorism Task Force was activated. The JTTF was investigating the event as terrorism the entire time the FBI was "searching for the motive" to determine if the massacre was terrorism or not.

The whole incident should strike fear into Americans. The government suppressed information from the very beginning of the attack. It presented a narrative with holes in it. If there hadn't been so many people involved and so many witnesses, would we ever have officially found out the "motive"? Would it ever have been terrorism, or would it have been whitewashed like Fort Hood?

I haven't heard much from the survivors. It's like they're being encouraged to stay off camera or only say certain things during interviews. I have a huge question that needs answering. Did the terrorists shout allahu akbar during the attack? Because if they did, the "motive" was known within about five minutes of the attack. It took police 4 minutes to reach the scene. Survivors were telling them what happened when they went in the door.

Book Stuff
Despite all the challenges in real life, I've been trying to get the YA spy novel finished. I can see the end in sight. (I've gotten some things done for the next B'vellah War book, too, even a tiny, tiny bit of the first chapter done.) If I can get the ending right on the YA book, I think it's the best book I've done yet. For the Messenger series, I ignored the "rules" and wrote the kind of thing I wanted to read. The unpublished mystery/romance had more of a structure to it. The YA novel has even more to it. All that experience is going into the next B'vellah War book. It feels unbearably delayed, but hopefully it'll be worth it.

Amazon FBA Stuff
I've sold a little bit more, but it's really slow getting off the ground. In January I should be able to afford to import a real product from China. I have a post planned about my first feedback. It was negative, and it wasn't my fault! Amazon had to fix it. It was more hindrance.

Who is the Assyrian?

The other day I mentioned in passing that the anti-Christ could have a Muslim father but didn't have room to explain why I thought that.

I've seen two camps on this on Christian TV. One side of prophecy "experts" believes the anti-Christ will be Muslim. The other "experts" say that he can't possibly be Muslim because Jews will never ever accept a Muslim messiah. There's even a teaching that Islam will be destroyed and be irrelevant in the Tribulation. That's a beautiful thought, but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm not one of the experts, but this is my thinking. Of course, the anti-Christ could be Muslim, and here's how. When Muslims wage jihad, they rape the enemy's women. This is going on in Europe right now. In their minds they're creating more Muslims, because in their culture Muslim identity passes down through the father. Women don't matter to them. They're property like a camel.(Google what happens to American women who marry Arab men and then move to the Middle East. It's not good.)
Because of things like jihad, in Jewish culture Jewish identity is passed down through the mother. The reasoning is that you can't always tell who the father is, but you can always tell who the mother is. In spite of a long, patriarchal history, the father doesn't matter when determining Jewish identity. It's all about the mother. Google "who is a Jew" and take a few years off to read. :)
Neither camp in the prophecy debate seems to know anything about this aspect of Muslim and Jewish culture.

So, the Muslims are looking for the mahdi, their messiah figure. Jews are awaiting the Messiah. A man with a Muslim father and a Jewish mother would match both cultures's expectations. Muslims would focus on his father and know he's a true Muslim. Jews would focus on his mother and know he's Jewish regardless of the father. Imagine a peacemaker who understands both sides. That's how he would be presented to the world: "understands both sides". "If he can't bring peace between the Arabs and the Jews, no one can!" When talking to Muslims, he'd talk to them as a Muslim. When talking to Israelis, he'd speak as a Jew. Both cultures would see what they wanted to and be deceived.

There's a fascinating theory that certain verses with the phrase "the Assyrian" refer to the anti-Christ. These are only found in the KJV. I suspect the anti-Christ will be a Palestinian of Syrian descent.

Micah 5:5-6 And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land: and when he shall tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds, and eight principal men.
And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.

It's too much to go into here, but those are a couple of verses.

Historically, there's no such thing as an Arab Palestinian. Palestine is a Satanic counterfeit for Israel. The anti-Christ is a counterfeit Messiah. One of the Greek meanings of the word anti is "in place of" or in other words a replacement. I think it makes sense that the replacement Messiah would come from Satan's replacement nation.[Psst: Replacement Theology is taught in the "in place of" or anti-church.] And if he's going to be the best counterfeit possible, he will had to have been born in Bethlehem(Micah 5:2), a city with an ample supply of Muslim fathers. Why Bethlehem? Satan has to fulfill as many prophecies as he can. If could fulfill that particular one, the anti-Christ's messianic claim would be far easier. And it would be a slap in God's face.

To sum up, I expect the anti-Christ to be a Palestinian of Syrian descent born in Bethlehem to a Muslim father and Jewish mother. However, this is simply my opinion based on things I've learned over the years. It may not work out exactly that way because the Bethlehem prophecy would take some effort to fulfill, but I expect the Muslim/Jewish parents and some kind of Syrian/Assyrian connection to be there.

True Dreams

Part of my French learning involves watching an episode of C'est Pas Sorcier every day. Or at least listening to it. I don't understand a lot of it, but if they say a word enough times, I can nearly always guess the spelling and look it up. It's really too advanced for me, but I still pick up French usage from it and words like champignon.

YouTube recommends all kind of things to me when I go to the page. If something is interesting and short enough, I might watch it. Or at least listen to it. I listen to more things than I actually watch. And I subscribe to more than I listen to. :) I'm subscribed to dozens of pages I never even listen to. I keep thinking I should go in and unsubscribe from most of them and clean up the list. But anyway. Lately, YouTube's been recommending Christian dream videos, mostly about the rapture or the end times. I got curious and listened to some of them.

If there's a verse that contradicts a dream, it's pretty easy to tell it's bunk. Some of the dreams seem plausible. Some seem like day residue, especially the ones that are about people or events commonly in the news. I kind of think that God is giving some people dreams, and others are reading too much into regular dreams.

Should I tell you about this dream I had one time that was purely day residue? I think it was in the 90s. I dreamt I was on this subway train that had TVs in it all tuned to the same channel. The TVs were spaced at intervals. Above and below me were other trains all set to their own specific channel. It was like you had to stop at the train station and change trains to get to watch a different channel, although I don't remember doing that in the dream. It seemed like a really weird dream until I remembered what I did right before going to bed. I looked through the satellite TV guide. It's horizontal like a train track. The channels are stacked from top to bottom just like the trains in the dream. The programs are listed in half-hour intervals. Basically, the dream was something that had happened during the day reinterpreted into dream imagery. I've noticed that a very great number of dreams are like that.

Even though I haven't watched too many of the videos about the dreams, some people mention other people having dreams from God all the time. Dreams from God are biblical, but... All the time? In my own life, if God does something unusual, it turns out later that it's because I needed it to make it through some kind of terrible suffering. God just doesn't pour miracles and such into my life. If he shows up in an unusual and visible way, my reaction these days is "Argh! What kind of suffering am I going to need to know that for?"

When religious figures on TV talk about supernatural manifestations they've had or God showing up as a ball of light in their hotel room, for example, or telling them something in an audible voice, without talking about a tremendous test or trial that accompanied it, I tend to assume they're lying. I've seen one person who said that when God showed up, it meant some kind of suffering was coming. That guy was real. You don't get ark plans without a flood on the way.

God doesn't send me a bunch of dreams like some of the videos talk about. While listening, it was hard not to be skeptical. That kind of thing doesn't happen to me, I was thinking. But wait. Maybe it's just not very common. Do you remember the dream Marion had in Grandtown about Deirdre? A broken moon is still beautiful. That was a real dream I had about a real person I know who was raped and never really recovered from it. I didn't change any of it except the names and calling angels Divine Messengers. I put it in the book just like I dreamed it. The room of learning. The angel above the bus I couldn't see but knew was there. The dialogue. The cul-de-sac. The angel driving the bus was the only time I ever mentioned someone's skin color in the whole series. It's because that's who he was in the dream. And no, Deirdre wasn't based on that person from real life.

It was a strong dream. I knew it was from God, and he was telling me something. Now that I think about it, that person did cause me a lot of suffering later on. I hadn't made that connection until now. Hmm. Anyway, I ended up putting it in one of the books because it felt like the kind of thing that could help someone who needed to hear it. A broken moon is still beautiful.

Who is Daesh?

Last Friday I'd planned to sit down and finish this French book I've been reading that's been taking forever. I was wrapping things up online first when I saw there was a series of terrorist attacks underway in Paris. I still haven't finished that book.

It was weird. While the situation was still ongoing, Obama immediately came forward saying not to jump to conclusions about who was behind the attacks. I assume he also worked behind the scenes to block NATO's involvement. It would turn out that Daesh(pronounced dah esh) was behind it. They had a busy week. Paris. The Russian airliner. Lebanon. They make about $1mil a day in black market oil revenue. They can fund a lot of terrorism.

Before NATO didn't get involved and before Hollande requested EU involvement, I pondered what would happen next. The conclusion was that France had to go to war. Not a few bombs dropped but a real war with troops on the group. Daesh has its own country. The maps on that page are from last year, but they convey the general idea. They're tied down. They can be invaded and defeated. Not invading their country would be the end of France, whose existence is already at risk.

I thought about the Gog and Magog war and the Psalm 83 war and the destruction of Damascus in Isaiah 17. They're all waiting in the wings and look a lot closer. Some people think WWIII has already started. Hmm. I'm not willing to go there. It depends on who helps Daesh and who is helping them behind the scenes. Who funded their rise to power until they could seize the oil fields? If there's an invasion, will Muslim countries ally with Daesh and fight the EU?

I had more interesting thoughts than WWIII. When Daesh first declared a caliphate, I thought of Revelation 16:10:

And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

The anti-Christ will have his own kingdom. Caliphate is another word for a kingdom. Assuming the anti-Christ has a Muslim father(too big a topic for this blog), it's reasonable to think that the caliphate is being prepared for him to rule. If that's true, then Daesh cannot be defeated. Somehow in some way, events will conspire to ensure the continued existence of the caliphate. So far nothing's been able to stop them. Their country is small, but it keeps existing, when it would be easy to wipe out.

Who is Daesh? Are we witnessing the rise of the kingdom in Revelation 16:10? We'll have to keep watching and see how it all plays out. Even if their leaders are defeated in a war and removed from power, the caliphate could still survive. That's what I want to know, whether the caliphate survives and becomes more than a group of desert barbarians. I want to see if a peacemaker emerges to rule the caliphate.

Slogging Through Mud

Last Friday I did the first time ever free promo for Call to Selah. I might do one for books 3 and 4 next week and the week after and see what happens. The problem with promos is I don't have enough reviews to run them on a promo site yet. The people who find my promos are random. To do the really good promos, I need reviews. To get reviews, I need the really good promos.

I found a camera I could sell for $90 profit. Amazon won't let me sell it. The same with the $35 profit one. Lumix DMC-FZ70 for $175. Sells on Amazon for $297.99. It has a good sales rank, too, and not a lot of sellers.

I had another sale this week. The bad news is it came out of the handful of non-software items I sent in. None of the software has sold. None. Remember the one I mentioned last week I hoped would be my best seller that didn't show up in any of my searches and ended up not having a good price? I found out the reason. It wasn't showing up in searches at all. I submitted a help ticket. It shows up now but is listed as unavailable. People can't look at the sellers for it. Apparently, I need to do another ticket, although they're supposed to be working on it. However, there might be a silver lining. The item just like it that has a different cover was ranked #688 in Software last time I checked. If they get mine fixed, I could advertise it and hopefully get the sales rank up, get the low-priced ones sold out and then sell it at a higher price like the #688 one.

All of the software I have for sale have decent sales ranks. They're just not selling. Part of it could be that I'm a new seller without feedback yet. But I think the problem is that sales rank means different things for different categories. A 3,000 rank in one category might be a steady seller while in another category 3,000 is a slow seller. Maybe trying to sell software is a mistake. Or maybe it just takes longer to sell. I wouldn't care too much about how long it takes if Amazon didn't charge $39.99/month to let me sell things. My plan was to put the shipment up for sale and concentrate on writing the rest of the year. Now I'm forced to either find more inventory or not worry about losing money for a while.

I found a particular type of computer memory that seems to sell fairly well. I might import about 20 of them from China. The problem is it feels like a gamble. If it sold, great, my Amazon fees are covered, and I make money. If it didn't, then it would be just like the software.

I don't have health insurance. This is the year the Obamacare penalty jumps up. I have to get some kind of extra revenue coming in. I could use some prayer. :)

Up and Running

November is the month the Messengers web site comes due. While trying to find a way to use it as a forwarder to the blog instead of a full site and save some money, I rediscovered that I can have a second web site for no additional hosting fee. I vaguely remembered it from when I set it up, but I'd forgotten the details. I'd have to pay $24.99 a year to register another site. That includes a privacy fee that hides my home address. To make that site a business site, I'd need to upgrade my plan, which would cost a couple of dollars more a month. Basically, for about $50 more a year, I could launch a business site for the company and process sales that way with no Amazon fees. I've been thinking about dropping the Messengers site altogether and saving the money. Now I'll keep it around and work out the accounting later so the business pays the hosting fee and I pay the $24.99 yearly registration for the Messengers site.

How's the business going? Tuesday I shipped 52 items to Amazon. They made me split the shipment into two boxes, one for Delaware and one for California. Shipping was $12.15 total, which breaks down to just over 23 cents per item. There were three of this chess game not eligible for Prime. I may list them for merchant fulfilled if I can make the profit work. I'd need to buy a case of bubble mailers. The business can afford it, but I want to get some sales first and expand. My goal is to have the business pay for itself, although just getting started makes that not possible yet.

There's some bad news. A 5-pack of a game I hoped would be my best seller turned out to have a listing that didn't come up in any of my searches for it. It only appeared when I scanned the bar code to add it to my Amazon inventory. Some other extra or missing listings occurred for other items, but it was no big deal for those. When I was initially researching the 5-pack, one main listing showed up, a version that Amazon sells with a great sales rank of 1600+. The listing for my versions said "Currently unavailable". My plan was to make it available and skim sales off Amazon's with a slightly cheaper price. Not any more. The price on the surprise listing is several dollars less than it should be. Automatically, about $44 of the profit I was hoping for seems gone. The good news is that I can use the bar code scanner for searches just like a mouse or keyboard to try to avoid this happening again. Assuming I have the UPC code, of course.

To make the kind of profit I need, I need to buy things by the pallet. It turns out pallets ship on trucks with a lift gate that looks something like this. I'd have to have a forklift to remove the pallet. Or something cheap like a pallet truck or a straddle stacker. For storage I'd need something similar to this. A metal building is another option. A concrete foundation would cost extra. Once I made enough, I could get a cheap pallet truck and get by without the building for a while by putting a pallet or two on the porch. Not elegant, but it would work.

Remember the missing shipment to Amazon that never went on sale? Yesterday I submitted a ticket. It was answered automatically. "We have confirmed that the following units are missing from the fulfillment center..." and "We've initiated a reimbursement of $14.92 for the missing units." Initiated does not mean made. It means started the investigation process.
I had two items in the shipment: a Barbie learning game and an ACT study guide listed for a combined price of $26.54. After subtracting all costs, I'd have made $4.17, assuming they sold. The reimbursement gives me a profit of $3.23. Today they credited me the $14.92.

I don't know if it was because of the missing shipment, but Amazon processed my Delaware package last night. It only arrived yesterday around noon. It's supposed to take 24 to 48 hours up to 72 hours to process and longer during the holiday season like we're in now. I have 41 items for sale minus one that sold today. First sale! It's not listed as sold yet, but it should be within 48 hours, if the buyer doesn't cancel for some weird reason. Profit's about $3.42. Between the reimbursement and the sale, shipping charges are all covered, even for the missing one. I should see a small deposit.

The California box of 11 items should arrive Tuesday.

Mechanical Failure

My small shipment to Amazon that was delivered the 14th has still not been processed. I don't know if it's because of the holidays or not. Before I bought a lot of things, I wanted to use that as a test to see if the shipping credit offset any of the fees. If nothing happens by Monday, I might submit a help ticket, even if it is the holidays. I shipped it under the name of the company I couldn't use for legal reasons. After that I changed it to my name. Maybe that's throwing them off.

I finally found some things to sell to get the business off the ground! It's some older software. Including shipping, the cost was $45.20 for 50 pieces. If it all sells, the net profit would be in the $150 range. It depends on how much sells and whether any prices will have to be reduced and when things actually sell. I expect some items might take months. It's a mixture of educational type programs and a few games. Not the bad, violent games mothers warn about. Choosing what to sell involved moral choices.

One of the problems with building an inventory is that I'm constantly faced with moral choices. The cheapest and easiest things to sell always seem to be things I know God wouldn't want me involved in. The main one is Disney products. The people at Disney aren't known for being moral, if you know what I mean. They use lobbyists. I have to assume some of what they're lobbying for violates Biblical principals and actively fights against Christians. Supporting them is basically funding the persecution of Christians. Morally, I can't be involved in selling things from that company. The same goes for a certain type of movie or book, etc.

I had a chance to buy a 200-item lot of Christmas movies for 35 cents each. Most of it was Rudolph and Miracle on 34th Street type things. But at least one title I wasn't comfortable with. Since it was a bulk lot, I didn't have the choice of rejecting individual titles. The profit would have been enormous. Pay 35 cents. Sell for $9.98. Even after fees, it would have been awesome. Spiritually, I couldn't go there.

If you're a regular reader, you've heard me mention spiritual hindrances in my life. The inventory I was supposed to get today via UPS was delayed. The message: "A mechanical failure has delayed delivery. We're adjusting plans to deliver your package as quickly as possible. / Delivery will be rescheduled." I've never had anything delayed by mechanical failure. The truck broke down? The truck crashed? UPS delivered my barcode scanner. It's not very useful without inventory.

As I was typing, an email came in. My delivery is rescheduled for Monday. I hope my box wasn't injured.

Getting up and running and profitable looks like it's going to take longer than I'd hoped. However, I've seen a silver lining. The shipment coming in Monday took me an evening to put together. I had to go through hundreds(?) of titles, check the cost, check the profit, check the sales rank and put an order together. It took hours to get it all done. Later on, it suddenly hit me that depending on sales I was making $100 to hopefully $150ish for one evening's work. I need to build up the finances to be able to do that and more all the time. That's my goal: to duplicate that evening over and over with more profitable merchandise.

Parting the Red Sea

There's some good news. The computer problem I was having where I'd press the power button but it would immediately shut down is gone. Yay!

I've been looking for a product to private label. I found a possibility in the computer area. While doing a little research for it, I accidentally came across some headphones selling for $37.25 shipped, limit two per customer. They sell for $109 on Amazon with Amazon selling them for $137. Profit per pair would have been about $50. However, money is tight trying to get the business off the ground. If I'd bought some of those, it would've meant delays in buying something in bulk that might be better to sell in the long run. Remember that first little shipment I sent to Amazon the other day? It's still not processed for sale. I decided to pray about the headphones and try to pin down a price on the product in the computer area. I was finding ranges of prices and not a concrete price.

While I was praying and looking, the headphones sold out. It was depressing. Eventually, I thought of Moses at the parting of the sea. They reached the sea, and Moses starting praying about what to do instead of doing something. This is how God responded.

Exodus 14:15 And the LORD said to Moses, Why cry you to me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.

I've already been praying about the business and praying for opportunities. When a really awesome one arrived, instead of going forward I ended up praying and missed out. It seems that there's a time for prayer and a time to simply go forward.

The computer product costs $12 per piece plus shipping and a minimal cost for retail packaging if I want that done for me. There might be a little extra cost involved that I haven't accounted for, but it would be minimal. The retail price on Amazon is about $40. After all the fees the profit's about $28. It's not something that would sell tons and tons. It's something that sells steadily. The problem is I'd have to order 50 units at a cost of $600 plus the packaging and shipping, etc. The headphones would have been the right thing to do, but you can see how the profit on the other item is higher overall. Nevertheless, I think next time I might go with what's in front of me as a certainty instead of waiting for the "perfect" opportunity.

Coffee's pretty easy to get into. For about $300 I could order the first shipment of my own brand. Or tea. The profit's low, though.

Setback City

Getting the business off the ground is proving to be nearly impossible. I'd planned to buy a couple of cases of two different products when the business debit card arrived. It got here early. Both products sold out that same day before I could get home to make the purchases. It was discouraging.

A site that sells overstock goods had a partial pallet of new electronics equipment. I decided to try that instead. I made a spreadsheet to figure out the profit. After cost of goods, shipping costs and Amazon fees, I would've made something like $50 or less with no guarantees of selling it all and no guarantees that the retail prices wouldn't fall and turn the profit into a loss. I looked at another partial pallet of laptop coolers for Macs and did a spreadsheet. After all the costs and fees, that one would lose about $130 with no chance at all for a profit. It was discouraging.

It turns out that once I start selling things I have only 30 days to file a Doing Business As(DBA) form. I went to the county courthouse to get the form. They don't have them. They said a lawyer does that, then the courthouse files it. The state doesn't have them online. I can't find one anywhere. Various web sites will file one for me, but the fees are too high. After a lot of struggling trying to find a way to pay for it, I finally decided not to use the business name. If I use my own name, I don't have to file anything or incorporate or do anything special or pay anything. It's discouraging. I wanted to open up my Amazon store with the business name and slowly build a brand name. It's actually cheaper to start an LLC, but I would automatically need legal and tax advice for that.

I found some Sony MDR10RBT wireless headphones for $88.50 a pair. On Amazon they sell for $199. After all the fees and shipping, the profit would be around $70. However, I'm not allowed to sell them in New condition. Amazon sells them and artificially keeps the price high. The last time they sold on Ebay was last month for $129. A bunch are for sale there now. I have no interest in selling on Ebay, but I had to look just in case. Not being able to sell this brought some discouragement. I found other products like this that I'm also not allowed to sell. Apparently, certain electronics are extremely profitable.

Is there any good news? Almost. I stumbled onto a product I could sell. I spent a lot of time researching how to manufacture it at home. It appeared that I could simply import the raw material from its native country, import plastic containers from China to hold it and seal the containers with an induction sealer. At the last second I compared the ingredients on the two main sellers. They're identical, which tells me both of them are using private labeling from the same company. It also tells me that there's more processing that would have to be done to the raw material than there appeared to be if I wanted to compete with the top two sellers. It was kind of discouraging.
However, I was able to find two companies in the country of origin that do private labeling for that product. Sadly, both have minimum requirements that I can't meet right now. But it would be a product I'd be happy to sell once I was able to.

I'm seeing hindrances at almost every turn. Those two wholesale items selling out the same day I was going to buy them was especially noticeable. Are the roadblocks from God or the devil? I can't tell. My whole life's hindered in some way. This is pretty normal. Blessings seem to come in drabs and dribbles while the obstructions look like mountains. It's not all bad, though. I'm learning a lot without making disastrous mistakes. Right at the last second, the hidden flaws have become apparent before I could commit to a failing course. Maybe the breakthrough is right around the corner.

Trying To Move Forward

Remember the problem I mentioned the other day about my computer in which it sometimes wouldn't start up when I hit the power button? It's still there. The emergency Windows patch didn't fix it. It was probably for something else. I don't know what's causing it, but it seems pretty benign so far. I'm going to live with it for now.

I'm still trying to get the business off the ground. Monday I was able to open a business checking account. I'm still waiting on the debit card for it. Two days after I opened it I got a pre-approved credit card application in the mail. That was kind of funny.
I ordered a free business shipping sampler from the post office. I'm still waiting on that.
I got a shipping scale from Amazon. I weighed and sent my first shipment to them to be fulfilled by them instead of my having to mail things. It was only a couple of items to see how things are going to work in practice. If the items sell at current prices, the profit would be about $6. It depends on how the fees and credits are applied. The fees are straightforward. Before doing too much in the way of purchasing, I need to see how the shipping credit works and whether it cancels out some of the fees and how it works with Fulfillment by Amazon. I've read their pages for how it's supposed to work, but you know. I need to see it in action.

One thing's clear. I technically don't have enough money to start a business. Sourcing products where I live has proven extremely difficult. My best option is to order bulk lots online(shipping costs to me then on to Amazon), but that tends to take bulk cash, although not always. I could use some serious prayer for this. I can't afford to make a mistake. I've found some things I could buy, but the profit margins make me uncomfortable. Plus, the sales ranks are merely okay instead of great. Most of what I'm seeing is more suitable for a retail location than selling online. Not to mention I still need to buy most of the shipping supplies I need. It's a little overwhelming and feels like too many closed doors in the way. To make this work, things have to begin smoothly and profitably. It really comes down to handing it over to the Lord and trusting.

I have a business name picked out, but I can't reveal it until I file the paperwork to make it official. That costs over $300 and is on the back burner. I need to make a lot of profit to afford that. My first shipment is headed to Maryland. It could take a week to get there and be processed. Time to sell is indefinite.

Starting a Small Business

How many times have I said on here that I'm not rich or not made of money? Sadly, it's still true. However, I'm going to try to change that. I've been looking into selling things on Amazon and considering the possibility of opening a local store. I can't afford a store, and it doesn't make sense at the present. But later on, if I had enough inventory laying around, it might. I've been looking at buying things by the lot. I couldn't do that long-term without developing the need for a storage facility. At that point I might want to look at a location that could store things in a back warehouse and sell them out front. That would be down the road and take a lot of thought.

Without going into all the details, it makes sense right now to start a small, part-time business. My general plan is to sell used books and new wholesale products until I can afford to incorporate. If all that goes well, the plan would be to start my own brand of products or use private labeling. One future possibility I'm thinking about is a jacket that's not cold. I can't seem to find one that's comfortable and warm and can keep the wind out and looks nice. Maybe that's a niche I could fill. It's a thought.

I have $2 in inventory so far. I found a $2 book that sells for around $13 on Amazon. There's more where that one came from. Before I can list it, I need some shipping supplies. Next week looks like ordering a few supplies and a case or two of wholesale products and looking at a tax ID number besides my social security number.

If I can be successful with a small business, I could afford professional editing for the books and real covers and perhaps a little advertising.

Potluck

Sudoku: for those times when you have the urge to work math problems.
I saw a Do You Sudoku? puzzle book and the thought hit me that basically it's a book of math problems disguised as entertainment. Of course, one of the holy grails of education is trying to make it fun so people will enjoy learning things. I wonder if the people who do sudoku puzzles ever have the thought that they're voluntarily doing something they probably hated in school. I think that's funny. I bet they won't come out with a word problems puzzle book.

If sudoku puzzler A can work one puzzle in five minutes, and sudoku puzzler B can work a puzzle in ten minutes, and puzzler A is on a hyperloop train from Chicago to Atlanta traveling 400 mph while puzzler B is on a hyperloop train from Atlanta to Chicago traveling 550 mph, who can solve the most puzzles?

That's the kind of puzzle they won't have in the word problem book. Why? Because it's a double trick question. There's no hyperloop between Atlanta and Chicago. If there were, it would travel closer to 760 mph. I didn't even give the distance. bwahahaha

So, John Boehner announced his resignation today. He'll be quitting his speaker of the house position, and next month he'll be quitting congress. All this after meeting with the pope yesterday. Apparently, that was the tipping influence in the decision. My first thought was that something happened in the spiritual realm, and it can't be good. I don't really care for Boehner. Both parties are corrupt. 

Anyway, the pope has been turning Catholicism from a religious organization into a political one. As I've mentioned before, he's been running around the world like he's campaigning for something. Now he's in the U.S. making political speeches that insult America. ' "selfish and boundless thirst" for profit' '"selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity"' The last quote was from something he said in Paris but was in the article. I have an idea. If he really believes all that, then he should stop the Catholic church from accepting donations, because the people giving them probably aren't working out of boundless, selfless enjoyment. He should also stop wielding political power and go back to Rome and read the Bible some. If he really believes what's he's telling other people to do, that is. He probably doesn't believe what he's ordering others to do applies to him, though.
Anyway, the pope is a force for darkness in the world. The Boehner thing is disturbing.  Something happened spiritually, and it can't be good.

On the computer front. Last night I hit the power button. The computer started to come on then just stopped. I tried again with the same results. I thought maybe I didn't depress it all the way. I was standing up bent down. I had a piece of cork board overhanging the button a little. I moved it back, and pressed the button firmly. The PC started normally and worked fine all evening. Today it didn't start the first time I pressed the button. Does it make me want to cry? Kind of. However, there was an emergency Windows patch today that forced the computer to reboot. I've never had a patch that did that. Maybe that will fix it.

Things have been slow on the writing front, but I got a lot of research done.

They're Back

Work on the next book continues, though it feels like progress is barely creeping along. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. In other news, I bought a Tesla this week. Not the super-expensive electric car, the Hot Wheels toy. I'd like to have an electric car one day. Not because of the environment, which is doing fine, but because of future oil prices. We've been seeing a nice downward move recently that can't last forever. At some point demand will skyrocket, and gas will be exorbitantly priced once again. The toy is on my desk as motivation and a symbol of the goal.

Something disturbing is back.

What do you suppose is two aisles down from this? The Halloween aisle. And on the other side of the Halloween aisle is the Thanksgiving section. Will there come a time when holiday things will be on sale year round? Only 97 days until Christmas.

Something else arrived this week that I haven't seen in while. Lynx is back! He's a stray cat that I was feeding for a while until he disappeared in June or July. I've been wondering if he was dead. Last Friday the weather turned cooler and less humid after a mini heat wave. Fall is firmly here. Maybe mice are becoming fewer and farther between. Some call cats like Lynx feral cats. I call them kitties who have fallen on hard times.

Blessings

I've had a couple of blessings lately.

There's a new dollar store about five minutes from where I live. The size is a little larger than usual. It's almost a miniature version of Walmart and carries all kinds of things with shelves so tall they have signs on them saying to get an employee for help. The cheapest "grocery store" here is Walmart, which is about 30 minutes away. Even if the dollar store is 5 or 10 cents higher on some things, the $4+ savings on gas covers it. Some items area actually cheaper. It doesn't make sense to grocery shop there, but for certain things it saves a trip and makes life a little easier.

I've mentioned my cell phone woes before. I finally have a new cell phone that works indoors at home. I was with someone at the new dollar store who insisted I look at cell phones. They don't carry phones for my cell phone company. It seemed like a waste of time, but I looked anyway. Apparently they were dumping inventory, because they had an LG Optimus Fuel for $9. I didn't know if my company would let me use, but I took the chance and it worked. Though not uber, the stats are decent. Android 4.4, 1.2GHz dual-core cpu, 3.5" screen, 1.79GB internal storage, camera. For $9 it's awesome.

I've been a little sidetracked doing some genealogy. I had my DNA tested a while back and have discovered several branches of Jenkins that didn't know about each other. At first it was two of us. The others slowly showed up over time. A researcher from a newly found branch in the Ohio/Indiana area made a breakthrough on the Kentucky/Tennessee branch that puts them living the same place on the South Carolina/North Carolina border as my family around 1800. Based on that and the DNA results we already had, I was able to infer that my Jenkins were much more Jewish back then than I thought, although I'd feel more confident if the paper trail would catch up to the DNA. DNA's nice, but sometimes you have to see it in writing.

Despite the sidetrack, I've combined the chapters I wrote while the computer was down to the rest of the book. The minor character's name in the beginning of the book that I couldn't remember to save my life? Vicky. That was bugging me so much. I've gone through the whole thing now and am ready to push on to the end.

All my books are exclusive to Amazon right now. I don't know if this is a big announcement, but that's got to stop. It's getting me nowhere. I made a Smashwords account. If I can get the books converted to how they like it, that would put me on Apple, Barnes and Noble, etc., and I'd still be on Amazon. My exclusivity period ends in November. I have plenty of time to learn what I have to do, get the books formatted and think about what I'm doing without rushing into it. Once that happens, I'll talk more about it.

Hey, Cortana

Remember that Microsoft program I had to uninstall Windows 10 for the first time, because it required IE 6 to run and wasn't compatible? I was looking through the program list and saw it. I clicked it. It works now. Mostly. It starts up and runs, but if I close it and try to restart it, for a little while it says it's still running. During the time my computer was down, they fixed it. After I bought software to replace it. mmhmm

Windows 10 is unfinished. The core is there, but not everything works yet. It's kind of a beta and certainly a step down from Windows 7. Why get it? Because it's free now but only free for a year. After that I guess it's $199. If you don't absolutely have to have it, it might be better to wait a little while for them to bring it up to speed.

However, Windows 10 has one redeeming feature: Cortana. It's an artificial intelligence program kind of like Siri or Amazon's Alexa. I wish it was named something besides Cortana or that I could change the name. Now that the computer problems have settled down, I activated the program. I have a lapel mic I bought a while back to make YouTube videos with. I use that to talk to it, although I may get a cheap desktop mic.

I asked it, What's your favorite color? It said, Right now, it's coffee. With Cream.
I asked it if it likes cats.

It's not so much what it said but how it said it Same thing on the coffee answer. Microsoft used a voice actress for the voice. So far, it tends to be emotionally neutral unless you ask it something silly. Then it has some personality and a sense of humor.

To use it, I have to say, "Hey, Cortana," followed by a command. I imagine that could get old after a while. I think people with Amazon Echo just say Alexa and the command.

I've barely started using it, but I like it. I have it open programs for me. It's faster than digging through the Start menus trying to find Calculator or Windows Update. That thing buried in Control Panel you need? It can find it and tell you the formal name of it. It opens the programs in the background. If I have my word processor open and want to search for something, I can say it, and it's out of sight until I need it.

I use it to go to web sites instead of typing in the address. It does web searches, too. It's pretty good about understanding me. A few times I've gotten in a hurry and mangled the pronunciation of a word. When I've done that, it knew what I meant anyway. From the context, I suppose, which is a nice level of sophistication. The only problem with searching is it uses Bing instead of Google. Sometimes that's okay, but Google is so much better.

I tried to make it go to duolingo.com. It sent me to eidos.com the first time. When you talk to it, it shows you at the bottom of the Cortana window what it thinks you've said. When I said duolingo, it showed duolingo but sent me to the other site instead. The next time it got it right. That was after I went there manually. I don't know if it "learned" from me or not. It's supposed to do that and become more tailored to you over time.

I don't use the Reminders feature in Windows. Cortana makes it easy. As a test, I set a reminder yesterday to watch the Georgia Tech game. They won. You're supposed to replace your toothbrush every three months, but three months later I usually don't remember it exactly on the date. I just got a new one. Cortana made me a reminder for December 1 to buy a new toothbrush. :)

There's a Cortana phone app. Something I'm interested in is using it to turn lights off and on. During the winter when it's dark, it would be neat to tell it to turn on the lights when I get home. It's supposed to learn your schedule and do things like that for you.

I guess I'm kind of rambling. Except for the name, I'm liking Cortana. I can't wait to see what features they add to it. There's a Messengers book set in the future about the time Kayley went to to save the miners. In that book everyone has a personal AI. They say its name and give it commands. Cortana's like a primitive version of that. That book has some spoilers about Aethan Lightbringer, so it'll have to come out later. Plus, it's not finished.

PC Update 5: The Empire Strikes Back

Last night
So, it looked like the computer was shipshape. Everything was working fine. But I noticed that Windows wasn't "Activated". I had my product key. I wasn't concerned and ignored it at first. However, one of the updates to Windows 10, since my PC crashed, was supposed to be(It's not ready yet.) the ability to change the window colors from white, #windowsalbino, to something real. I tried that. It wouldn't let me because it wasn't activated. The activation thing suddenly became serious. I put in my product key. Windows 10 doesn't accept Windows 7 keys, I guess. It said the product key was blocked or something like that. I didn't know if it was really blocked, or if it was just blocked from use on Windows 10. I did buy the computer used after all. It really could think it's blocked but hopefully not, since I now own the original equipment. The Microsoft solution? Ask me for $199. No. No. No.

It turns out that if you change the motherboard on an OEM installation Microsoft wants you to buy Windows again and deliberately breaks the installation. They consider you to have a "new" computer. Unless...the motherboard is defective. Which mine absolutely was, right? Totally, no doubt about it. That little stinker was bad from the factory. I could feel it. And a Google search found there actually is a known manufacturing defect with my motherboard. Case closed.

I contacted Microsoft and explained my situation to Kapil via online chat. There was a long pause every time after I hit the enter button. After a few times of that, I could sense Kapil copying and pasting my comments into Google Translate, which is an awesome service by the way. I use it all the time for French when I drift out of the shallow end of the pool. It knows more words than my Larousse French dictionary.

Kapil couldn't help me. He suggested what I'd already searched and found. I needed to uninstall Windows 10 and reinstall Windows 7 from scratch, preferably on a clean hard drive. What he was supposed to do was give me a new key because of my tragically defective motherboard. Unfortunately, by the time we got to the end of the conversation, he couldn't remember what I'd told him at the beginning. I thanked him and left.

I decided to uninstall Windows 10 and see if I could sneak my product key into Windows 7. It's not supposed to work but why not try? All roads seemed to lead to uninstalling anyway. Something bad happened. When I uninstalled 10 before, it was pretty smooth because of a bug. It got stuck, and I had to restart the machine. It was very fast. This time it took forever, and Win7 defaulted to the old motherboard settings. It wiped all my internet connection info and my monitor info, etc. All my programs seemed fine, but I couldn't get online to run an update.
And Windows 7 was really giving me a hard time about not being activated. It started at a black screen demanding I access the internet through this special browser window and kept me there a while before starting Windows. How could I connect to the internet to activate if it wouldn't let me access my settings? Even if I'd been online, Windows Update won't work on an unactivated computer.

I tried to set up a new network connection. Nothing. Somewhere along the way while trying to get the settings right, I went to the activation page and put in my possibly "blocked" product key. Since I was trapped offline, it wasn't blocked at all. heh heh heh Is the key somehow claimed by the corporation that leased the computer before I bought it and actually is blocked? I guess we'll never know.

Remember that wifi hotspot I bought in case I lose internet connection again? I also got a cheap USB wireless adapter at the same time. I didn't need the hotspot, but I was able to use the adapter to get online wirelessly and get the network settings I needed to get my normal ethernet connection working.

I was back online. Windows 7 said it was truly and properly Activated. I downloaded Windows 10. For the third time. It took forever, another wasted night fighting Windows. Since 7 was activated, 10 updated with no problems just like it did before I replaced the motherboard. It says it's activated. I'm anticipating good things.

PC Update 4: The Final Chapter

In the last computer update, I forgot to mention that the emergency computer didn't want to start over the weekend. At one point I had to restart it several times to get it to load Windows.

The last part, the heatsink/fan combo, arrived today. I had a little anxiety with the new motherboard. It didn't have a connector for an EIDE HD, just SATA. I couldn't remember if the one I'd bought for the sick computer was IDE or SATA. Fortunately, it was SATA.

I got the HD and DVD burner transferred from the sick computer to the new case and all the cables hooked up. After all the failures, I took a break and prayed for it. I came back and hit the button. The lights came on. The fans started up. They're exceptionally quiet, especially compared to the jet engine sound of the emergency one. I breathed a sigh of relief. Then the fans stopped. It was so much like when the sick computer tried to start up but never went to POST.

Shocked. Flabbergasted. Bumfuzzled. I tried to get my brain to figure out what in the world could possibly still be wrong. It didn't make sense. Then the fans restarted, and it booted up. I looked at the BIOS and then let Windows 10 start. Remember in the last post I mentioned that a foreseeable problem would be Windows freaking out about the new motherboard? It didn't happen. Windows became cautious but was able to deal with it.

Updating Windows took about 2 hours. Running through 2.5 weeks worth of email took a long time, too. I still have some I haven't opened. I had to update and balance my checkbook. I'm pretty much caught up.

I'd planned to uninstall Windows 10. However, since it didn't fry the new motherboard and seems to be behaving except for one bug, I've decided to allow it to live. For now.

Yay! The computer's working again!

PC Update 3

The computer that's sick is an HP Compaq. It's their motherboard and case. The CPU setup is unusual. Instead of the heatsink fan being on the heatsink, it's off to the side. A plastic funnel attaches to the fan and funnels air over the heatsink. The normal way it's done is to attach the fan directly to the heatsink either on the side or the top. I've never had a fan that wasn't attached to the top of the heatsink. To accommodate the HP design, their motherboard is clear of obstructions between the fan and the heatsink.

I thought I had everything to put the new parts together in a new case to get the computer working again, but the HP heatsink won't work, because I can't connect the funnel to it. The memory is in the way on one side. The video card is in the way on the other. The other two sides are the walls of the case. I had to order a heatsink/fan combo that fits the motherboard. It's not expensive. There's some good news. It was supposed to get here Tuesday. Amazon is telling me now it'll be here tomorrow.

If I can get it up and running with no more problems, I'll be able to check my main email for the first time in two and a half weeks.

After all the problems already, what could possibly go wrong? Windows might freak out at the new motherboard. I had that happen a long time ago and can't remember what I did. I think I had to reinstall in the end. But that's been a while. Let's hope the new Windows is smarter.

Did I mention I had to use a metal cutter to make the small form factor video card fit the new regular size case? I didn't? Yes, that's what I had to do. I had to cut out this strip of metal. It worked. The video card fits just fine. Oh sure, I can't screw it in place, but it fits perfectly.

The Final Piece

The emergency computer froze during boot up one day, but it's been okay since then considering its age and quirks. The freeze was a warning sign, though.

The last piece I need to fix my computer is "On Vehicle for Delivery Today". It's coming UPS and is supposed to arrive some time before dark.

As I was reading my Bible this week, I had an idea for a vampire story. The passage was in 2 Kings 5 where Naaman was cured of his leprosy and afterward wanted a mule team's load of earth to take home with him. I wondered why he wanted the dirt. What was he going to use it for? Obviously, he wasn't a vampire who needed to sleep in his native soil at night. Besides, he was from Aram. I suppose he wanted to make a place to pray or worship God or something like that. Or maybe it was for some kind of memorial or witness about his miracle. It made me think about vampires, and then the idea struck. I wrote it down just in case. I don't have time for something like that right now, and I don't really do vampire stuff. But it's an idea I haven't heard before. Maybe it could be a novella or short story.

The pace has slowed, but I've still been working on the next book. It's the YA one about the girl trapped in a virtual reality spy game. I think I have the opening sentence for the book after that. It would be about her dad, but he wouldn't be trapped. He plays mysteries. These books would be stand alone rather than a series and might just be two or three books. But there's no time for that right now either. I'm hoping to get the YA rough draft done in a few weeks, especially if I can get my computer running again and have my wiki back and stuff like that.

The goal is to get the next B'vellah War book out before the end of the year. Though not as bad as last year, the obstacles this year haven't been fun. I'm way way behind where I wanted to be by now. As foreshadowed in the first book, the war is a few years off. The next book would begin closer to then and not right after the ending of the first book. It feels really risky to do it that way. It seems like a big gap. However, the Calliope novella would fit nicely between books one and two. I'm not sure when I would be able to get to that. Once the YA book is done, I want to do books 2 and 3 of the B'vellah War back to back.

I could always use prayer and would appreciate it.

PC Update 2

When last we left me, my computer was in a coma. The lights would come on, but it wouldn't boot. The problem looked like the motherboard...

The thermal paste arrived yesterday. The new CPU arrived today. It took a while, but I finally got the thermal grease applied per manufacturer's oddball instructions, the heatsink turned the right way*coughcough* and everything put back together. I prayed for it and hit the power button. The lights come on, but nothing happens.

Last week I said, "although the motherboard could be damaged in some way, but I don't think it is." Apparently, I was wrong. Well, theoretically, there could be something weird going on with the power supply? But I don't think there is. ;) I looked at new power supplies just in case. I didn't see one that fit my HP Compaq 8200 small form factor case.

What now? I can try a new motherboard. Option one: get a manufacturer replacement for this HP Compaq one. I wonder how much that would cost. Option 2: get a new one altogether that's compatible with the memory and peripherals I have plugged in. I'm leaning toward option 2. I've wanted a new power supply anyway. But I'd probably have to buy a new case if I can't find an old one stored away. Have I ever mentioned I'm not made of money? Sure, I have. I've also mentioned how tough the last few years have been. This is what I'm talking about except it isn't as bad as some things.

This problem only cropped up as I shoved some things out of my life to make more time for writing. Coincidence? Could there be a supernatural force trying to hinder me?

The good news is I've been getting a lot of writing done on the old emergency computer I've been using.

PC Update

It appears the problem with my computer is the CPU, the most expensive thing that could have gone wrong. That's based on looking up the symptoms online. The video card wasn't the culprit. I skipped checking the memory since it never booted to the point of giving me a memory error message. The network port had a green light showing it was alive and a yellow light showing the computer couldn't connect to it, so that was good. At least it knew there was a network and that it should try to connect. The power supply and fan worked fine. Nearly the only thing left was the CPU, although the motherboard could be damaged in some way, but I don't think it is.

All things considered, I ordered a new CPU last night for $244.45. Ouch! Add another $7.10 today for thermal paste. I can't really afford the expense, but it's such a necessity if I want to keep writing and interneting. The thermal paste "should" arrive Wednesday. I'm still waiting for shipping info on the CPU.

If this doesn't fix it, then the next step would be a new motherboard. If it does fix it, then I'm immediately uninstalling Windows 10. I wasn't having problems before "upgrading". No blue screens of death. No series of inexplicable reboots. No weirdness or any indication of any kind of impending hardware failure.

In the meantime I'm using an emergency computer. It's older and slower and loud. It occasionally locks up and could die altogether. However, it runs OpenOffice, and I've been getting some good work done on the next book. And yes, I'm backing up!

Email came in while I was typing. The CPU should get here by the end of the week at the latest.

Making Changes

There's good news and bad news. It's been a rough year on the writing front. I haven't gotten nearly as much done as I wanted to. Everything seems to get in the way to block, hinder or disrupt me. I've been telling myself that something has to change. I have too many demands on my time. I'm not one of those writers who makes a living from it. Writing is something I have to fit in on the side. I hope it becomes something I can do full time, but so far it isn't. However, lately I've been able to cut a couple of things out of my life or at least put them on the back burner and see what happens. So far, it's working. Just not having the stress of thinking about them so much is a load off. I may go into detail in the other blog, but bad things are happening right now. I'll get to that in a minute.

This week has been the best writing week in months. I saw some really good progress. This problem that seemed huge turned out to be easy to get past. I've been excited. It's been looking very good. Until today.

I sat down to work on the blog. I needed to step away from the computer for about 20 minutes. When I got back, I was looking at a Windows 10 blue screen of death. I was able to update Windows this week after fixing the compatibility problem I had. I suspect Windows 10 caused the crash, but I can't prove it. I tried to reboot, and nothing happened. I shut everything down and did a cold restart. The machine starts up but never seems to get to POST. Basically, it's dead, and I don't know why. I wasn't doing anything on it. It was just sitting there waiting for me to get back. The glaring difference between this week and last week is Windows 10. I suspect the motherboard is the problem, but I'm going to test the video card and the memory just in case.

I hadn't backed up what I've accomplished this week. If it turns out to be the hard drive, which it doesn't appear to be, then that would be bad. Everything is on the hard drive. I have my writing backed up to USB but not anything from this week.

What can I do? Test the video card and memory and go from there. The PC doesn't appear get to the point of trying to use them, though, which makes me think motherboard. But if it was fried, it wouldn't do anything at all, and it does at least power on. I really need a new computer, but I'm not rich. I got the one I've been using in a sale to replace my ancient Pentium 4. It was a leased business computer with Windows 7 Pro on it, which is how I was able to get Windows 10.
What if it's the motherboard? I can order another one. It wasn't a new computer. It should be fairly cheap, if I can find one just like it. If I got another one, and it doesn't fix the problem(like it was the CPU that was fried and not the motherboard), then things might be bad. CPUs are more expensive, and I can't throw money away buying part after part.

So, I might try to post updates to Twitter @messengerofyesh, but I don't know. I'm not a big tweeter. If something good happens, I'll post a happy dance blog ASAP.

A Little Leaven

I don't listen to secular radio stations at home or in the car, but I hear them when I'm out. Of course, I listened to tons of it when I was a strapping young lad. Sometimes I'll think of a secular song or hear one and wonder if it's okay to add it to my song list. I'll check the lyrics. I've noticed something. Usually, there's a single line that ruins the whole song. The rest of it can seem Biblically okay. Then there's that one line that clearly violates the word. It's a drop of poison in a spoonful of sugar.

The Bible doesn't have the concept of partial truth. Something is either true or it isn't. It even says that false prophets can prophesy things that come to pass. That's not the test. The test is the false prophecy. All it takes is one. The 1800s had two great false prophets in the U.S., Joseph Smith of Mormonism and Ellen White of Seventh Day Adventism. Neither appears to have been Christian much less a prophet, but they knew how to put on a good show. To this day their followers ignore the lies and concentrate only on the things that give the appearance of lining up with the word. Had those false prophets lived in ancient Israel, they would have been stoned to death and all their writings burned. We would not know their names.

Joseph Smith prophesied that a temple would be built in Missouri before the people of his generation died. Ellen White prophesied to an entire congregation that she would still be alive when Jesus returned and that some of them would be, too. They're all dead, and those things never happened. They both made multiple false prophecies. I tested the spirit of Adventism one time and discovered that the spirit behind it was the same spirit behind Mormonism. Satan was busy in the 1800s, but that's a blog for another day. I'll give a sneak preview. A critical link that ties them together is freemasonry.

The Mormon church just released photographs of Joseph Smith's "seer stone". It's kind of like a magical rock that allegedly helped him to translate secret writings. The Mormon church are releasing some information to the public to help people find them more accessible or something. Adventists did the same thing in 1899. They published all the writings of Ellen White up to that time. It turned out to be a disaster. They contained false prophecies, blasphemies and things that didn't line up with the Bible. Adventists literally had to send people around the world to steal copies out of libraries and replace them with updated, edited versions. I wonder if the Mormons learned from that.

A little leaven leavens the whole lump. It can be hard to find the leaven sometimes, especially when people are deliberately trying to hide it behind a coating of sugar.

Can you see the genocide yet?

Another undercover, Planned Parenthood video was released this week. It's very graphic at the end. Abortionists are sifting through a slurry of shredded, dead babies looking for specific parts such as kidneys or livers that they have the potential to sell from future abortions. At one point they have trouble finding the legs. They finally locate them, and a woman says, "And another boy!" in an amused, mocking cynical tone of the type comedians sometimes use. It's completely dehumanizing.

As a thought experiment, what if it wasn't an American woman mocking a dead victim? What if it was a nazi saying, "And another Jew!"?

The Other Blog

The new blog is up:
http://matthewjenkinsuniverse.blogspot.com/2015/07/new-blog.html

Saudi News, Etc.

Last weekend I saw a story on Fox News, which is partly Saudi owned(through stocks) and islam-influenced, about the muslim shooter in TN. I hate watching them because they mostly cover politics instead of news, but I at least try to catch the headlines if possible. Since CNN stopped doing news, they're almost the only game in town.

There was a Fox interviewer and a muslim "guest" expert who was a foreign correspondent, presumably working for Fox, although it was never made clear. Her interpretation of the attacks was that Abdulazeez was reading the wrong Koran whatever that meant. The interviewer came at the alcohol and drugs angle as if Abdulazeez must not have been as devout a muslim as his friends thought. The interviewer and the foreign correspondent wondered how Abdulazeez could sit alone in his basement feeling lonely and watch internet videos to become "radicalized". /facepalm The guy's from Kuwait and has spent a lot of time in Jordan. I've seen a story that claimed, despite the Kuwaiti birth location, that he's been identified as a Palestinian from Nablus. Jordan is majority Palestinian.

The entire piece was propaganda. The muslim correspondent wouldn't go near the truth and actively tried to hide it. The interviewer was too young and inexperienced to have any real context for the story. As has been reported before, suddenly starting to drink alcohol, do drugs, hire prostitutes and engage in other acts of the flesh forbidden by the Koran, by devout muslims, is a warning sign of an impending martyrdom operation. Suicide in the name of jihad allegedly erases all those sins and guarantees a place in paradise. That's so basic and so obvious and so previously reported in other cases, but they never mentioned it.

I know I shouldn't watch Fox. I know they're mainly the propaganda wing of the Republican party and not a news channel. But if I catch them at the right time of day, they actually show a little news.

There was some good news. It takes a big person to admit to being wrong. Taylor Swift is a big person. She admitted to being wrong about some tweet she made about a tweet some other gal made. Apparently, there was a bit of a kerfuffle involved. I'm glad it worked out. Genuine news stories died so we could know.

Other Things
I always have more to add, but the blog always seems too long. This one isn't. I have in the past made a few YouTube videos. Nothing inappropriate but nothing I'd want you to see either. :) For the first time since 2010, I made a YouTube video the other day. It was for a French lady and not the general public. However, I'm getting closer to doing something public. I need to buy some equipment. Sadly, I'm not rich. At least not yet. One day, right? Right!

I'm foreseeing two channels. One is a French channel where I would talk about whatever's on my mind but in French. Native speakers could then correct my usage. Some things would be in English sharing English tips for non-native speakers who already have a good grasp of the language. As I mentioned a while back, I picked up Assimil French. I've continued using it and reading French books and watching French TV on YouTube. Even with the French I already knew, progress feels slow. It might be a few more months before I feel comfortable doing a French video, although I might do a simple, introductory one now to explain what the channel is about.
The other channel would be in English where I'd talk about spiritual or other things like book stuff. Some things are easier to talk about than type about. I created an account for it a while back but don't have the channel made. I have a camcorder and wired mic already. I need lighting and such, though. The mic works pretty well. I picked it up in 2010 for cheap on Amazon. The video I did for the French lady was made during a thunderstorm. Most of the noise was filtered out very nicely.

This week I had several things I wanted to make quick blogs about that didn't really fit this blog. Today's blog didn't really fit this blog actually. I'm thinking about making another blog where I can rant about Fox News, etc., or talk about the weather or my boycott of the Braves. The news has been complaining about the heat wave. Where I live, there's been a cool snap. Except for the humidity it's almost like autumn. It's been great! With another blog I could stick to book stuff here instead of all the other things I've been talking about. I still need to think about a name for it and such.

So, once I get a public video up on the French channel, I'll post the link here. Same for the other blog.