I finished the read through of the YA book, which I'll call AoE. I think the ending works better than I thought. I was worried about it. Now begins the process of going through for one final pass tweaking the prose.
AoE has a name, but Book 2 of the B'vellah War series doesn't yet. I wonder if I should give it a temporary name like B'vellah Strikes Back. The ultimate title would be Warry McWarface. I bet that would sell a ton of copies. If there was any way on earth for that to make sense, I'd use it.
Boaty McBoatface, if you didn't see that story was hilarious. I voted for the Boaty McBoatface name. As I've mentioned before, I've got a French YouTube channel created but no public videos. Boaty McBoatface was instantly funny, but there would be no way to explain to a French audience why it's funny. I've put a lot of thought into it. Why are some things funny? Boaty McBoatface has a certain British cheekiness to it, but that's only part of it.
Of course, despite that fact that it won, they'll probably not name it that. It's a missed opportunity. People would have followed its scientific mission. If they name it something else, it won't be interesting any more.
Back in March some people were protesting Donald Trump. They shut down a road in one protest. One of the strange things about it was that he wasn't and isn't the nominee. Last month the race was tight. His lead has widened now, but there's no guarantee he'll win. People are out protesting against someone who hasn't even won. That's something they should do later during the general election if he actually ends up being the candidate.
While searching for the old story, I found a new one about people protesting today. I was surprised.
What alarms me about the protesters is that they're trying to subvert the democratic process in the United States. Trump has not won. The protesters are not in his party. If they want to complain about a candidate at this stage, it should be one of theirs, not the other party's. They're fighting against someone they have no business fighting until the general election. That is the time to stand up and object.
In the United States the democratic process is supposed to be allowed to play out to a conclusion without interference. Attempting to undermine democracy is un-American and anti-American. I wonder if any of the protesters has stopped to consider that. They're acting like people in a third-world dictatorship.
I have a theory. The whole thing is so counter to American culture, I've concluded that it's not a grassroots movement. Americans don't do this kind of thing. My theory is that it's being funded by Democrat-supportive organizations partly in order to increase chaos and division in the country. Progressives within the Democrat party have been fueling racial, economic and class division for years. This has been documented in the press, although it might take some searching to find the details, since most of the press are Democrats and won't cover news like that.
The Democrats don't have any good candidates this election cycle and seem destined to lose. Funding these protests now is a way to subvert the process and try to force a victory in the general election. If Trump was protested out of the race, that would leave the Republicans with a weak candidate in the general election later. The Democrats would have a much better chance against anyone but Trump. Even if he still wins the Republican nomination, the protests plant seeds of division and chaos in the population that can be exploited during the general election.
The protests seem to have a plan and purpose beyond a few people screaming.
If I'm wrong and the protests actually are grassroots, democracy in the United States will fail. It's going to anyway, but that would be a major indication that the collapse is already here.
Friday, April 29, 2016
Friday, April 22, 2016
The Berenstein Bears
Woman vanishes on live TV. The internet is baffled.
We know what really happened, don't we? It was either a Messenger translocating herself or someone being translocated by a Messenger. ;)
That kind of goes along with this week's topic. When I was a kid, there was a series of books called the Berenstein Bears. There were some cartoons of it, too. I didn't watch those much. That's been a long time ago, but I remember thinking at the time that with the stein ending it must be Jewish. I thought it was an alternative to Christmas or something.
This past week I came across something utterly mind blowing. Someone was claiming Berenstein is actually spelled Berenstain and always has been. Ridiculous, of course. They were popular back in the day, and I saw them often. It was always Berenstein. I assumed that in modern times there was a bad printing batch with the Berenstain spelling, or maybe the publisher changed it for some reason, perhaps to avoid growing anti-Semetism. So, I looked it up on Amazon to try to find an old 80s copy with the correct name. Amazon doesn't carry them. They only have Berenstain Bears.
How you spell "The Berenstain Bears" could be proof of parallel universes
WHAT? It's like something I've seen a million times has suddenly changed. It's like reality itself has been altered. It turns out this is a subset of a phenomenon known as the Mandela Effect. The definition is on the right. It's named after something that happened during the 80s. Masses of people remember Nelson Mandela dying in prison, when he didn't.
I could almost think that perhaps I'd misread the name many, many times, but there are masses of other people who also remember it as Berenstein. Hmm.
I don't believe in parallel universes, but finding reality altered was still disturbing. It's very close to what liberals are doing to American history. For example, according to the founding fathers, the third most important founding father was Benjamin Rush. Most Americans have never heard of him. He's not in university textbooks, because he was a minister. He's listed at the bottom of this page as an academic, doctor and writer, but his biography is purely secular and focuses on subjects liberals find comfortable. With the exception of one secular book, his writing isn't even mentioned, especially his theological work. A lot of American history is like this. It's being erased because it makes American liberals uncomfortable and undermines their worldview.
It's not that they're changing old books or anything. They're simply leaving out what they don't like. As books have fallen out of print, newer sanitized versions have replaced them. This has been going on for decades. Generations of Americans don't know the true history of the country. The best place to find actual history has become the original documents the founders wrote. An underground movement has risen up to champion real history, but they're a very small group and are fighting tremendous inertia.
Book Stuff
I've begun going through the YA book. I'm a little over 1/3 of the way through. This is a read through with some minor corrections such as Project Lemmings. For some reason I had it spelled Project Lemming the first two times in the book. It's the name of a mission the main character takes in the virtual reality game she's playing.
Once I'm done with the read through, I'll need to go through it again and evaluate more substantial changes. Those would be polishing paragraphs and word choices that I missed before. If I have the same word in a paragraph, I'd want to change that. If a paragraph felt choppy, I'd alter sentence length and structure to make it read smoothly. Nitty gritty stuff.
Studio
I'm trying to get the side of the room I haven't shown in pictures cleaned up. :) It's not that bad. I've thrown three cheap shelves out during the cleanup. Yesterday, I was finally able to get a metal shelf to replace them. Now I can finish tidying up. It's almost done. You can bet that Berenstein thing is going to be a video.
We know what really happened, don't we? It was either a Messenger translocating herself or someone being translocated by a Messenger. ;)
That kind of goes along with this week's topic. When I was a kid, there was a series of books called the Berenstein Bears. There were some cartoons of it, too. I didn't watch those much. That's been a long time ago, but I remember thinking at the time that with the stein ending it must be Jewish. I thought it was an alternative to Christmas or something.
This past week I came across something utterly mind blowing. Someone was claiming Berenstein is actually spelled Berenstain and always has been. Ridiculous, of course. They were popular back in the day, and I saw them often. It was always Berenstein. I assumed that in modern times there was a bad printing batch with the Berenstain spelling, or maybe the publisher changed it for some reason, perhaps to avoid growing anti-Semetism. So, I looked it up on Amazon to try to find an old 80s copy with the correct name. Amazon doesn't carry them. They only have Berenstain Bears.
How you spell "The Berenstain Bears" could be proof of parallel universes
WHAT? It's like something I've seen a million times has suddenly changed. It's like reality itself has been altered. It turns out this is a subset of a phenomenon known as the Mandela Effect. The definition is on the right. It's named after something that happened during the 80s. Masses of people remember Nelson Mandela dying in prison, when he didn't.
I could almost think that perhaps I'd misread the name many, many times, but there are masses of other people who also remember it as Berenstein. Hmm.
I don't believe in parallel universes, but finding reality altered was still disturbing. It's very close to what liberals are doing to American history. For example, according to the founding fathers, the third most important founding father was Benjamin Rush. Most Americans have never heard of him. He's not in university textbooks, because he was a minister. He's listed at the bottom of this page as an academic, doctor and writer, but his biography is purely secular and focuses on subjects liberals find comfortable. With the exception of one secular book, his writing isn't even mentioned, especially his theological work. A lot of American history is like this. It's being erased because it makes American liberals uncomfortable and undermines their worldview.
It's not that they're changing old books or anything. They're simply leaving out what they don't like. As books have fallen out of print, newer sanitized versions have replaced them. This has been going on for decades. Generations of Americans don't know the true history of the country. The best place to find actual history has become the original documents the founders wrote. An underground movement has risen up to champion real history, but they're a very small group and are fighting tremendous inertia.
Book Stuff
I've begun going through the YA book. I'm a little over 1/3 of the way through. This is a read through with some minor corrections such as Project Lemmings. For some reason I had it spelled Project Lemming the first two times in the book. It's the name of a mission the main character takes in the virtual reality game she's playing.
Once I'm done with the read through, I'll need to go through it again and evaluate more substantial changes. Those would be polishing paragraphs and word choices that I missed before. If I have the same word in a paragraph, I'd want to change that. If a paragraph felt choppy, I'd alter sentence length and structure to make it read smoothly. Nitty gritty stuff.
Studio
I'm trying to get the side of the room I haven't shown in pictures cleaned up. :) It's not that bad. I've thrown three cheap shelves out during the cleanup. Yesterday, I was finally able to get a metal shelf to replace them. Now I can finish tidying up. It's almost done. You can bet that Berenstein thing is going to be a video.
Friday, April 15, 2016
Studio: Almost There
That white line at the bottom is where I broke up a strip of carpet nailing and had to paint. I was going to leave it in, but if I can afford to put some cheap laminate flooring in later, I may as well take it up now to save time then. 29 to 59 cents a square foot(.0929 sq m) is pretty good for something cheap. Even 59 cents would make flooring the whole room less than $100. The underlayment would add maybe another $100 or less depending on what I wanted to do. It might make sense to do the hallway outside the room, too.
Yes, there's a baseboard missing there. I need to clean it with that horrible-smelling wood cleaner I mentioned the other day. I also sill need to clean the other walls. Some cold air came down from Canada this week, making it too cold to open the windows. Starting Sunday the high is supposed to be 74 degrees(23.33C) and after that 80F(26.667C)+.
I started using Celsius and such because I had one or two European readers to start with(and for French studies). Last week's blog had far more European readers than American readers. That's kind of strange. Something else weird is I have zero British or Canadian readers. I could make fun of Brits and Canadians, and they would never know.
I'm just kidding. Although I will be talking about the Canadian accent on my French YouTube channel, once I get that going.
I had this one night where it took over 30 minutes for two boards. It doesn't even seem possible. Part of that was because of a tiny metal splinter in my finger. It didn't draw blood, so not a big deal. But that's how hard this wall's been.
I'm going to try to get some videos made this weekend. I need to put the last bit of baseboard down before putting up the greenscreen, and I'd prefer to clean the other walls first. Nibiru. Fact or Fiction? I might talk about that.
It was $150 at the dentist. I forgot to mention that last week. I feel like there's something else I'm forgetting.
The Tesla Model 3 is approaching 400,000 pre-orders. I've been looking at electric cars in general lately. I should blog about that or make a video.
Friday, April 8, 2016
Hammering Away
I've been having a rough time getting this blog started much less done. I tried transferring pictures off the phone. My computer wouldn't recognize it. I reinstalled the driver, etc. I tried my old phone. Same problem. I dropped the old phone about a centimeter. Now the SD card won't lock in place.
I finally shut down and restarted the first phone to see if that would do anything. The pictures transferred. /facepalm However, two copies transferred. Why?
About half the wall is back up. It takes over 10 minutes per board. Rather appalling, but I have to paint a little, hammer the nails out of the back of the boards from where I pried them off the wall to begin with and then hammer them to the wall. I have to hold a board up with one hand while trying to hammer with the other. They slip so easily. Some of the nails are bent. Trying to use bent nails is something off a fool's errand.
If it seems like there's a gap between two of those boards, it's because there is. A lot of them aren't straight. The top and bottom could touch the board beside it while there's a curved gap in the middle. The backs of them are rough wood, not sanded at all. Since I'm not putting them up in order, I may get to the last board and find out it doesn't fit.
While working on this, I've thought a lot of inappropriate things about the people who built this wall and their lumber choices. It was wrong of me to think those things. It was probably worse that I found it so amusing at the time. http://i.imgur.com/IyK15at.gif
I have seven boards left to go. It's going to take over an hour over multiple days. That black paint over the light line is a final coat to make sure the hairline crack is sealed. I ran out of the light paint. These are two ounce(59.148ml) old hobby paints. Three significant digits. If you're a science type, I hope you enjoyed that.
Anything not red on that floor is a wood chip, a piece of ceiling plaster or miscellaneous detritus. I'm going to have to sweep and vacuum again. It's really sad. I painted some more of the floor crack on the other side of the room. It's almost done.
I took some old shelves that were in the room to the dump. I'm getting really close to making videos. I may start before the room's finished, if I can get the floor clean enough. I can't put my beautiful greenscreen on that vile thing.
In another blog I mentioned this room smells musty after it rains but fine otherwise. It rained this week. It didn't smell musty. Yay!
Part of the delay has been the weather. It was warm then turned colder. To clean the walls, I need to be able to open a window and pull air through the room. Even with an all-natural wood cleaner, the smell is terrible, and it lingers for days. I haven't been able to open it up. I think I'll have the boards done by Monday or Tuesday. It's supposed to be warmer next week. I should get the other walls cleaned if it is.
Electric Cars
Over 325,000 pre-orders for the new Tesla Model 3. I wish I was one of them. I'm glad so many people are interested in this technology.
One of the blogs I have in the queue is Hitler vs. Steve Jobs. I really need to get that done.
Book Stuff
Book 1 in this new series was so easy. It flowed like water. Book 2 is not water.
I finally shut down and restarted the first phone to see if that would do anything. The pictures transferred. /facepalm However, two copies transferred. Why?
About half the wall is back up. It takes over 10 minutes per board. Rather appalling, but I have to paint a little, hammer the nails out of the back of the boards from where I pried them off the wall to begin with and then hammer them to the wall. I have to hold a board up with one hand while trying to hammer with the other. They slip so easily. Some of the nails are bent. Trying to use bent nails is something off a fool's errand.
If it seems like there's a gap between two of those boards, it's because there is. A lot of them aren't straight. The top and bottom could touch the board beside it while there's a curved gap in the middle. The backs of them are rough wood, not sanded at all. Since I'm not putting them up in order, I may get to the last board and find out it doesn't fit.
While working on this, I've thought a lot of inappropriate things about the people who built this wall and their lumber choices. It was wrong of me to think those things. It was probably worse that I found it so amusing at the time. http://i.imgur.com/IyK15at.gif
I have seven boards left to go. It's going to take over an hour over multiple days. That black paint over the light line is a final coat to make sure the hairline crack is sealed. I ran out of the light paint. These are two ounce(59.148ml) old hobby paints. Three significant digits. If you're a science type, I hope you enjoyed that.
I took some old shelves that were in the room to the dump. I'm getting really close to making videos. I may start before the room's finished, if I can get the floor clean enough. I can't put my beautiful greenscreen on that vile thing.
In another blog I mentioned this room smells musty after it rains but fine otherwise. It rained this week. It didn't smell musty. Yay!
Part of the delay has been the weather. It was warm then turned colder. To clean the walls, I need to be able to open a window and pull air through the room. Even with an all-natural wood cleaner, the smell is terrible, and it lingers for days. I haven't been able to open it up. I think I'll have the boards done by Monday or Tuesday. It's supposed to be warmer next week. I should get the other walls cleaned if it is.
Electric Cars
Over 325,000 pre-orders for the new Tesla Model 3. I wish I was one of them. I'm glad so many people are interested in this technology.
One of the blogs I have in the queue is Hitler vs. Steve Jobs. I really need to get that done.
Book Stuff
Book 1 in this new series was so easy. It flowed like water. Book 2 is not water.
Friday, April 1, 2016
Do Cats Think?; Tesla Model 3
My cat has a couple of play cubes, which are less than $4 at Walmart. When she wants to play, she'll let me see her running. Then she'll walk over to a cube and sit inside it until I get the rope we play with. Then we'll play for a while. The cubes have holes in three sides. This week I did something different one night. While she was sitting outside the cube, I pulled the rope through two of the holes where she could see what I was doing. The end of the rope was just over the edge of the hole on my side of the cube about to fall on the floor. I thought she would run through the cube to chase the rope. What she did was run around it and attack the rope from the side.
I thought that was interesting behavior. The cat put some thought into what she was about to do. She didn't make a mad dash for the rope. She considered its spatial location in relation to the cube. There might have been a bit of delayed gratification involved, too, depending on whether or not she thought the fastest way to the rope wasn't a straight line.
I've heard a lot of people say that animals don't think. It was obvious my cat thought about and planned her next move. The cat I used to have could think, too. She was much smarter than my current cat and smarter then any cat I've met so far. It made her a bit mischievous. She would try to get into the kitchen cabinets until I bought some child safety devices. I would have to spray that cat with water when I caught her doing naughty things. I only sprayed her if she was in the act of committing the crime.
If I moved the spray bottle for some reason when she was being good, she wouldn't react to it. However, one day she was sitting near the cabinets when I moved it to the side. That time she ran as soon as I picked it up. Afterward she didn't react to it like that. I concluded she had been thinking about trying to get into the cabinet. She must also have thought I had the ability to read cat minds. :)
So, last week I was talking about shutting down the Amazon store for now. It came down to money. I had a choice of sticking with it or getting real editing for the next book. If I ever want to get a book deal, I need editorial guidance.
I broke a tooth this week. I was chewing chewing gum. It must have been that tooth's time to go. The dentist can't see me until Monday. That's pretty quick. Sometimes it can take a while to get an appointment. It's going to cost probably over $200 in under 30 minutes.
As an aside, dentists in the U.S. don't work on Fridays. I don't know why. I guess they don't need the money. Assuming a dentist's office pulls in $500 an hour, it would make about $800,000 a year. If I did that, I might close on Fridays, too.
Tesla announced their next car: the Model 3. $35,000 base price. At least a 215 mile range. 15 inch touch screen(38.1cm) control panel. Since it's April Fool's Day, I should have used dm, but I did that joke the other day. Rats! I've been wanting a Tesla for a long time. Tragically, I can't afford the Model 3 right now. I need to become rich first. Of course, if that happened, I'd go for a luxury model instead, since they have better range.
My need for an electric car has nothing to do with climate change. It's partly about the dollar and partly about having a cleaner environment. The U.S. economy is in trouble. It has fundamental flaws. The dollar cannot be propped up with tricks forever. When it finally crashes, gasoline will be unaffordable. It's already nearly $2/gallon(roughly €1.67/gallon or €0.44/liter). Electricity prices are more stable. With solar power, electricity would be free. By the way did you see this article? "China has unveiled a proposal for a $50 trillion global electricity network that would help fight pollution and the effects of climate change."
If everything imploded but I had an electric car, I'd still be able to go places. I might could even do taxi work for people who could no longer buy gas. The U.S. oil industry is already selling oil overseas, because they can get more money there. If the dollar crashed, would they sell anything here? I really hope to be out of the U.S. before the dollar collapses.
I should do a separate post about my electric car needs.
I thought that was interesting behavior. The cat put some thought into what she was about to do. She didn't make a mad dash for the rope. She considered its spatial location in relation to the cube. There might have been a bit of delayed gratification involved, too, depending on whether or not she thought the fastest way to the rope wasn't a straight line.
I've heard a lot of people say that animals don't think. It was obvious my cat thought about and planned her next move. The cat I used to have could think, too. She was much smarter than my current cat and smarter then any cat I've met so far. It made her a bit mischievous. She would try to get into the kitchen cabinets until I bought some child safety devices. I would have to spray that cat with water when I caught her doing naughty things. I only sprayed her if she was in the act of committing the crime.
If I moved the spray bottle for some reason when she was being good, she wouldn't react to it. However, one day she was sitting near the cabinets when I moved it to the side. That time she ran as soon as I picked it up. Afterward she didn't react to it like that. I concluded she had been thinking about trying to get into the cabinet. She must also have thought I had the ability to read cat minds. :)
So, last week I was talking about shutting down the Amazon store for now. It came down to money. I had a choice of sticking with it or getting real editing for the next book. If I ever want to get a book deal, I need editorial guidance.
I broke a tooth this week. I was chewing chewing gum. It must have been that tooth's time to go. The dentist can't see me until Monday. That's pretty quick. Sometimes it can take a while to get an appointment. It's going to cost probably over $200 in under 30 minutes.
As an aside, dentists in the U.S. don't work on Fridays. I don't know why. I guess they don't need the money. Assuming a dentist's office pulls in $500 an hour, it would make about $800,000 a year. If I did that, I might close on Fridays, too.
Tesla announced their next car: the Model 3. $35,000 base price. At least a 215 mile range. 15 inch touch screen(38.1cm) control panel. Since it's April Fool's Day, I should have used dm, but I did that joke the other day. Rats! I've been wanting a Tesla for a long time. Tragically, I can't afford the Model 3 right now. I need to become rich first. Of course, if that happened, I'd go for a luxury model instead, since they have better range.
My need for an electric car has nothing to do with climate change. It's partly about the dollar and partly about having a cleaner environment. The U.S. economy is in trouble. It has fundamental flaws. The dollar cannot be propped up with tricks forever. When it finally crashes, gasoline will be unaffordable. It's already nearly $2/gallon(roughly €1.67/gallon or €0.44/liter). Electricity prices are more stable. With solar power, electricity would be free. By the way did you see this article? "China has unveiled a proposal for a $50 trillion global electricity network that would help fight pollution and the effects of climate change."
If everything imploded but I had an electric car, I'd still be able to go places. I might could even do taxi work for people who could no longer buy gas. The U.S. oil industry is already selling oil overseas, because they can get more money there. If the dollar crashed, would they sell anything here? I really hope to be out of the U.S. before the dollar collapses.
I should do a separate post about my electric car needs.
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