Being on Medium

 A little over a year ago I joined Medium.

A friend from college started posting and sharing his posts on FB. I joined and started posting, but sadly my friend passed away. I was looking forward to reading most of his wise words.

Medium is not cheap, $120 a year, but I found so many good writers all over the map, but some I can't wait for their posts and then save them.

At first, I wasn't getting many looks or reads. To be expected I was building a following as I started following others and leaving comments. I was getting a lot of claps on my comments.

Then I read a post lamenting that movies were suddenly showing full frontal nudity. Instead of writing a comment I wrote a rebuttal post. I listed movies I have seen from the 70's, 80's, and 90's with full frontal nudity. I also said that they were mostly long shots of the woman standing for few seconds, and hardly stimulating.

I used the magic word: nudity. I posted it on April 20. At first I got some likes and reads and then someone listed my post on his list of followers and to date on that post I have over 6,000 looks and 5,000+ reads. I did more posts about movies and mini-series and actresses who've done nudity. I'm a hit.

There is a partnership part to this, if you sign up to it, provide financial information and fill out a tax form you can get paid for the number of reads.

I signed up and in the last week so far I've earned $25. Now I kick myself for waiting so long when the thousands were reading my posts, but that couldn't last forever. It did make me aware I can make money on the platform.

Today I had a pleasant surprise. At the end of most of my posts I add my author information and list my books on Amazon. For the last two years I've sold a few books earning around 2 or 3 bucks to add to my income tax. Most of the e-books and a couple of paperbacks were from the UK for my short story collection of Three Medieval Battles. Lately I've only had a big goose egg when I check on Amazon. Today when I looked someone in the US bought my Fan Plan Trilogy, Love Lust Stories and Agaperos in paperback. Medium is good for advertising too.

So far, a long way from recovering the $240 for last year and this year, but I can write posts mentioning nudity in movies, and all the streaming services out today. At the end of each month, they put what you've earned into your checking account. Wow this month I can go and splurge at Cracker Barrel. 

To Berthold

 Sorry to say buddy, but every time I try to leave a comment on your blog it gets blocked. A big white box appears and says verification denied.

I can't get pictures to come up on blogger, and now this. Is the universe conspiring against us?

Anyway, what was going to say was, "A few years ago it came to light that Secret Service agents when off duty partied pretty wild."

A Confederacy of Dunces

 This will be brief.

A Confederation of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole is advertised as humorous.

Some background. A publisher was beset by a mother whose son committed suicide in 1969 at the age of 39. He had written a book on Big Chief tablets, and she begged him to read it. He gave in and started the ordeal of having to read the stack of tablets with some of the words practically unreadable. It caught his interest and started laughing at some parts. It became a Pulitzer Prize winning book.

There are seven book clubs all on different days and times at Books on the Bosque. The only one that fits my schedule is on Thursdays at noon. This was the book chosen. It looked interesting so I bought it and got the audio book as well.

I started listening and switched to the paperback. The conversations of some of the characters were so inane I went to the hard copy to skip over them.

Ignatius J. Reily is 35 tall and very fat and has a black mustache. The book starts with him standing outside a store waiting for his mother to come out. He's wearing a large red coat over a blue sweatshirt with a blue muffler under a green hat with ear flaps and heavy boots. He chooses to dress like this because it's comfortable.

A Police patrolman starts asking him what he's doing there. He doesn't answer but gives in his booming voice a diatribe with large words, so the officer decides to arrest him. This draws a crowd and soon the officer is surrounded. An old man starts calling everyone around him communists the police officer panics and arrests the old man.

Ignatios's mother comes out and gets involved with the officer to help the old man, Mr. Claude Robichaux. Officer Mancuso leads Robichaux away. 

Inez, Ignatios's mothers, takes her son into the Joy Bar where the readers become acquainted with a number of weird characters.

Inez has an accident in her car where she plows into the wooden supports of a balcony over a business, she then gets sued by the owner and she has no way to pay the damages. She insists Ignatios get a job. She had used up all of her inheritance to pay for his college and master's degree and he needs to make money.

She spends time with friends and Mr. Robichaux, and they all tell her to admit Ignatios into an asylum. 

Ignatios gets a job at a blue jeans factory and finding out how little everyone is getting paid forms a union which gets him fired. He then starts selling hot dogs in a pirate costume from a cart near the French Quarter of New Orleans.

In both jobs he uses large words and insults everyone, but they don't understand a word he says.

That's as much as I'll give away on the story.

When I went to the book club mostly middle-aged women another elderly man like me and the manager who's a little younger. I wanted to hear what they thought of the book. They started telling some of the antics and were laughing. Then they asked me. I guess I didn't see it like they did.

I told them that Ignatios obviously had Aspergers syndrome, but in 1960 they didn't know what it was. That my daughter has the same problem, and I didn't find it funny. 

Ignatios was arrogant, pompous, and clueless. At the end of the book where he's invited to a costume ball wearing his pirate outfit, they start pushing him into and on top of others thinking they were having a good time at his expense. I could see where others might find that funny I didn't.

One of the ladies said she's read the book three times, when she was younger and laughed through it. A few years later she read it again and thought it was dark humor, and now this time she agreed with me it stopped being funny after she aged and had more life experience.

My life experience was being bullied in Junior High, then teaching 7th and 8th grade English where I made sure there was no bullying in my classes physical or verbal also when I was in the hallways.

I'm afraid I put a damper on the discussion, but they understood my point of view.

The next book the owner doesn't have out yet, but she said it was about two scientists that start working in genetics. 

    

The United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-42

 

Also known as the Great Expedition and sometimes the Wilkes Expedition.

Sorry Google has mucked up how to post pictures. 

A great expedition was proposed by John Quincy Adams to explore the South Pacific. It was ignored by Congress.

Towards the end of his first term, Andrew Jackson decided he needed something splashy to help with his re-election. Jackson decided to revive Adams proposal. Titian Ramsey Peale explained the expedition to congress.

Peale said this was to carry out James Smithson’s bequest “to fund an institution for the increase of knowledge.” It would also be a way to thwart British ambitions from California to Nootka Island, Canada. Congress appropriated the money.

The expedition was named The United States Exploration Expedition (United States Ex Ex) but is also named the Wilkes Expedition.

 Jackson was re-elected and he left the enterprise in the hands of someone unable to fathom what it would entail, Secretary of the Navy Mahlan Dickerson. 

Dickerson and the Board of Commissioners couldn’t agree on how to spend the money. For two years nothing was decided. The Board was bickering on the issue of civilian scientists on naval vessels. Would they be subject to military discipline? Will the scientific results belong to the civilians or the Navy?  Jackson lost patience and overriding everyone, appointed Thomas ap Catesby Jones as commander.

Jones took command and requisitioned five ships for the expedition. He was going to make Macedonia his flag ship. He then chose subcommanders to captain the ships. He submitted the list to the Board of Commissioners expecting routine approval.

Dickerson chose his own men, Charles Wilkes from the Depot of Charts and Instruments, and Alexander Slidell. Both had scientific strengths, and they were senior to some on Jones’s picks on the list but did not have experience commanding a ship much less a Squadron.

The Board sided with Dickerson mainly because they would keep the civilian “scientifics” under control and maybe off the ships. 

 Dickerson muddied the waters concerning Wilkes and Slidell putting things on hold. He undermined Jones by naming three lieutenants, two of them with senior service to Macedonia. 

In the spring of 1837, the Macedonian was being outfitted for sail. The largest ship, it would berth the “Scientific Corps,” and also store all the specimens and collections acquired on the voyage. The secondary mission was to protect whalers and traders. undermining the original specified mission.

The scientists squabbled amongst themselves over keeping their discoveries secret instead of combining the knowledge. The purpose of the expedition was the share the knowledge not just among scientists, but to the whole world. 

Commodore Jones was eager to get all the ships outfitted and ready to sail. 

Wilkes was in charge of the Depot of Charts and Instruments. The chronometers and other instruments needed by the ships were not delivered. Wilkes’s excuse was that they needed to be rated before being delivered.

Jones ordered Wilkes to turn over instruments, saying,

 “There is no excuse for detaining the chronometers twenty days longer at Washington to obtain Wilkes rates of those delicate instruments, for they must all be tested by the new ratings after they are returned to this place (Hampton Roads) and put on board their respective vessels, and this indispensably preliminary may require several weeks at this season.”

Wilkes wasn’t at the depot. He was preparing to sail on Porpoise ahead of the rest of the expedition. The instruments were in New York.

Wilkes was technically superior to Jones in command, but as Commodore, Jones had the power to order him not to sail. The expedition was at a stalemate.

Dickerson placed the custody of the ships under the commands of Commodore’s Hull, Biddle, and Aulick. The secretary then offered the post of commanding the expedition to numerous officers.  All turned him down. 

Now President Martin Van Buren stepped in to get things back on track. He directed Secretary of the Army, Joel Poinsett, to clean up the mess.

Poinsett met with congressman John Quincy Adams asking for his advice. The papers gave the former president’s reply, “All I want to hear about the exploring expedition is that it’s sailed.”

Poinsette met with many officers high and low trying to untie the Gordian Knot.  Poinsett asked each commander to make a list of those that would make the best commanders. None of them named themselves.

Poinsette was disillusioned and gave in to Dickerson. He named Wilkes commander, which is why Wilkes sabotaged the endeavor for years.

This decision did not set well with the Navy. Wilkes’s rank was for one ship, he was given command of a whole squadron. Many lieutenants refused to serve under him. 

Poinsette also reduced the mission to charting the seas, astronomy, and navigation. This reduced the number of scientists from thirty-two to eight.

Jones gave illness as a reason to resign his command. One man stymied the careers of the best officers in the navy.

 Setting Sail

 August 18,1838 the squadron set sail from Hampton Roads. (all ships start USS) It comprised the Vincennes—sloop-of-war, Peacock—sloop-of-war, Relief—full-rigged ship, Porpoise—brig, Sea Gull—schooner, Flying Fish—schooner.

On the first part of the journey the squadron left Hampton Roads, traveled to Madeira then to Rio de Janeiro. The Relief was late and delayed the expedition.

They sailed to Tierra del Fuego and bested Captain Cook’s farthest point South at 71⁰10’. Flying Fish reached 70^0. From there they sailed to Valparaiso. On May 10, the Sea Gull was reported missing. The squadron reached San Lorenzo off Callao for repair and provisioning. Wilkes sent Relief back to America.

June 21, they sailed into the South Pacific. They reached Reao of the Tuamotu group of islands and Tahiti on September 11. They sailed to Samoa then Sydney, Australia. From there they sailed south to Antarctica. Then north, wintering in the Sandwich Islands (Hawai’i).

Once refitted they sailed to other islands. In July 1840 Lieutenant Underwood and Wilke’s nephew Midshipman Henry were killed on Fiji’s Malolo Island. Eighty Fijians were killed, and two villages burned to the ground in reprisal.

The squadron separated for three months to widen their search and regrouped on August 9 at Macuata. They visited Palmyra Atoll, the first expedition to visit it.

They were welcomed warmly by the King Kamehameha in Honolulu. The ships were then sent to explore the other islands in the group. There were a were incidents with the natives on some of the islands with natives killed and villages burned.

The squadron then sailed north to the coast of North America. They explored into Canada. The Peacock went aground in the Columbia River and was abandoned. No loss of life. They made a map of upper California. They visited a number of forts belonging to the Hudson Bay Company and native tribes.

The squadron spent more time in Honolulu, leaving on November 17. On the way back to home they visited Wake Island, Philippines, Singapore, Polynesia, and Cape of Good Hope. Entering New York Harbor June 10, 1842.

Wilkes was not a respected commander. He overstepped his authority by flogging-around-the-fleet not allowed in the American navy, where the man was placed in a boat and lashed while going alongside each ship. He also exceeded the limit of 48 lashes.

Upon landing Wilkes filed court martial charges against most of his commanders, and they filed charges against him. He was court marshalled but found not guilty.

 

Results

 

The ships brought back a treasure trove of marine, animal, plant specimens as well as meteorological and, geological, and hydrological information. The question was what was to become of them. 

The natural place would be the Smithsonian Institute. The original reason for the expedition. The head of the institute was Joseph Henry. He thought of the institute as a place scholarly learning and study. With the mass quantity of specimens, it would turn the institute into a museum. He vigorously fought allowing them in, but Congress, knowing there wasn’t any place else to put them, ordered him to accept them.

  With the help of the expedition's scientists, 280 islands, mostly in the Pacific, were explored, and over 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) of Oregon were mapped. Of no less importance, over 60,000 plant and bird specimens were collected. 

A staggering amount of data and specimens were collected during the expedition, including the seeds of 648 species, which were later traded, planted, and sent throughout the country. Dried specimens were sent to the National Herbarium, now a part of the Smithsonian Institution. There were also 254 live plants, which mostly came from the home stretch of the journey, that were placed in a newly constructed greenhouse in 1850, which later became the United States Botanic Garden. Other contributions were three reports by James Dwight Dana on Zoophytes, Geology, and Crustacea. The Smithsonian Institution has digitized the five-volume narrative and the accompanying scientific volumes.

 By June 1848, many of the specimens were lost or damaged and many remained unidentified. Asa Gray was hired to work on the botanical specimens and published the first volume of the report on botany in 1854, but Wilkes was unable to secure the funding for the second volume.

While away congress had created the first National Observatory, and included meteorology, hydrology, charts and instruments in the newly constructed building in Foggy Bottom. He was angry that the post for the observatory was given to Matthew Fontaine Maury.

Maury would use the hydrology, geological and meteorology findings to help create the first comprehensive wind and weather charts published by the United States becoming the Father of Oceanography.

 

Aftermath

 

From 1844-1861 Wilkes started writing his expedition report. Twenty-eight volumes were planned, but only nineteen were published as: Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, during 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, Hydrography and Meteorology.

Wiles also published Western America, including California and Oregon, Around the World, and Theory on Winds.

 In 1861 Acting Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes commanding the San Jacinto, stopped the Royal Steamer Trent and removed Confederate commissioners Mason and Slidell. It nearly caused a war with England. President Lincoln disavowed the incident. The commissioners were released and went on to England. In 1864 Wilkes was court marshalled and removed from duty for insubordination but found not guilty. In 1866 he was commissioned a Rear Admiral. He died February 8, 1877.

The House on the Cerulean Sea

 Well, I'd like to show you the picture of the book, but Blogger in its infinite Google wisdom has changed how to post a picture, and I haven't figured it out yet.

There's a new bookstore on the West Side of the city called Books on the Bosque. They have a table with seven stacks of books, you can choose a book, buy it and then meet with others of the "book club" on a certain day and time and discuss the book. It sounded intriguing so I bought The House on the Cerulean Sea, wish I could show you the cover it is really interesting, by CJ Klune. 

I met with the book club there were thirteen of us and we had wonderful lively discussion. Today the author will be at the bookstore for a signing and to talk about and sign the sequel to the book.

I have difficulty reading hard copy and after a chapter or two where I kept falling asleep, not due to the book, but strain on my eyes, I bought the audiobook. This is the best way to deal with the book. Each character has a his/her/whatever voice, and this is important for there are a number of different very different characters.

The book is for Young Adults, but its message is just as important for an old curmudgeon like me.

Linus Baker is an inspector for DICOMY (Department in Charge of Magical Youth). The department oversees orphanages to make sure that magical children are well cared for, and don't become a problem to other students. He's worked at this job for many years and has memorized DICOMY's Rules of Conduct and goes strictly by the book.

Linus is a bit of a wreck; it brings to mind Barney Fife of the Andy Griffith Show. He's in his element doing his investigation and making out his reports but has few people skills and they make him nervous, especially in the office with co-workers and his boss who bullies him.

After finishing his day's investigation, he heads back to his office to file his report. His supervisor meets him with a memo from Extremely Upper Management. Everyone in the office assumes he's going to be fired. He's to report to them first thing in the morning.

When he rises up to the top floor he's shaking in fear. When he meets with EUM he's in bright light and can barely see the committee. Instead of being fired they find him perfect for the job. they are sending him to an island with an orphanage of monsters. He is to conclude if the house at Marsayus Island is to remain opened or shut down.

He's given the files of the six children and Arthur Parnassos, the master of the house.

Linus goes home to pack a few belongings and take his cat, Caliope.

Relieved at not being fired, but a nervous wreck as he's going to investigate monsters. He's so nervous he refuses to read the files, for fear he won't go.

When he gets to the train station, he has some time to wait for a ride to the island he reads the first file to find the child is named Lucifer and is the child of Satan. He passes out until awakened by the lady giving him a ride to the ferry. He didn't read the other files.

They pass through a village where he's told DICOMY pays them to not talk about the island. The people are afraid of the monsters.

Getting to the island he finds the children are on their own. He encounters Talia, a female garden Gnome with full beard while walking through her garden. She comes at him with a shovel and plans to dig a hole and bury him in it for desecrating her garden. 

Theodore, a Wyvern steps in and leads Linus towards the house. They encounter Chaucey who is partially human with tentacles instead of arms. He inspires to be a bell hop. He insists Linus tip him. The only thing Linus has in his pocket is a button, so he gives it to Chaucey much to the boy's delight. as he's never had anything brass before. 

Next, he meets Sal, a shape shifter. He frightens him and he turns into a Pomeranian. If in dog, form he touches someone they shift too. Then Phee, a forest sprite who hides to protect her treasure.

In the house they hear a booming voice threatening Linus scaring him out of his wits. Then a small boy of eight years comes in with Arthur Parnases. Lucifer called Lucy, the son of Satan is admonished by Parnases, and he is no longer threatening. 

Linus takes Arthur outside and chides him for letting the children run amok. Arthur tells him it was play time for them and being on an island they can't be harmed.

As Linus spends time with the children and Arthur, he comes to know them they come to trust him that he won't close down the island and he comes to appreciate each of the children and their true nature, even Lucy. 

I don't want to give too much away, suffice to say that after three weeks he changes his nervousness to confidence, and he and Arthur grow close. Linus advises Arthur to let the children go to the village. It doesn't go well, but it's a start.

Linus goes back to the city to submit his report a much-changed man when he gives his report. He gives EUM both barrels.

Now for a critique.

At first, I was put off by the depiction of Linus in the beginning of the book. I've dealt with by-the-book inspectors, and they are not the Barney Fife types. They are humorless, drab, drones. Zombies without being dead and eating brains. The last thing they do is get nervous and shake with fear. After reading the rest of the book I concluded if Linus was depicted this way, no one would get past the first ten pages. So, Barney Fife it is.

The children make the story, they come so alive, and I became attached to them, why it was better to hear their voices on audio instead of imagining how they would sound. Talia the Gnome was my favorite. When Linus comes back to the island, she meets him and starts digging his hole as she's mad, he left. She's very impetuous but cools down when he tells her they can stay. 

When Arthur gets mad at the villagers, he reveals he's a phoenix and starts to heat up to destroy them. Linus puts his hands on Arthur's face and cools him down showing how much he's changed and the closeness they've developed. It's subtle how their romance becomes. Not too sure this book would be allowed in certain states school libraries, but it should be.

The next book club meeting is the 29th and I'm reading A Confederation of Dunces, also on audio.

 

If I Was King

 The United States is at a crossroads. The Supreme Court in giving the Presidency immunity so that now the office has unlimited power just shredded the constitution. The president can now order Seal Team Six to kill anyone he/she wants.

Our choice now is do we elect an Augustus, who stabilized the empire and got it back on its feet after decades of civil war, or elect a Caligula, who is in it only for his pleasure.

This made me fantasize. What if I was in Biden’s shoes right now, what kind of executive order would I write?

Name, not nominate, four experienced justices to the supreme court to be installed the first Monday in October 2024. Move the court back to ruling for the people not oligarchs. Reinstate Roe Vs Wade.

Revise the Electoral college. Reduce it to only the number of representatives in congress and delete the 100 senatorial electors. That would cut the electoral college from 535 to 435. States like North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada and others would have only 1 electoral vote not three. California, New York, Illinois, Florida, Texas, Virginia, Ohio… States with larger populations would have more say in who is elected president. The election should be about people not land.

Let the Dreamers become citizens. They’ve lived here all their lives; they are doctors, lawyers, teachers, nurses, scientists, and other productive professions. They deserve citizenship.

Make the rich contribute to Social Security. Elon Musk forced his stockholders to pay him 56 billion dollars after firing 15,000 workers. Making him pay FDIC would shore up the trust fund for many years, add the Waltons, and all the other .01% of the top 10% of the wealthiest Americans we would never fear it falling short of funds for millennia. It would barely make a dent in their Offshore Banks Accounts.

Stop all subsidies to major corporations. It’s not just oil companies that get federal subsidies. If those corporations are making record profits, they should pay taxes and not getting extra money out federal tax dollars.

Tax all religions. A church that gives over a certain percentage of their income to charity gets deductions. Small churches would benefit. Mega churches that can afford to pay their pastor 54 million dollars a year in salary should pay their fair share of supporting this country.

Put boots on the ground in Ukraine. All of NATO to put boots on the ground too. Call Putin’s bluff. Enough letting that aggressor cow us into inaction. NATO was created to stop Russian aggression. Its time make him pack up and leave. If he uses nuclear weapons, we’ll turn Moscow into a parking lot. The only thing that makes Russia, historically, back down is standing up to them with resolve.

Insert U. N. peacekeepers into Gaza. It will be their job to keep HAMAS from launching any more attacks on Israel.

Okay that’s enough of my ideas, if I were wearing the Purple. What would you do?

They Got Us

 

In the movie Hunt for Red October, Jack Ryan and the Americans have boarded the Russian sub. Ramias is about to turn over the sub when a torpedo is fired at them, it misses, but it's not over. The Russian sub fires again and the radio technician says, "I think they got us." They're all waiting to die. Then he says, "Way to go Dallas!"

The American sub, Dallas, has moved between the Russian attack sub and Red October. 

I use this as an example of what we are facing in this election when America as we know it is on the line again.

In 2020 Bill Maher's editorial on Real Time was a lament about the late great United States as he thought Trump would win a second term and with a six-puppet majority on the Supreme Court, he would set up a dictatorship.

It was close, so close that the election came down to 75 votes in Georgia and Vice President Mike Pence biting the bullet and confirming Biden as the President.

Way to go Georgia and Pence. They were our submarine, Dallas.

If the secretary of state in Georgia had done as Trump asked or if Pence had decided to not certify the election Trump might have been given the Presidency by the House of Representatives. And we would have been fucked.

After the debacle of the debate Biden is on the ropes. Many Dems are ready to jump ship and are asking for Biden to bow out and make an open Convention. In other words, pure chaos. The media is screaming he is not mentally able to run the country. As if Trump is?

The tame Supremes have just given the presidency Carte Blanche. Now the president is immune while in office. This has made the constitution a worthless piece of paper and a historical relic.

If Trump is elected hell on earth will happen. Bill Maher and other comedians who have made fun of the pussy grabber will be taken out and shot on national TV. Okay worst case scenario, but never underestimate Republicans when in power.

Trump has already said Liz Cheney will be arrested and imprisoned. He will most likely go after Hillary and Bill Clinton and the Obamas. He can do that now without a trial as the Constitution's forbidding a Bill of Attainder is now null and void.

Justice Soto Mayor in her dissent states "There would be nothing to stop the president from ordering Seal Team Six to assassinate a political opponent."

Nothing would stop Trump from declaring all the elections of democrats as null and void and installing the republicans in their place, giving him total control of the House, and most of the senate.

Here is my greatest fear:

The Republicans have lusted after the Social Security gold mine for decades. 

Under Clinton they pushed for taking the trust fund and giving it to Wall Street. Congress raided the fund for 20 years to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 

There would be nothing to stop him from merging the trust fund with the Federal and all who rely on their monthly social security checks are shit out of luck. The same for Medicare. That would be half of my family retirement and my health care would be caput. Wife and I would lose everything with a stroke of that mother@#$%$#&'s pen.

What is the most angering is that so many my age and in the same economic condition will lose everything by voting for the asshole or not vote saying voting for the lesser of two evils is still voting for evil. Or Biden is too old because he has trouble remembering things on the fly.

Compared to Trump he's the picture of sanity and lucidity. Can anyone make sense of his ramblings in his speeches?

Remember when in a speech on the 4th of July 2018, Trump said we won the Revolutionary war because we captured the airports? Or when he drew the track of a hurricane going the wrong way? Or a million totally bizarre things he's said, and the media doesn't doubt his mental fitness to run the country.

The Republican's torpedo is coming for us, will there be another submarine Dallas to save us?

   

Friend Now With the Lord.

 Yesterday a good friend passed away. It was sudden. For the two months I was going through radiation treatments, he was there for me giving me strength. He and his wife visited my mother when she was in the hospital with pneumonia and in senior living. He was the leader of our Sunday morning Bible study. I teach a Bible study class on Tuesday mornings and afterwards the group have breakfast at a local diner. Good times with good friends over good food. for years, even during Covid. We all thought he was indestructible. Three weeks ago, he said he'd been losing weight and loss of strength. Pet scan showed tumors all around his stomach. A few days after that he had a seizure and went into the hospital, He had a tumor removed from the back of his head four years ago and it had come back. He had an embolism, and the next day was bleeding from his side. It happened that fast. His obituary will have a long list of all the committees in our church and on the entire region (New Mexico and West Texas) of the United Methodists. He leaved a huge hole in our community.

Before Covid he took his truck and trailer to three elementary schools near him and collect the food they were going to throw away and took it to the Roadrunner Food Bank. After Covid APS won't let anyone do that anymore. There is twice as much need for this now as there was then. I've never known a kinder, gentler and someone who embodied true Christian love of neighbor in my life. He will be missed.

Final Countdown

 

Springtime and the flowers are coming out.

Friday, I lugged my hundred-foot garden hose from the back yard to the front yard. Took the wind out of my sails.

There's a handy man neighbor that I'm now paying to get the yards cleared of weeds that have gone crazy with all the rain we had last month. I think I can handle the watering, whenever the wind isn't blowing a gale.

Today I have only 5 radiation treatments left. The real chore is having to drive 12.1 miles every day for a 15-minute treatment and then back.

The side effects so far have been Dysuria, that's a UTI without the infection, and diarrhea. It's a pain having to run to the bathroom so frequently. It hits me the hardest on Sundays. I've missed a number of Sundays at church, but I'm fine for Tuesday when I teach a class at 7:00 to our men's study group. We're going over Acts, then have breakfast at Wecks, a local diner.

This last Sunday I woke up with my heart racing at 116 to 121bpm. By the time we got dressed and wife drove me to urgent care it was back to normal. A side effect of the dysuria, dehydration.

The surprise was my doctor was a young lady with the last name Sandoval. I had to ask, "Do you know an Anthony Sandoval in Los Alamos?"

She's, his daughter. I told her I used to run against him in high school. He scratched out of the mile at state meet to try and set the state record in the 2-mile. That opened up for me to be state champion in the mile and got me my scholarship to college. That night when the 2-mile was run the winds were 40mph. He ran a 9:19 a couple of weeks earlier the state record was 9.32, but without competition and the wind he fell short.

She told me he closed his cardiology practice in Los Alamos and is an instructor at UNMH here in town.

Side note: Tony Sandoval finished 4th in the Olympic trials in 1976 in the marathon. He won the Olympic trials in the marathon in 1980, the year the U.S. boycotted the Olympics in Moscow.

When I walk into the cancer center there are check in clerks. One of them is a former student. She always greets me with a smile and waves as I come and leave. I gave her one of my books.

There are two men in I'd say early thirties that are the technicians for my treatments. I'm using a cane now and bought a golf chipper and got a pro shop at the golf course near me to attach a four-footed tip to it. I get a lot of comments on it, everyone thinks it's a putter, but today the putters are shaped too square or look like the Star Ship Enterprise and come with an extra wide grip. Both of the guys are golfers and that gives us a bit to talk about while they get me positioned and check to see if my bladder is full enough for the procedure.

Every Thursday after the treatment I meet with Dr. Garg where he asks me how things are going. (When I learned my doctor's name was Garg I mentioned to some people at church if he had ridges on his forehead. Those that laughed I knew to be Trekkies.)

Dr. Binder is my doctor for my long-term treatment. He's placed me on two powerful drugs, one I take four tablets a day for 1,000mgs. I can only get it by mail, and it comes in a bag with a hazard warning to not let women or children touch it. I'll be taking these drugs for at least a year and up to three years.

Then I get a chemo injection every 12 weeks for a year. The first one didn't seem to affect me and the only thing the pills have done is turn my normally oily skin bone dry.

I went to my dermatologist Monday, and she prescribed an oil I put on three times a day to clear up the Eczema that developed on my hands and arms. They're clearing up.

The one side affect the doctor's harp on is weight gain. I can see if you're fatigued and in bed most of the time you'll put on weight, but my energy level is fine. I've even lost 15 pounds. Seems my Ozempic is countering the weight gain and maybe why oncologists are now prescribing it.

TTFN

 

Lesson from Gibbon: Diocletian

 

Lessons From Gibbon

Diocletian

Gibbon wrote the eight volumes from 1776 to 1830’s. Most historians refer to him, but today I don’t think many people want to read it anymore. His writing is archaic, stuffy, stilted, and dry. The audio version, the narrator drones without any inflection or emotion. Still better to listen instead of trying to read all eight volumes.

I discovered that there was actually a lot to learn from Eddie. Well from Julius Caesar up to Diocletian not much I didn’t already know. A few insights but most books on Roman history focus on the emperors at least through Commodus. Gibbon places the death of Commodus, when the Praetorian Guard put the next emperor up for auction, as the beginning of the decline.

This entered a time where any general with an army marched on Rome to name himself emperor. Some lasted for a few years others didn’t make it to a year.

The Germanic tribes on the other side of Rhine seized the weakness and invaded carving out parts of the empire. Mercenaries from tribes across the Rhine and Danube were used in the legions. Total chaos.

Here are some of the lessons I learned from Diocletian (284–305 CE):

· Diocletian pulled the empire out of chaos. Once he had total control of the empire, he realized it was too big and cumbersome for one person to rule. He divided it up into four areas and placed a handpicked man to rule each one. He took the title of Augustus and the other three had the title of Caesar. Each area was called a diocese, taken from his name. The Catholic church still uses this term for each area under the direction of a bishop.

· Eunuchs were used for the bureaucracy. Not able to sire children and have a family they were considered less likely to be corrupt. Main reason for Catholic priest being celibate. It didn’t work and still doesn’t for The Church.

· Diocletian instituted the most thorough and ruthless persecution of the Christians. He noticed that many temples throughout the empire were shuttered, and others were suffering from poor attendance and money from sacrifices.  The temples were a major source of money in time of need. They built up large treasuries and then loaned the money out acting as bankers making even more off interest. They were the dragon sitting on a pile of treasure. Whenever emperors needed money for holding off an invasion or putting down a rebellion, they would raid the temples of the hoarded gold and silver. If the temples are going out of business the monetary backup plan was gone.

· Christianity doesn’t have temples, and they don’t sacrifice animals to raise money. This was a serious hit on the temples dedicated to emperor worship. Which provided the personal income of the emperor.

· Diocletian issued an edict of Milan outlawing Christianity. Milan was where the emperor resided not in Rome. For three hundred years the Christians were persecuted sporadically, but in the chaos of the second and third centuries stayed under the radar and prospered. In the larger cities they built churches. Now was the time of empire wide intense persecution.

· Gibbon relates that the wealthy class became Christians from their slaves. Slaves flocked to the religion and then converted their masters.

· The middle class or merchants were the most opposed to Christianity as they didn’t like the idea of equality in the afterlife. They also worshipped gods that promised wealth. The military worshipped Mithras.

· This persecution nearly destroyed all the good work in restoring the empire Diocletian accomplished.

· Only the wealthy were condemned and suffered. Freemen and slaves, he didn’t care about. Domitian was after confiscating wealth.

· Gibbon added up all the lives lost to persecution from Nero to Diocletian his estimation of the total was 150,000. He compared this to the lives lost in the Netherlands during the 30 year’s war which was 100,000.

I downloaded The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon on Audio. It’s 108 hours. I also downloaded the Kindle edition for only two dollars. Comes in useful if I want to look up certain lessons. So far, I’m through the reign of Constantine to the end of paganism. That’s already 30 hours a long way to go yet.

Next edition will cover Constantine.

Patrick Prescott is a retired public-school teacher and author of: Optimus: Praetorian Guard, Stephanus, I Maury: The Life and Times of a Rebel, Human Sacrifices, The Fan Plan Tribology, Three Medieval Battles and others in e-books and paperbacks on Amazon.com.

Sunday's are the worst.

 

I'm three fifths of the way through radiation. Five weeks to go. One of the check-in clerks is a former student. I gave her a copy of Human Sacrifices. She is very friendly.

During the week I'm fine. My only problem is having enough in my bladder for treatment. Only once this week was I short and had to drink water for a few minutes before they let me in again and there was enough.

Last Sunday I had bad diabetic nerve pain when I woke up. It was up to my kneecaps. I go into church early to fix coffee and tea for our Friendship Cafe, between worship service and Sunday School. My wife had to fill in for me. I'm getting get well cards, even from good blogger buddy Berthold in Ohio. 

This week I came down with a UTI. Friday morning I went into urgent care at 6AM, I was the only customer and was seen right away. I didn't get out of there with a injection of anti-biotic and prescription until 10:00. I made it through radiation, but Friday night I was going about every ten minutes, same for all day Saturday. I got some sleep last night and it's settled down some, but I was afraid to go to church if I had to run to the bathroom too often. 

Reminds me of an old book title joke: Fifty Yards to the Out House written by Willie Make It and Illustrated by Betty Wont.

Linda has to make coffee again. I'm a tea drinker connoisseur. Plain old orange, black tea gets boring. And the person getting the coffee never had hot water for tea or hot chocolate and when she couldn't do it anymore, I volunteered. 

I started something, an elderly lady decided to hold an afternoon tea last year. Ten ladies took a table and sold tickets and on a Saturday afternoon they held a tea. They had three different snacks for three different types of tea. They had an auction. I donated a fancy tea pot inherited from my mother. We raised $1,500 for the Heifer Project. This year the tea is in late April the day after my last radiation treatment. Linda and daughter will host a table and the proceeds will go to local animal rescue groups. Not sure I'll be able to make it.

My cousin messaged me on fb after I posted about my treatments. She told me that she was fine through all of her treatments, but two months later she was leaking from every orifice in her body for a month. Seems it has a delayed reaction. Oh Joy!

I put the picture of Edward Gibbon on top. I got a copy of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire on audio (108 hours), also a kindle copy for two bucks. So far, I've listened to 35 hours. I'm writing a series of articles that I'm posting on Medium entitled Lessons from Gibbon. It is filling in the time without rotting my brain streaming TV and giving me something to write about. I'll post them here too.

I'm confined to the bedroom as its closest to the bathroom, but I do have my faithful companion beside me to keep me company.

This is Sammie, she helped me through the time I fell and broke my hand and wrenched my back a few years ago. A good girl.

Hanging in there.

 I've had ten of the forty radiation treatments. So far, I've had few ill effects (knock on wood). Some loose stools and one night of the runs is about it.

I've started on the regimen of Zytiga and Prednisone without any loss of energy or other side effects mentioned. I'll be on this for a year of more.

I had my first chemo injection yesterday and will have them every three months for from a year to three.

I'm hanging in there for now. 

The Road to Wellness

 First radiation treatment today. Monday, I saw the medical oncologist. He'll be overseeing my hormone therapy. I've started on two pills every day and an injection starting on the 13th every three weeks. The injections are for three years. 

The side effects of radiation treatment is tiredness.

The side effects of hormone therapy are hot flashes, high blood pressure, weight gain, fatigue, lowering muscle and adding fat add on cardiovascular disease and mood changes.

Talk about cured but dying from the cure!

I Keep thinking back over the doctor I had for five years. He managed my diabetes but didn't do a physical or prostate exam. Then the last three years was during covid, and I only contacted him by phone for year and the other was with my new doctor that did the blood test that led to this.

I'm trying to keep a positive mental attitude, but with such a gloomy forecast it's not going to be easy. 

Fight of my life.

 February 29, I have my first radiation treatment. Five days a week for eight weeks. The information packet says the main side effect is tiredness. Usual doctor sugar coating what's going to happen. Fatigue is what will happen. Barely able to get out of bed while going though it and possibly for months afterward. At my age it takes time to heal.

Then hormone treatment. Estrogen and Androgen injections to kill testosterone. It seems T is what the cancer feeds on. 

I know I'm not alone in this fight. My wife is with me and will be driving me to and from the treatments and when I get as week as a newborn puppy tend to my needs. Married 45 years we've been there and done that many times. I also know from past trauma that the Holy Spirit will be my comforter. 

Jesus didn't promise us paradise on Earth. He said He must go so the Holy Spirit could come and be a guide, advocate, and comforter. 

I went through a divorce which ended my dream of being a missionary. It was a very painful experience, but the Holy Spirit saw me through my pain and depression. I wasn't alone He was there.

I picked up the pieces, remarried and considered my classroom a mission field, no to preach, but to teach them to read and write, to understand history and to do research which, if they learned would stand them in good stead in their lives.

 I've experienced the loss of my parents and my younger sister. He gave me solace in all the pain.

I know He will be by my side through all of this. I'm walking through the valley of the shadow of death, and I know He will comfort me through it.

NYC's Biggest Secret

 

Republicans Just Laid Bare One Of New York City’s Biggest Secrets

And you know what? It’s about damn time.

By Ossiana Tepfenhart

 

A couple months ago, I got a phone call from my friend Eli*. Eli is extremely housing insecure and does walking deliveries for a living. After eight years of sleeping on couches and in the street, he finally got his Section 8. He lives with his brother, Jason.*

Too bad SNAP doesn’t pay enough for food on a regular basis.

“Ossiana, is it alright if me and Jason come by?” he asked. “I haven’t had much food lately. I’m really hungry and I feel like if I don’t get serious food, I’ll faint.”

The answer, of course, was a resounding yes. We cooked him and his brother a turkey dinner, had them spend the night, and then let them raid our pantry. Then, we wrapped up the rest of the turkey and sent them on their way.

That dinner was a sight most people will never see. You see, Eli, Jason, my husband, and I all were homeless at one point. And yes, all of us squatted in New York City. So, we all get it.

Lately, I’ve been watching the Migrant Crisis unfold. And it was one of the most telling things I’ve ever seen in my life.

For those not in the know, the Migrant Crisis is a GOP-fueled crisis where they bus migrants to New York City.

The Republicans do this allegedly to prove a point that we need to secure the border. In reality, the GOP recently turned down border security bills. It’s a song and dance to upset blue states and flex their power.

But, I digress.

The Migrant Crisis is a real crisis. Over 100,000 migrants have arrived in New York City over the past year. This led to a multitude of emergency shelters, over $14.5 billion in spending for food and shelter, and a full overhaul of the schools.

Most of these people are trying to seek asylum, but the truth is that they don’t have much of a chance and the system is backlogged. Asylum is not for economic reasons. It’s for political persecution that has to be noticeable and proven.

Many of the working poor in New York City are livid about this — and rightfully so.

It’s not that New Yorkers don’t want migrants here. It’s that the Migrant Crisis put on a huge show about New York’s “humanitarian” side while proving that they had the means to shelter the homeless people in the city.

The hypocrisy is laid bare for all to see.

Prior to the crisis, there were 100,000 homeless people in New York City. Many of them were rejected for permanent shelter, denied food, and denied medical care that could have helped them get back on their feet. How do I know? My friends and I lived it.

We were told to “get a job,” despite no one wanting to hire a homeless person. The shelters themselves have about 100,000 homeless people sleeping in them.

Many people don’t want to sleep there because they are SO DANGEROUS. People rape you and steal your shit there. It’s happened to my late friend several times until he decided he preferred sleeping in the subways. Meanwhile, migrants often get their own individual rooms in hotels. What the fuck.

Schools have shut down to house them, hotels were converted into shelters, and many permanent buildings are now being planned for them. So, what the NYC government is telling me with this is that they could have done this all along for the homeless that desperately wanted safe shelter. They just chose not to.

Migrants are getting free daycare while New Yorkers have to pay for it. Fucking really? Even daycare?

New Yorkers who are working poor that struggle to keep a roof over their head with rising rents get to watch people who are not even from here get discounted rents, freebies, and job placement. The average rent in Manhattan is around $4,000. That’s not tenable for two people earning $50,000 each — and that’s very bad. NYCHA is backlogged and reasonable rents are done by a lottery that can take years to get.

It’s really, really bad in New York for the average person. There are tons of apartments that are sitting vacant because landlords don’t want to rent them out at a reasonable price — thousands, even.

 My friends who are in New York right now? They want to leave because they are fed up with getting slums for $3,000 a month and I can’t blame them.

Legally speaking, New York is bound to shelter migrants due to the 1981 “right to shelter” mandate, but that doesn’t explain the double standard.

New York is legally bound to shelter people who apply for shelter in the city, period. I get that. And I also get that these people are fleeing bad situations in their home countries. I also understand that.

But why is it that this city’s stupid-ass politicians are so okay with an increasingly cramped and stressed-out middle class? Why is it that people who were born here have to struggle to find SAFE shelter? Why is it so hard to find affordable healthcare?

More importantly, if New York really cared about the housing crisis, why the fuck does the city not stop developers and landlords from charging these ridiculous prices? They could. They absolutely could do that if they cared.

They don’t care. They haven’t cared for fucking decades.

As long as New Yorkers are willing to pay taxes and pay exorbitant amounts for apartment living, they will ignore the elephant in the room because these fucks profit off it.

For the longest time, New York was able to quietly ignore that double-standard. The politicians could quietly scuttle all the complaints of locals under the rug as long as they did the “we care” song and dance.

The Migrant Crisis? Yep, it’s forcing them to put their money where their mouths are. And Eric Adams is facing a world of shit because it’s time to pay the Pied Piper.

Newark is a prime example of a city that is working hard to remain affordable.

High-key, I love Newark’s politics. When I lived there, Newark was a lot more dangerous. Today, the city has turned around and despite that, the area still remains one of the most affordable in New Jersey.

Newark is currently giving working-class families homes for $1 as long as they agree to fix up the homes and live in them. The city also has one of the best-run social services net I’ve personally seen in a city that size.

This is one of the only cities where my friends can afford to live and still do their artwork. It’s also one of the only cities that seems to welcome working-class people and immigrants with open arms.

Newark is an example of what New York City used to be. Is it perfect? Nope, but I can tell you from personal experience that Newark is a lot more poverty-friendly and a lot more capable of upward mobility than the Big Apple ever will be again.

It used to be possible to go to New York with $20 and a dream, and somehow make it into an apartment. You can’t do that anymore. People are furious at New York’s housing crisis and the double standards they’re seeing.

This will reach a breaking point soon and I’m not beat for it.

There. I said it. New York City earned the veritable shitstorm it’s dealing with because it gave into every fucking whim of end-stage capitalism. There will be a point where you won’t find people willing to work minimum wage jobs in the city because it will make no sense to do so.

I mean, why work if you can’t pay the bills that way? Why work if the chance at having a roof over your head is a big fat zero? You might as well enjoy the permanent vacation or go to a place that’s not as fucking awful to you.

While I would still never vote for the party that took women’s rights away, I absolutely know of people in the Big Apple who switched political parties over this shit. And you know what? The political machine of New York has no one to blame but themselves.

 

Treatment

 Met with oncologist today. I have a PET scan on Wednesday, the following Monday I start radiation. Five days a week for eight weeks.

Then hormone treatment. Prognosis is good that the cancer has not spread, and this will take care of it. 

Bad News

 Well, the MRI said I had cancer. The biopsy said I had cancer in all 13 spots taken. I'm now going to have a PET scan, then to an oncologist for radiation, hormone treatment and chemo.

My father had prostate cancer and they did surgery. Today they have better treatments and that won't be necessary.

On a good note, I got my tax W-whatever and I earned $23.12 last year. Almost all of it from the UK for:

So far sold one of them to the UK this month.

Vintage Science Fiction Month

 Berthold Gambrel reminded me that this is Vintage Science-Fiction month. He chose Childhoods End by Arthur C. Clark. 

I thought about it and came up with Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy.

They were originally written as a series of short stories in science fiction magazines from 1940-52.

What Asimov created in these stories was what he called Psychohistory. The combination of psychology, mathematics and history to predict the future.

It is from these stories I truly understood the purpose of history. It's not just stories about people who died centuries or millennia earlier. History is our Chrystal ball to understand the future. Think of your credit history, life insurance actuarial tables and driving history. How empires rise and fall, political systems change from monarchy to dictatorships to democracy to republics. You can predict the cycles. It's not that history is forgotten it's that each generation thinks they are coming up with something new and better than what their parents and grandparents had. Hegel's Dialectic.

In Foundation Hari Seldon predicts the collapse of the Galactic Empire resulting in a dark age that will last 30,000 years. Then a second empire will emerge. The first four short stories were compiled and put in book form in 1951. 

Foundation and Empire was released in 1952 and Second Foundation came out in 1953. Later Asimov would write prequels and sequels to the series.

Selden proposes a plan that will shorten the dark age from 30 thousand to just one thousand.

A foundation is created, and plans are put in place to follow the teaching of Seldon.

The first foundation is set up on a small solar system far from the center of the Galactic Empire. This solar system would then start reconquering what was lost. 

 Seldon predicts certain phases of the collapse and how to mitigate the damage. He makes videos that at certain times of crises he tells his followers how to handle the crisis.

 In Foundation and Empire, all is going as planned until something strange happens. A man conquers the galaxy by psychic powers that makes everyone like him.  

When the foundation meets to see Seldon's prediction his video mentions a possible civil war. The man referred to as "The Mule," is an aberration. There is no further planned future for them from Seldon anymore.

When the Mule dies things go crazy, but the First Foundation clings to the hope that Seldon prophesied there was a second foundation on the other side of the galaxy.

The third book is about the search for this mysterious second foundation and it has an ironic ending.

The whole trilogy is a retelling of the fall of Rome, and the dark ages that followed. The foundation solar system is good old England. I liked the Mule as he inserts Charlemagne into the story. 

While the Galactic Empire is slowly falling apart it encounters the first foundation and the general in command of the forces of the Empire can't understand how this pimple of a solar system keeps beating his forces. He's referring to the Byzantine Empire and Belisarius, but when I was reading it and then gave it to my father, we both likened it to Vietnam.

It's still a great read.