10:02 – It’s been chilly, windy, and wet over the last couple days. We’ve had about 3 inches (7.5 cm) of rain in the last couple of days, which takes us up to about 4.5 inches (11.5 cm) for the month to date. When I took Colin out around 0715, it was 39.3F (4C), with sustained winds of probably 40 MPH (64 KPH) and gusts to 60+ MPH. I almost literally got blown off the driveway as I attempted to retrieve our newspaper from the mailbox. I had to grab hold of the mailbox to avoid being blown off my feet.
About two dozen readers have requested copies of my book sample, which should be enough. You’re still welcome to a copy if you want one, but I’m getting enough feedback now to tell me what I needed to know.
I asked for brutal honesty, and that’s exactly what I’m getting. I haven’t gotten any replies yet that began, “Dear Zsa-Zsa”, but the responders so far are criticizing freely. No one has given me a letter grade or a number grade so far, but the general consensus is that I’m not terrible at this. Responders have compared my writing to Unintended Consequences, A. American’s Home series, and David Crawford’s Lights Out, which I take as a complement. OTOH, various responders have criticized my narrative, dialog, plotting, characterization, and even the setting. No one has told me that I actually suck at this and several people have commented that I’m as good or better at it than PA writers that they like, so on balance I’m going to keep at it, a couple hours here and a couple hours there, mixed in with everything else I have to do. I just sent copies to a couple of pro fiction writers I know, to see what they think.
We’ve got a “winter weather advisory” in effect, pretty much through Friday night, due to continued intermittent mixes of rain, snow, and sleet. Everything is white again this morning and it’s a sheet of ice out there, still coming down. We’ve had practically nothing for actual snowfall thus fah and that isn’t gonna change this week.
I’ve been checking on conditions at Jay Peak, about 25 miles to our northeast, and the wife and I may head up that way next week for some x-c and snowshoe recon.
And the DNC imbeciles double-down on their imbecility:
https://news.grabien.com/story-dnc-chair-candidates-bash-white-people-racially-charged-foru
Keep it up, imbeciles. Make sure you lock up the minority votes again like you did a few months ago, and keep groveling and apologizing.
I asked for brutal honesty, and that’s exactly what I’m getting.
I hope not too much. I can be brutally honest and not even realize it.
I forgot to mention that I would move most of the prepping details to appendixes. The most frequent criticism that I see of PA (post apocalyptic) books is that there are way too many details. Ammo types, food types, etc, etc, etc.
“I hope not too much. I can be brutally honest and not even realize it.”
I’m just not speaking to you any more, so there.
But seriously, nearly everyone I deal with regularly is at least borderline Asperger’s. I certainly am, and more than just borderline. Back before the psychologists decided that Asperger’s was an ASD, we just called Aspies “scientists” or “engineers”.
“I forgot to mention that I would move most of the prepping details to appendixes. The most frequent criticism that I see of PA (post apocalyptic) books is that there are way too many details. Ammo types, food types, etc, etc, etc.”
It’s a matter of taste. Lots of people like the details, the more the better. It’s kind of combined fiction and non-fiction. At least I didn’t include footnotes, which of course is my natural inclination.
But seriously, nearly everyone I deal with regularly is at least borderline Asperger’s. I certainly am, and more than just borderline. Back before the psychologists decided that Asperger’s was an ASD, we just called Aspies “scientists” or “engineers”.
According to the wife, I am definitely past that borderline. I have no filter for just about anyone. I try with her and the kids but it is difficult to think that way.
I can remember walking into Stryker Creek SES about 30 years ago for the first time, meeting the plant manager, and walking over to the file cabinets and just start looking for the data that we needed on #2. One of my fellow engineers walked over to me and said “Bob is pissed, you need to tell him what you are doing”. I walked over to the plant manager’s office and said, “Hey Bob, we need the orifice and pipe size data from your as-builts, ok?”. He nodded yes and I went back to looking in the forty or fifty file cabinets for the correct asbuilt drawings.
“Back before the psychologists decided that Asperger’s was an ASD, we just called Aspies “scientists” or “engineers”.”
Yup…
Actually, labelling us is really counterproductive, as it reduces our credibility. “Normals” can then disregard what we say as the muttering of the mentally disturbed. We’re just at a different place on the spectrum of normal human behavior, and it doesn’t need to be labelled beyond “nerd”.
Dammit, spellchecker, “labelled” and “labelling” have three ells, I don’t care if you underline them with red.
“Lots of people like the details, the more the better.”
Yup, again. I read a military sci-fi novel a while back that spent zillions of pages describing military training. Lots of the reviews complained about this, while others praised it. I found the training (as described) a bit over-the-top, but it was an important part of the story, because it was the life that the character lived through. Same for PA – some people will find it OTT, others will enjoy it as part of the experience of the characters.
“Back before the psychologists decided that Asperger’s was an ASD, we just called Aspies “scientists” or “engineers”
Back off, Man, I’m a scientist.
“we just called Aspies “scientists” or “engineers”.”
Yep, my retired school teacher wife has been saying that for 35 years, while putting up with me, her brother, her brother-in-law, and her son.
WRT footnotes, if you are publishing electronically do them as endnotes. It’s easy enough to tap the note, read it, and tap return. Or to ignore the note numbers.
Oddly, the most recent book I read did it that way and it was Sir Terry Pratchett’s Making Money.
n
I guess I’m in the clear, then; I ain’t no scientist or engineer. Does painstakingly collecting stamps when I was a kid count?
No? How about when I walk into any room of the house and see books or vases or bars of soap out of alignment and automatically straighten them?
What about how I make sure DVDs and my Loeb Classics books are all in the exact order I want them?
I’m guessing I’m just a wannabe, a noob, a neophyte, a dilettante. I need to study my nephew and oldest grandson some more.
Oh, hell, back when I was in college a girl I was dating asked me if what she was wearing made her look fat. Nowadays I recognize that as a run-for-your-life-screaming question, but back then I answered honestly and was shocked when she smacked me and then broke down in tears.
I read that as Lurch was out the door, he overrode a Congressional hold on $$ to Palestine. He gave them about a quarter billion. I wonder if the bucks will be funneled to buying Russian weapons? Lurch should be lined up against the wall and shot. He’ll probably try to run for Senate, again. Total Ofukstik tool commie loser douchenozzle.
Rough justice prevails —
“Michigan man whose 19-year sentence for cocaine dealing was commuted by Obama is executed in halfway house by two men with assault rifles
-Damarlon C. Thomas was formerly involved in drug dealing for Sunny Side Gang
-Thomas, of Saginaw, Michigan, was convicted in 2008 of dealing cocaine
-His 19-year sentence was commuted by Obama in November
-He was living in a Saginaw halfway house when two masked men executed him
-Killers also held up more than 20 people at gunpoint but no one was injured
By Associated Press and Forrest Hanson For Dailymail.com
Published: 13:18 EST, 24 January 2017 | Updated: 15:32 EST, 24 January 2017
A man whose drug-related prison sentence was commuted by Obama was fatally shot at a federal halfway house in Michigan, police said.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4152926/Obama-commuted-sentence-Michigan-man-shot-dead.html“
I was friends with a girl who was not a scientist or anything like that.
She could not leave the house if the tassels on the rug were not straight. Any crossed over each other, and she was compelled to comb them out.
Not everything on the “spectrum” is a good thing.
n
“…when two masked men executed him…”
No. Two masked men murdered him. I really, really wish nooz rumpswabs would get this language straight once and for all. The State executes prisoners convicted and sentenced by them according to law. Terrorists and criminals and gangstas murder people.
“Lurch should be lined up against the wall and shot.”
I see I’ll have to have a serious cousin-to-cousin talk with him after all. I was gonna just let him slide on outta office and go back to his ketchup heiress and hundreds of millions, etc., but no can do now. I also am confused as to how an outgoing or any SecState can “override” a Congressional hold on money.
In any case, we’ve essentially been supporting both Palestinian scum and the Israelis for decades now with our tax money. It’s time all that chit came to a screeching halt.
A kinda fun war story w/special interest for that guy out in Lost Wages:
http://mwi.usma.edu/underbelly/
And a review:
http://mwi.usma.edu/action-review-operation-underbelly/
I thought both were very nicely done.
I think we have to consider something before alienating Israel. After eight years of President Obama, I suspect the only competent Middle Eastern intelligence we get is from Mossad. I’m sure they don’t share everything with us, but I will be very surprised if they don’t provide us with more useful intelligence about the Middle East than the CIA does.
[snip] Lots of people like the details, the more the better. [snip]
IMHO that was the worst part of Ross’ Unintended Consequences. There might have been a decent novel in there somewhere, but it was heavily shrouded in a wall of verbiage.
[snip] Actually, labelling us is really counterproductive, as it reduces our credibility. “Normals” can then disregard what we say as the muttering of the mentally disturbed. [snip]
Au contraire. Most of the leftist idiots (but I repeat myself) sing Hosannas in praise of anyone with a “SYNDROME”.
[snip] Rough justice prevails — [snip]
It sounds like he was already under sentence of death, either from within his own gang or from a rival gang. I was sure that the halfway house where my nephew was assigned had better security, but he was a dead man walking from the moment he left the joint.
Yeah, I wonder if that guy was all that eager to get out and about. He was mos def on a hit list, to be accomplished ASAP. Maybe he snitched in the joint and got ratted out.
“…I’m sure they don’t share everything with us…”
Not only that, they spy on us. Constantly. We need to clean house big-time on our intel nets anyway; get rid of all the dead wood and moles. And start evaluating them on what decent intel they produce instead of longevity, seniority, etc. And a LOT more emphasis and focus on learning furrin languages and cultures. I’d keep the Israelis and Mossad at a good distance from anything of ours. They made their bed and they can lie in it.
I saved the file locally this morning, thinking I’d have some time during the day to read through it. Mmmnope. Busy out the wazoo because a one-liner requirement by the business analyst which looked like cookie-cutter do-nothing blah-blah words used to make the specification document look more impressive, turned out to be a big honkin’ pile of work, all for me. Like, 40 hours’ worth of work, due Friday. I mentioned to her boss this afternoon that she might possibly not be the best BA one could hope to work with.
If I bother to answer such questions, I always answer them honestly. If someone wastes my time by asking me a question, they’d better be prepared to accept the answer. Also, having grown up surrounded by constant liars, I’ve developed a very deep dislike for liars and the lies they tell. (And then my first wife developed into an actual pathological liar. You’d think I’d have recognized the warning signs, but I didn’t because I’m a moron.)
Um, yah. That is to say, yes and no. Or perhaps just plain no.
If the State does not enforce the law and protect the populace, despite paying itself very generously to do so, then there is no moral reason that members of the public should not act to protect themselves.
What’s so special about the State and its agents that allows them to take actions which are not allowed for the citizenry? What is moral for the State that is not moral for individuals?
Not a damned thing, is my answer. Others may have different answers. They may act according to their beliefs, as I will act according to mine.
You got onto the morality aspect of it, and I agree with you. Especially if the State does not protect us and enforce the laws, and allows dangerous individuals to prey upon us at will.
I am only specifying a distinction concerning the word bruited about carelessly by the MSM for lo these many decades, i.e. “The terrorists executed two more hostages today, etc.” No they did not “execute” them; they fucking murdered them.
And “This evening the convicted and sentenced serial murderer John Doe was executed by the State of Whatever at 10:00 PM EST.” And Queen Mary of Scotland and King Charles I were executed by the British government as it existed at those times. The accused Salem witches were executed by that existing government in 1692-93. Twenty years earlier, the marauding bands running wild under “King Philip” (Metacomet) were murdering women and children among the New England settlements.
Thus endeth the lesson.
On The White House web site:
For too long, we’ve been held back by burdensome regulations on our energy industry. President Trump is committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule. Lifting these restrictions will greatly help American workers, increasing wages by more than $30 billion over the next 7 years.
America First!
Just so we remember history; the original America First people between the world wars were characterized as Nazis and Nazi sympathizers by the chickenhawk neocons of the day, just as we are and will be when we keep saying that. Be advised that our enemies purport to see Nazis and Klansmen under every bed and behind every American flag.
The difference being that the progtards have overplayed their one card. “You’re a racist!” Don’t care. “You’re a sexist!” Don’t care. “You’re just like Hitler!” Don’t care.
A trillion here and a trillion there, it is only money.
Sitting in Methodist Hospital with mum. Today sucks.
@lynn – here’s hope that the sucking stops soon and that things start to look brighter.
Watching the TV program COPS, when the suspect responds with: “…honestly,….”
The cop assumes that everything said previously is a lie.
Yeah, Mr. Lynn, hopefully things are turning up a little better tonight for you and yours.
Mrs. OFD is upset and pissed off; she’s heard that her asswipe employers in Mordor are gonna cut everyone’s assignments back, and in her case that would be getting cut down to one gig per month. They’re raking in more tens of millions than they ever did before and wife and two or three others have been there since the beginning and GOT them this revenue. But this is a truly dysfunctional and badly managed outfit, where the CEO pulls down three-quarters of a million per year, mainly for schmoozing with the Mordor elites. Our son has already apparently discussed with her an “exit strategy,” but we’re certainly not ready for any such exit yet. This is gonna be an interesting year, looks like.
Sympathies, Dave.
If you ever get your shop stuff set up, drop me a line. I have a bit of minor firearms repair and tune-up work to be done — tightening up the clearances on a revolver, fixing up an old .22 single-shot which is worth nothing but sentimental value, that kind of thing. Er, I would, if not for the unfortunate and seemingly inevitable boating accident on the Sacandaga Reservoir.
Workin’ on it this winta, Mr. SteveF. Thanks for the thought.
I’m gonna have to kick these Feds in the ass this week and get them moving one way or the other, or else just grab whatever I can get now.
@lynn – here’s hope that the sucking stops soon and that things start to look brighter.
Thanks. She got better after we finally got her to eat something around 6pm. But the new chemo is causing her heart and/or lungs to have problems so she is panting, not breathing. She cannot take a full breath. She is in stage 4 of endometrial cancer which my dad thinks that she can fight for 5 to 6 years. With as weak as she is, I am thinking 5 to 6 months. I hope my dad is correct.
My dad is totally freaked out. They started dating when he was 18 and she was 15. They have been together for almost 60 years. My dad tried to get my grandparents to let them get married when he was 19 and she was 16. My grandfather just lit another cigarette off the current one and walked away. My grandmother said no way! So they waited another year to get married. They are now 78 and 75. I was born when mom was 18 and dad was 21. Dad cannot envision life without her. Neither can I.
My thoughts are with you and your family Mr. Lynn..
SteveF writes: “I mentioned to her boss this afternoon that she might possibly not be the best BA one could hope to work with.”
In one of the commercial courses I teach (our school brings in extra money this way), we basically train Business Analysts. This week, I’m reviewing the final projects. Some of them do really well – I have two presenting today, whose projects are top notch.
On the other hand, I had one yesterday whose project was just a mess. Unclear, incomplete, sometimes even contradictory. Sound familiar?
@Lynn: Sorry to hear about your mom. Tough stuff, hang in there…
Unclear, incomplete, sometimes even contradictory
Prime candidate for a government position.
@Lynn
Barbara’s and my thoughts are with you.
I wish you the best Mr. Lynn. I know these are tough times for your family.
Lynn – my thoughts and prayers are with you.