Category: Uncategorized

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!

Mystery of the universe.

How is it that hours after I have washed and dried my towels and bedding, they are still warm?

It is a delightful mystery!

I read an article that addressed the mental load that women carry in addition to the physical demands they cope with as mothers and wives.

But it is true of all women, not just those with children and husbands.

We are the ones expected to do not just the physical chores of maintaining our household, cleaning, laundry, cooking, dishes, etc. but the mental work too.

We are the ones who maintain relationships. We are the ones who provide the emotional support for others. We are caretakers, we nurture, provide sympathy, advice, help. We find the right medical help. Buy and administer the medicine, make sure of the right dosage at the right time.

We organize social events, parties, get togethers, dinners. We make sure we have household supplies, food. We prepare checklists, schedules. We make sure things are done on time. Appointments are made and kept. Arrange transportation. Plan vacations and make reservations and all that goes with it. Keep track of bills and payments, bank accounts and credit cards. Check on emails. Write letters. Make invitations. Prepare paper work and fill out forms.

We are also expected to be concerned about the world. Up to date on current events. Maybe even volunteering to help clean up pollution, fight poverty, take care of the elderly, rescue abandoned pets.

And then we do all the physical work too!

We also have to do all this at our jobs!

No wonder we are exhausted.

(A nod to my Mother – if only I had of realized how much you did when I was growing up. I am truly sorry I did not. I am so grateful Mom. Forgive me.)