Refocusing

Since I had to go to the emergency room a while back, the blog has been a bit random as has been the writing. I'm starting to feel better now and feel like I can start doing more on the writing front. The plan is to get the blog more focused on writing and less focused on other things. Of course, I still want to mention topics that are of wider interest such as longevity research that's actually discovering things or the encroaching fascism and threat to democracy of the radical left. I'm interested in AI and perhaps the Singularity, which I'm not convinced will happen. I find prophecies of the future interesting, too, so I'll mention those if they're relevant. And there's still the French front.

I anticipate some weeks there might not be a blog, or it might be sparse. Writing takes time. It's not always fascinating. I'm also toying with the idea of creating a pseudonym for work of a more commercial nature in a different style than I typically use. I have an idea for a middle grade trilogy that might be appropriate for that. And some SF novels set in the future. But I need to get Messengers wrapped up or at least to something I could do standalone novels for like the space novel.

This week I put extra time into grinding away on this series I've been reading in French. It's bad enough to do a blog about. I might do that next week. I'm still on the last(?) book.

Before I go I want to mention a trial verdict I saw the other day. Remember that guy upon whose neck a cop place his knee, and the guy ended up dying? The verdict was guilty. Some of the jurors said they were afraid of the mob. A critical piece of evidence in that case was suppressed by the liberal establishment until last August. The guy who died had a lethal dose of fentanyl in his system. It was three times a lethal dose. He was already dying before the first police officer arrived. Based on the autopsy results, the man died of fentanyl poisoning, not the knee. Justice seems to have failed. We're living in a nation in which the mob has decided a verdict. Heaven help our democracy.

Have a great weekend.

Already Gone

Last week I asked for prayer for an uncle who was in the hospital. It turned out he had died a couple of days before that, and no one called with the news. No news is supposed to be good news, right? Mmm. I may have been the last to know.

His funeral was livecast this morning here, if anyone wants to know more. It was almost two hours long. The Henry Herald has an obituary here, which is much shorter.

Uncle Ralph did a lot in life. It makes me pause and reflect on my own life. It makes me think about the time that's passed and what time might be left. Short of anti-aging technology becoming more widely available, the road backward looks longer than the road ahead. I wonder how much I can actually physically do in the time left.

Fig Tree

Speaking of time, we're up against what looks like a hard deadline on the prophetic calendar.

Matthew 24:32-34 32Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh; 33So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. 34Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

The Old Testament identifies Israel as the fig tree. The putting forth of leaves is understood to be the rebirth of Israel on May 15, 1948.(Some use a date of May 14, but that date is legally and prophetically incorrect.) The mystery through the ages has been how long a generation is. There have been various speculations. Most of those have fallen by the wayside as the years since 1948 have increased. Maybe we don't need to know that. What we really need to know is how long a human lifespan is. By definition a generation cannot be longer than a lifespan.

Psalm 90:10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

A generation can't be longer than 80 years. The "all these things" in Matthew 24 includes the Second Coming. By combining these passages, the Second Coming has to occur before May 15, 2028. Subtracting the seven years of the Tribulation puts the Tribulation starting before May 15, 2021. That's fewer than three weeks away. If these passages are consistent, the Antichrist has to confirm a covenant with the many before May 15th. The Rapture would have to occur before that. Hmm.

So, what happens if the Tribulation doesn't start on time? Nothing good. The best case scenario is that the fig tree prophecy would have to be reinterpreted. The line of thinking for it it pretty simple. The fig tree is Israel. The leaves sprouting are its rebirth. The generation that sees that will see the Second Coming. And if the Bible is consistent with itself, an unbreakable doctrine otherwise it falls apart, then a generation cannot under any circumstances be longer than 80 years regardless of whether some humans live longer than that.

If nothing happens between now and May 15th, theologians are going to have to come up with a new interpretation of the fig tree prophecy. Maybe the sprouting leaves mean something else. Long ago I read an opinion that it might refer to Israel's capture of the Temple Mount in 1967. But they gave it up so hmm.

The confirming of a covenant is a peace treaty. We'll just have to wait and see if the peace process has a dramatic leap forward in the next few weeks.

Have a great weekend.

Relative Trouble

I have an uncle in the hospital who could use some prayer. The doctors "can't find" where he's bleeding internally. He wasn't expected to make it through the night two nights ago.

I can't help but wonder why they "can't find" the bleeding. "Computer, activate the emergency medical holographic program." "Please, state the nature of the medical emergency." "Doctor, this man is bleeding internally, but we 'can't find' it. What do you think?" "Hmm, it's right here. A Starfleet Academy, first-year medical student would have been able to see that instantly. I don't understand why you couldn't. And you call yourself a doctor?" 

Life would be so much better if we had Starfleet medical technology. Medicine is so primitive during this time period. Having my uncle in the hands of people who "can't find" the problem reminds me of my other relatives who have died at the hands of doctors. I had a first cousin who died after a doctor cut her internally and didn't fix it. I had another first cousin who died after a nurse started screaming at him and caused him to have a stroke. And, of course, my dad was euthanized when his insurance company no longer wanted to pay for his suddenly-expensive, medical care. After the murder and malpractice, I'm automatically suspicious about what's going on with my uncle, but I know I need to get a grip on feelings like that. Conspiracy theoryitis is a symptom of a culture on the verge of collapse.

When it comes to conspiracies, I have a little wisdom to impart. Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence. Most conspiracies have no foundation. People in authority sometimes just do dumb things because they're incompetent. Never forget that people in authority are no different than the people you went to high school with. Frightening, isn't it, to think that the world is run by people like that.

Something else to consider is that Congress is composed of mostly lawyers. That's a degree that takes a lot of time and effort. At the end of the journey, law students know a lot about the law but not so much about life or other subjects. For instance, Congress is passing laws about areas of science, technology, etc., about which they have no understanding. While they were in law school, life passed them by. It wasn't long ago that a member of Congress was quoted in the press as saying the internet was a "series of tubes". He's not the only one who knows legal matters but has a profound lack of understanding of other areas. Frightening, isn't it, that the country is run by people like that.

Have a great weekend.

Let's Clean It Up

So, I avoid books with profanity. It would be better if authors put the extra minute into finding the right word or phrase instead of reverting to easy clichés, which is what profanity is. Kindle doesn't have a filter to clean that up. Is anyone thinking of the children? I started looking for a profanity filter after coming across a series that looked extremely interesting. I began reading the sample. At first it was little things like a d*mn or a h*ll, which in my opinion are so prevalent that they're becoming like darn and heck. By the end of Chapter 1, though, it got into offensive words. There's no ereader that I could find that filters offensive language. Long story short, if I want to read that series, I'll have to break the DRM and edit the book myself. Huh.

During my search for a filtering ereader or app, I ran across some people who were violently opposed to filtering anything. Some were calling it the author's moral right to use profanity. That makes no sense. Consider this. Imagine you're black, and the book you're reading keeps using the n word. Other than that it's a great book. I think you should be able to filter it. A lot of books are really good except for some bad language. Imagine you have children, and they want to read things that are okay except for the profanity. I think parents should be able to fix that problem. I should be able to fix this, too, especially when it's so over the top and amateur.

I ran into a discouraging video on the French front. It was teenagers. Their slang was largely incomprehensible. Other videos are like that, too. There might be one word in a sentence that changes the meaning of it. I was thinking about taking the B2 exam in the summer instead of autumn, but every time I hit something like the teenagers video, it feels like hitting a wall.

On the other hand my reading is getting better, although that YA book I mentioned the other day was a lot to chew on. I struggled with far too many words. However, it turns out it's harder to read than Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The problem was the YA translator was using his thesaurus in ways I'd not seen before along with archaic words. The publisher put a stop to that in book 2 of that series. 

A while back I was going through 20,000 Leagues, when Amazon did a software update on my Kindle. When it restarted, it had wiped out my place in the book. I searched but couldn't find it. I put it on the back burner, and every once in a while I'll read a few screens to try to find the last page I read. I did that during the hard YA book and found it so much easier. Jules Verne is pretty straightforward in comparison. I find that encouraging. It used to be harder to read. I've been reading more of it on the side. The difficulty now is all the fish and plant names he uses. I usually ignore them and keep going. Lists of out of an encyclopedia add nothing.

Have a great weekend.

Being Prepared

I felt a bit of dread at coming upon this article, which warns of product shortages. Because of the giant container ship that was trapped in the Suez Canal and a shortage of containers themselves, shipping will be disrupted again. The warning that affected me the most was toilet paper. Well, suffice it to say I'm not going through that again. I never ran out last year, but it was a stressful time indeed. To prevent a recurrence of such an ordeal, my order of a 32-pack of Charmin is scheduled to arrive today. Combined with what I already have on hand, I should be well set for the rest of the calendar year. Take that, Forces of Darkness!

On the French front, I've been doing reading, listening and a reading/listening combo with testing. I think I have a handle on it as far as my new routine goes. It interferes with writing, but if I can get the right French certification, I could do translation work. I have to go with what pays. Nevertheless, I've been getting a little done on the writing front and expect to increase the amount I'm doing, which has been nothing to brag about.

Part of what I'm working on will be a project with more of a commercial appeal. Most of what I've done until now has fit into a certain niche. I need something that the wider market will embrace. At the same time I need to get the rest of Messengers out the door, including the space novel set in the time period when Kayley went into the future to save the miners. The goal now is to figure out how to get a writing routine that juggles both the commercial project and Messengers. And maybe juggles Avatars, too. There's never enough time for everything.

Have a great weekend.