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I followed a trail of scattered, tattered cardboard fragments to my cat’s scratchboard, picking up and vacuuming up the remains, and sighing heavily. This is a daily ritual.

Sam goes through a lot of scratchboards because I cannot clip his unfathomably long, harpoon like weapons that he keeps retracted like a turtle in its shell should I try to unsheathe and clip them. A process that also involves a lot of bloodletting – my blood that is. So I gave up.

But as I examined the worn torn scratchboard it occurred to me, that, hey, this is exactly what scratchboards are for. Who wants a pristine scratchboard collecting dust, unless of course, you collect them for some reason.

It reminded me that there are so many things in life that are sitting around and not being used, or admired at least. Not to mention the mere act of being alive. When was the last time you really enjoyed that? Or used the fact you are living to do something with it?

Cats can never be accused of not using things, except expensive toys. The more you spend on toys the more likely your cat will snub them. And the more something is of value to you personally, the more chance that pusscat will destroy it.

Cats are zen.

We get angry when something we are using wears out, when, duh, that is what is suppose to happen. In fact, things will wear out even if you don’t use them.

I, being a passionate advocate for living life to the fullest, say to you, don’t lock up your life. Use it. Be in awe of it. Even sit back on occasion and admire it. Before your cat chews it to shit, destroys it, or just ignores you completely. Before life wears out all on its own, or suffocates from the decades of dust that settle on it.

I almost forgot what my blog is about until today and fondly looking at that scratchboard.

I had a lot of errands to run this week and since it is -25 degrees celsius with the windchill, I searched the weather network for a warmer day to go out, you know, maybe something above -20.

When you have to stand outside and wait for buses that might not come until next year, it is important to be out for less than 15 minutes. Especially when you are in a place where even the polar bears stay inside.

I discovered I have to just shut up and do what I have to do, because it is not going to warm up until April.

Here is what winter is all about for me.

Click here.

I never wanted to visit the Canadian War Museum, or any war museum for that matter, but I found myself doing just that on New Years Eve.

No, there wasn’t a party going on there. I had to do some research for my next novel.

I tell you, seeing your ‘research’ up close and personal is definitely a lot more, uh, terrifying than seeing it in books or on the internet. Just walking around those tanks pictured above was humbling.

I admit, I am puzzled by war and why it makes such great fodder for stories.

Especially my stories!

Anyhow, this is not something I want to drag out on my silly little blog.

You can watch my latest little rant below.

To watch this video, click on here.

Yep, I finally got my latest novel published!

My usual fun and crazy stories – this time about tigers, plutonium and stealth jets. Yep, only I could put such things together and make it all work.

Just click on the image or you can check it out here on Amazon.ca

The weeks are flying by as I approach the end of a 17 year job.

It is the end of an era.

To anyone that I have interacted with who actually had enough nerve to view my posts, then I say to you, how much I am going to miss you all!

You have been my extended family, since mostly my life consists of Sam (my cat), me and a very good friend in Toronto.

Many things have ended in my life. The longer you live, the more endings you endure, until your end has arrived. But I’ve had just as many beginnings, as I am having now.

Thanks to all who let me yap, yap, yap to you while you waited for your appointments.

I love you all.

I’ve been asked a lot of times what a technical writer is, since I, in my advanced age, have enrolled in a certificate course of such an endeavour.

Basically, I suppose, a technical writer takes a complex idea and makes it simple, in words and pictures.

I had a very limited idea what technical writing was when I signed up, I was perhaps even a bit naive. In hindsight my ignorance was a blessing, otherwise I would have been too scared to tackle it. It is a huge field. However, I absolutely love it. It is the best thing I have done for myself in decades.

My goal was to write non-fiction articles that do what I claim a technical writer should do. Take complex ideas and make them simple.

But I fell in love with making videos.

Uh oh.

So, stay tuned, because next year I will be posting videos of me and my stories. I’ll have lots of fun making them, and you will have lots of laughs watching them.

In addition, I will finally publish my latest novel, Monochrome.

Cheers!

As I watch homelessness increase in my city, and along with it, drug addiction, I say once again, give people money first and foremost, along with a place of their own and mental and physical help.

Give people money. Every month. No questions asked. In conjunction with social guidance.

Let people make their own choices.

Of course, politicians and corporations do not want free minded people. People who can now choose not to work for next to nothing, to be slaves to companies and individuals who treat them as disposable and worthless.

Money gives people options.

It is simple. It solves very complex problems.

The money is there. I say again. The money is there.

It has been proven over and over and over again that basic income works. Don’t make this complicated. Give people money, enough money to live on.

Damn it, this makes me so mad.

When people have enough money to have shelter, food and medications they then can move on to bigger and better things, like improving their lives so they can get better jobs, better health, and contribute to society. In combination with social programs to help them get out of the terrible rut that poverty brings and all the stigma attached to that, people become valuable members of our society.

Basic income also provides a buffer, to get you through those sudden, unexpected losses of income that if you live long enough, you probably will experience at least once. People spiral down very, very fast when they find they don’t have enough income to support themselves. How quickly life can pull the rug out from under your feet if you lose your job, your health, your home, or your spouse to a younger lover. Knowing you can afford the rent, buy food and necessities and keep your pet while weathering the sometimes brutal realities of life is not only beneficial to the person suffering, but to all society. It cuts back on hospitalizations. Suicides. Poverty. Addictions. Crimes.

Give people basic income. No questions asked. I am sick of the waters being muddied. Just do it and see how this eliminates poverty, addiction, and sickness. Money gives people autonomy. Dignity. Options. HOPE.

Oh, sure there are always going to be people who will not do anything. That won’t change. And there are people who genuinely cannot work for whatever reason. That won’t change either. People should not be excluded from money or help based on perceived or cultural merit. I believe the vast majority of people do want to improve their lives if given the chance and should not be judged by their present circumstances. Basic income gives them that chance. And it helps not just individuals receiving the money, but their families and all of society.

F off with building more houses that only the rich can afford. F off with social programs that interrogate and shame people. F off with privatizing our health care system so no one can afford it.

Money is the answer. People are not lazy. They are money poor. Simple.

GGGGRRRRR!

How can this be?

I love cars. Especially ones that have nice lines, are well designed, sexy and powerful. I have never driven a V-12, I only drool over photographs of beautifully constructed automobiles. I love design, things that are crafted well.

I only ever got to drive one powerful, sexy car ever in my life – a Corvette, once, way way back when Corvettes were quite the status symbol. In my younger days I hung around with mechanics and race car drivers. I loved the fast and the furious, even if I never drove above the speed limit or had my hands on the wheel of a 600 horse. I never wanted to experience all that power personally. I was instead, enthralled by how all these mechanical parts; pistons and valves, camshafts and carburetors so seamlessly fit together in a big iron block and were so neatly concealed inside a sleek outer shell that made everyone look twice as you passed by. Oh, and the sound of a well tuned engine – my cat’s purr magnified a thousand fold.

So I see James Bond’s Aston Martin and I swoon. I went to an auto show years ago and fell in love with a Jaguar. It could be any well designed automobile, SUV, truck or even airplane (how could you not feel moved by the sight of the Blackbird jet?) and I’d get goosebumps.

So when you ask, how could I possibly be concerned about the environment when I love these gas guzzlers, it is because to me you are comparing apples and oranges.

I love design. When I look at a V-12 Jag or Aston Martin, pollution is not even remotely on my mind. My eyes are dazzled by beauty. I don’t have to drive them, I can just gaze at them. Just as much as if I see a field of wildflowers.

I care deeply about the environment, even if I am not an activist throwing soup at priceless paintings, or joining Greta Thunberg at a protest. I follow the Ocean Clean Up and other environmentalists and conservationists actually doing something other than writing or talking about our problems. I do what I can about my carbon footprint and I cry a lot when I see what we have done, and are still doing to our beautiful, priceless Earth. As someone who couldn’t afford a foot powered scooter little on a V-12 I don’t think I make much of an impact. As an aside, it is actually manufacturers that are the huge polluters, not the average citizen.

I have hope that great design can someday not also be a great polluter. Mankind is not likely to give up great design, nor horsepower for the environment, and I don’t think we will have to. The ingenuity of mankind is greater than that.

One thing I have learned about the justice system is that it has very little to do with justice.

That statement is probably obvious to a lot of you already.

However, the depth of the above observation is unfathomable.

I took a course on Environmental Law, what an eye opener. It had little to do with the fate of the environment until the EPA was developed. Even then a lot of greed and ignorance reigned.

I read a book recently about what it will take to convict trump and it has nothing to do with accountability, obeying laws or righting wrongs. It made me sick.

I contemplate the Lady Justice statue and see how correct her depiction of justice is.

It ain’t pretty.

Why is it everything man touches is so complicated?

MONOCHROME

Coming soon, my latest tale, with the usual mix of weirdness.

Stay tuned!