Centennial Celebration

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This here post is my 100th since moving the site to Blogger.com, barely 14 months ago, and we've come a long way, baby! A lot has changed, in front of the scenes and behind them. To celebrate this, and our next 100, and because I've gotten several questions about this lately, I'm going to tell you a little about the story behind the story.

In 1995, I joined the Navy. It was great for a while, but things slowly got out of hand, and it was starting to get hard to maintain a sense of humor about everything. Finally in 2000, the powers that be finally had enough sense to put me in the computer repair department, which was where I was supposed to have been put in the first place. By then, though, I was pretty sick of everything - I wasn't nearly the positive person back then as I am now and didn't fully appreciate all the good stuff I had going for me - and needed to blow off a little steam. What better idea than to register a really cool domain name?

So I cranked up the internet, which was still pretty new back then, and found register.com. There was only one name I wanted to register. It was a name that was cool, that I'd been using for some time on the internet elsewhere. So I tried to register theds.com.

Unfortunately, it was already taken.

I had checked it out, and taken a few days to think about whether I wanted to go through with it or not, but when I came back to do the deed, the name was taken. Who would take a name like theds.com? No, Nintendo was still many years away from creating their DS gaming device. Rather, it was a for-pay cracking group known as The Damned Souls. I don't have any problem with people unlocking my games for me so that I don't need no stinkn' CD in the drive to play; I've really got better things to do than carry my CD collection with me everywhere I go. But those guys didn't do it for the love of the work, they did it for money. Worse, they sold copies of the games they cracked, an act that until recently was considered downright despicable.

Crushed, I had to think of another name to register.

What to use? What would say "squid"? What would allow me to rag on the bad times I had in the Navy, or celebrate the good times if I wanted? What described my experience best?

It was then I hit on mopjockey.com.

Immediately I had grand dreams to fulfill. I'd created several parodies about the Navy and the Bataan and my time there, and was itching to post them up for my friends to enjoy. However, in my desire to do things perfectly, I never got around to getting my stuff posted. I just had some piddly three-page thingamabob barely one step above "Hello World". For the first several years, the site was pretty well neglected. I probably got 100 hits that weren't mine in the first four years.

A few years later, I got sold some web space and decided to revamp the site. I posted up a lot of cool stuff about myself and my knowledge about computers and everything else I'm good at. I had about 10 pages of interesting information, and over the course of the next four years, I had accumulated about 1500 hits other than mine. I also introduced a forum and had a few people use it now and then. Clearly I was doing something right to have so much more interest.

In early 2009, as I was getting started with driving for my last trucking company, I started getting much more serious about the site because I had a lot of good ideas to post. I revamped the site again and put up about 30 pages of cool information about the Navy, trucks, some of my favorite computer games, and a handful of opinion pieces.

But then, a few months later, just before I visited the Stonehouse, my webhost suddenly went belly-up. For about three months afterward, I had no site. Since I was on the road, and my computer also died during that time, I had no time or ability to look for another one. I briefly tried to make use of Godaddy's free host, but like Register's free host, it had a spammy banner ad on it that messed up the site, so I was forced to park it there with minimal content.

Luckily, by now, the state of the internet had progressed significantly, and so in late 2009, I discovered that Google had bought Blogger.com and was offering free blogs. Before this time, I didn't pay blogs any attention, but one of my cousins whom I visited in September pointed me to Nathan Bransford, who then pointed me to several others, and when I saw how pretty those were, I knew it was a Sign From Above.

Articles were easy to post, pictures were easy to add, and no need for a seperate forum - people can comment directly on the articles, and they don't even have to register if they don't want to! Plus, I've got followers! Yay! But most importantly, I've got great stuff to write and I've gotten tons of praise for it. That's how you know you're doing good, when people you barely know are telling other people you barely know how awesome you are without prompting them to.

Back in June, Google started offering site metrics for free, and in the intervening six months, I've gotten a considerable amount of traffic, far more than I realized.

Today, Mopjockey.com is in transition. It started out as a bunch of jokes about the Navy, jokes which never got published (but still might one day). In the future, it will be a respected place, a place where people go to read (or watch) all kinds of fun, useful stuff. For now, though, it's a testbed. I'm trying out different things. I've started doing interviews with famous people, I'm lining up guest authors, I've given speeches, and I've got several different series in the works. One was about health, another about the solar system. And I irregularly comment about the craziness that goes on around the world or around Daytona Beach.

We're finding ourselves. And it's not going to take 14 months to make another 100 posts. Several have joined us already. You can too. Welcome to Mopjockey.com, where we offer More in Sanity. I'm your host, Jaycee Adams, and I promise the next 10 years will be a lot more exciting than the last 10.
















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Other articles you'll find interesting or fun:
How to Make More Money
Dear Mel Gibson
Ron Riekki - 2010
Flash Fiction is all the Rage

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You are What you Consume

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Over on Arstechica, where I used to hang out quite a bit, they have an article about how the California Supreme Court was hearing  Oral arguments in violent game case focus on nature of violence. (Okay, yucky English skills; I blame them for making the headline so poorly.) The thing is, states keep trying to single out video games as the root of all evil and that they must be legislated against. This is California's laughable attempt. Why laughable?

Because like every other state that's tried to impinge on Free Speech so far, they haven't done anything remotely in the public's interest, unless you count spending millions of taxpayer dollars to draft such poorly defined garbage, or PROPOSING to spend many MORE millions of taxpayer dollars to conduct kangaroo court cases. Really, guys, it's not that hard to define exactly what you want and then draft a law that says just that, and is still fair. A law that's unclear isn't a law.

The problem, of course, is that it's illegal to do what they're trying to do because some stupid piece of paper called the Constitution is in the way. Nuts!

All right, let me dial down the rhetoric-o-meter a little bit and give you the straight dope before you mistakenly believe my particular stance is what you think it is.

For some time, there has been a fervor about exposing kids to sex and violence. (And child labor. And personal responsibility. But we won't get into those right now.) The Nanny State is being created to protect us from everything except itself. It's the modern equivalent to the Bread and Circuses that killed off Rome. And right now there are a lot of people wanting the State to protect their kids from violent or sexual material. Hence, we have ratings on movies and music and video games. However, it's not ILLEGAL for kids to have access to those things. Because there have been a handful of high-profile cases lately about sex and/or violence in video games, a number of states have tried passing laws against them, and every single time, the Constitution protects Free Speech, and every single time, the people who wasted all that money to make a law they knew wouldn't pass muster aren't held accountable for the money they just wasted trying to break the law.

There are some heated passions on either side of the debate, and you'll see a handful of them if you check out the comments on the Ars article. Some say all this has no deleterious effect, some say "it didn't hurt us" (usually angrily and with insults, HA!), and some say it's worse than child rape. We went through all this with movies, do we really have to go through it again with video games?

I'm going to take a different route here.

We've all heard, "You are what you eat," right? It means that if you eat the right stuff, your body will be strong and healthy and able to fight off diseases, but if you put junk food in your body, your body will become all mushy and tired and ugly. When you eat right, you feel good. When you eat crap, you feel bad. I'm going to extend this idea a little bit to say, "You are what you CONSUME."

When you sit in front of a brain-deadening TV show, your brain turns to mush. One need only watch an installment of "Jaywalking" to find out we're getting dumber by the second. When you're exposed to lots of inappropriate behavior, without proper supervision, you never learn that those are BAD things.

For instance, watch the movie Unforgiven. Early in it, Clint Eastwood's character leaves his two kids, who are not even 10 years old, in charge of the farm while he goes out for a few weeks. Those kids were allowed to kill a few chickens if they needed to. Nowadays, if you leave your kid alone in a car for 2 minutes, you'll get arrested! What changed between back then and now? Parental supervision. As in, there's none of it now, and so kids have no idea what good behavior is.

If you're a parent, you have to raise your kids, right? That means spending time with them, teaching them right from wrong. That means spending their formative years being sure they are kept away from things they shouldn't be exposed to, like violence and sex and alcohol and foul language and all that other garbage. But when they ARE exposed to it, which they will inevitably be, you don't terrorize them with it. Explain to your kids, without scandalizing things, what's going on, why something is bad, and why you're not going to let them do that.

What damages kids is not sex and violence, what damages them is the way you react to those things and the way you raise them to treat them. Sex and violence are a part of who we are; applying them in a proper way accomplishes important, constructive goals, while applying them in the wrong way creates adults who have no idea why they can't get a date.

The most important thing you can have as a parent is the trust of your child, and when you tell that child something that turns out not to be true, they question everything else you tell them. Eventually kids look for their own answers, and when they do, if they find out you've been lying to them or overreacting to something, you've just driven them to seek more forbidden fruit.

I've got one more point to make: Just as you are what you consume, so too are you what you expose yourself to and spend your time thinking about. These are simply different types of mental consumption. If you're worried about losing your job, you're going to get nervous around the boss, act suspiciously, and then the boss if going to look at you when something goes wrong and think you did it and fire you. And if you spend all your time fighting monsters, eventually you become one. It's well known.

You remember those Chilean miners who were trapped for a few months? Imagine being one of them. Imagine having no way to see your family, no way to spend the day at the park, no way to enjoy the sunshine, no way to tuck your kids in at night, no way to hang out with your friends. All the little things that aggravated them - paying bills, taking baths, dodging political phone calls, walking the dog, taking out the trash - when they got out of that mine, I bet they were really glad to be able to do those things again.

If you instead focus on the good things in your life, how great it is to be alive, and how much freedom and control you have over your destiny, things will come together for you and opportunity will lean on your doorbell the same way temptation does now. Clear out the garbage, and fill your life with good. And teach your kids the same, and they won't even be interested in dangerous and destructive things because those won't be as fulfilling as the lives they can create for themselves.

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Other articles you'll find interesting or amusing:
The War on Cleanliness and Privacy 
Holiday greetings
Solar System - Mars 

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The 'Israelification' of airports: High security, little bother

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I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of all the crap involved in flying somewhere, and I don't even fly! The long waits, the unnecessarily invasive body searches and scans (which are getting leaked), the reliance on shaky technologies and people who don't follow procedures... it's enough to keep my feet on the ground.

Enter Israel.

Israel is a tiny country that you'd think would take about 5 minutes to drive through, much less invade. Surrounded by enemies who cravenly and hypocritically send their followers to suicide, you'd think it would be impossible for Israel's airports to do business at all. And yet, they're the very model of efficiency, with an extremely effective, non-invasive security.

Read this to find out why. Then push your lame-ass Congresscritter to put aside his bribes from the people who are co-opting him or her into ruining this country and SERVE his constituents for a few minutes. Saving the airline industry by using common sense security procedures is a much more effective and much cheaper way to create new jobs.

Mine, John Mica, seems to have this issue in order, but I'm still probably going to write him and tell him what I think. Though we must complain when something is wrong, we must also compliment when something is right. It's called feedback, and our leaders need it to lead effectively. If the only voices they hear are from special interest groups bent on world domination, who do you think is going to benefit most from policy decisions?

While you're telling your Congresscritter exactly how best to represent your interests, tell them to stop exempting themselves from laws and stop ripping us off.

Did you know Congress has their own health care plan? They don't have to worry about Obamacare.

Did you know that Congress can vote themselves a raise any time?

Did you know that you need only serve ONE TERM to get retirement pay for the rest of your life? Even the military makes you serve 20 years, and they pretty well control your life that whole time. Try finding that anywhere else.

Did you know Congress can adjust the boundaries of the voting districts to make it easier to get re-elected? It's called Gerrymandering, and it's cheating us out of our right to have new representation when the old representation stops representing us.

Did you know Congress loves to tack on extra crap to important bills to get things passed that no one actually wants passed? They take an important bill, like one designed to provide paychecks to the military, and tack on some weasel rider about funding a study on whether rats can fart in a microwave oven. Because the President can't line-item veto, he looks bad if he vetos the whole bill, so we spend millions of dollars to find out if a rat can fart while being microwaved.

Our governmental leaders - not just Congressmen, but also governors, mayors, and other elected officials - have got WAY too much power to vote themselves bread and circuses. They've got WAY too much power to break laws, even drunken driving and manslaughter, as Ted Kennedy and Sonny Perdue can tell you.

If Congress can pass laws that affect us, WE need to be able to have a say in laws they pass which affect them. I propose that if Congress has or wishes to acquire a power that we the people don't have, then WE THE PEOPLE should be allowed to vote on whether they get it or not.

Want a salary hike for being a lame-duck? We the people will decide. Want immunity to drunken driving laws? We the people will decide. Want to collect a pension after only 2 years of "service"? We the people will decide. Want to be exempted from a health care plan that will DESTROY America? We the people will decide.

These people NEED to be held accountable for their actions or they'll run rampant... like they are now. These people are supposed to be there to keep us from voting bread and circuses for ourselves, but the closest thing we have to the ability to keep them honest is the threat of electing someone else in a few years... who then will do the exact same thing. I think it's time we realized that, despite George Washington's best wishes, even the educated, professional politicians are corruptable and we should start imposing proper limits on them while there's still a country left to live in.

This is simple accountability, folks. Impose it. Expect it. It's your right. It's your responsibility. It won't happen unless you make it happen.

And if you think you can ignore this by avoiding airplanes, public safety can be compromised anywhere, not just on an airplane.

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Can't Hardly Stop

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Man, I've just been so freakin' busy lately! I'm now in about 15 different groups on a regular basis (at least once a month), ranging from being a better writer to starting up your own business to improving your love life to regular exercise and healthiness to social outing groups. I spend a lot of time studying up on these topics, and I've been working on a book or two about them, plus writing out instructionals to help others pursuing these areas, and I've started a new public speaking career, with several events under my belt already and several more on the way.

And I update this site once in a while with interesting stories, particularly the Expose Yourself series. And I spend a lot of time thinking up new ideas to promote the site and myself and the people I want to see succeed. And I visit other websites to leave links back to me. It's all a full-time job now, and the pay is pretty lousy, but in time it will get better. Meanwhile, it's a lot of fun!

Thanks for your support! Without you guys out there checking me out and telling your friends about me, it wouldn't be nearly so rewarding. Please, keep spreading the word, and I'll keep being so gosh-darn helpful and entertaining!

Now I'm off to do my semi-daily five mile walk.

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Other articles you'll find interesting or helpful:

Breaking personal records is fun!

Profiling: Is It Good or Bad?

To Your Health - Part 1

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How to Make More Money

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Yesterday evening I spoke to the Port Orange Scribes about self-promotion and blogging. I've also got other speaking engagements and training sessions lined up with groups that aren't writers, and last Sunday I led a discussion for a group I started about modern relationships. It was pretty exciting to do!

Though my speech last night dealt mostly with how to get your writing career jumpstarted through blogging, the precepts apply to any creative endeavor, be it singing, acting, painting, interpretive dancing, and so on. In fact, many of the precepts translate well into ANY kind of business.

As an interesting aside, I made the news! Here is a link to a bunch of Port Orange news stories, and they've got one about me! (It will probably only be there for another few days, so look quick!) When I found it this morning, it was most of the way down the page. Just search for my name and you'll see it (if it's still there.)

This is what I said to the Scribes:

Hi, I'm Jaycee Adams, and I'm a writer. I'm a teacher. I'm a speaker. I'm a promoter. And I'm a blogger. Thank you for this opportunity to speak to you about one of my passions.

You want to make a career out of writing. What are the most important elements to accomplishing this, the elements that are absolutely important?

• Write something good enough that people want it
• Get the word out to as many people as possible

To be good at something, what are some of the important things we must do?

• Study others' writings on how to be better
• Practice your craft constantly
• Learn from others' direct teachings

What are some of the tools at our disposal to be better writers?

• Reading blogs written by agents, publishers, and other writers, of which I have several I follow (check out my profile)
• Readng books like the one you want to write
• Joining writing and critiquing groups who will help you find errors in your book
• Entering writing contests
• Our computers, or a notepad and pencil to write with

All of these require that you WRITE something.

To get famous, what are some of the things we must do?

• Put yourself out there; you can't stay home
• Be newsworthy; do something that gets attention
• Make connections; you can't reach everyone yourself, so you need friends

What are some of the tools at our disposal to get more famous?

• Local news outlets and blogs looking for a story (TV, radio, paper, blog, etc)
• Attending public events, like book signings, but also charities, volunteer work, festivals; get out there and meet people
• Making new friends and networking connections
• Asking your friends and networking connections to talk about you to their friends and networking connections
• Posting links on places you frequent: forums, emails signatures, blogs, facebook pages
• Other forms of traditional advertising
• Get really lucky and have someone discover you

All of these require that the right person notices you, likes you, and gets his 5 million friends to like you too. Luck does not control THAT you get discovered, it only controls WHEN. Even then, the faster you build your fame, the sooner you become famous.

I'm here, of course, to focus on one of the most powerful tools at your disposal and how to use it effectively: sleeping with Angelina Jolie. Whether you like her or not, it is a fact that anyone who sleeps with Angelina Jolie is newsworthy.

But if you can't swing that, start up a blog. Why?

A blog accomplishes a number of things all at once.

• It's WRITING, so it counts as practice.
• It's a centralized location so people looking for you can find you.
• It's a networking hub so you can meet other people and get them to help you.
• It's an advertising tool, and it lets you say anything you want.

If you owned Walmart, you wouldn't dream of forgoing a website that told everyone where you were, what you have, and how they can buy stuff from you, would you? Name any large company, name any reasonably famous person, place, or thing, and there's a website about it for people to find out more about it. ALL businesses that expect to graduate beyond the home office NEED a website. It's the new Yellow Pages and then some.

A blog takes this website idea one step further with up-to-date information about you, AND it shows people what you have to offer, AND it allows them to interact with you and get to know and like you. It can be hard to sell your product, so instead you have to sell yourself. Hollywood has known this for ages, and that's why they spend so much effort on making actors seem likeable.

Angelina Jolie is so likeable that people go to see movies just because she's in them. Even if it's a bit part, they'll still go to see her because they like her. If she endorses something, people buy it because they like her. Luckily, Angelina is also talented. People know she's going to deliver. They trust her to play roles they like and to be in movies that are worth watching. If you want to tap into that power, you have to be a good writer and you have to get out there and be known. You have to sell yourself. YOU are your real product, whether you're a writer, singer, seamstress, architect, or bonsai sculptor.

You're a writer, and blogs need written material constantly. What better way to give out free samples of your work to show people what you've got, get them interested in you, and like you?

Being able to reach people has always been key to getting a message out. Whether you're standing on a stump, on the TV news, or blogging, it doesn't matter. The tools have gotten more powerful and cheaper, and right now, the tool with the most bang for the buck is a blog.

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't really "get" blogging, or they don't know how to make the most of it. Some don't "get" the internet at all. Some don't even "get" self-promotion. I'm here to help you out with that a little.

I've covered why you should HAVE a blog. Before I discuss how to use it, I'm going to tell you how to GET one.

There are a bunch of blogging tools out there. Wordpress, Yahoo*, MSN*, even Facebook and Twitter are using blogging techniques. The blogging tool I use is called Blogger.com, and it's run by Google. The reasons I prefer it are:

• It's very easy to use
• It's capable of doing almost anything you can imagine
• Virtually all the professional blogs from which I learned about publishing and writing use it
• For the money, you get a lot of picture and video storage space; you're not likely to run out, unless you're posting large porn videos, and then you can start another one.

How much does it cost?

It costs one gmail account.

All you have to have is a gmail account - no money - and then you can start creating your own blog, networking with others' blogs, and getting the word out about how fantastic you are!

Here are a few of the tools available to you with Blogger.com. 

• Your main page is continuous - it has several stories available and you control how many show up at a time
• Your secondary pages are just static information pages. We all need at least one of these to tell people the stuff that doesn't change often.
• You can insert a BREAK so you don't have HUGE articles gobbling up your main page
• Easy to put pictures in and move them and get thumbnails
• Easy to add hyperlinks
• Easy to handle reader comments
• Easy to adjust settings, letting you decide how much or how little you want on your site
• Easy to design the look and feel
• Widgets - there's tons of them
• Ads - you control how many, or if there even are any. You can get income when people click on them
• Sharing links is very easy
• Adding a real domain name is very easy
• You can set it up to post in the future, so tht one day you feel like writing 10 articles can be spread out to cover the next 9 days when you want to take a break
• Free statistics to tell you which articles are getting the hits and where your readers are coming from!
• Tied in to Picassa, which is an online picture repository

What should your blog be about? What should you write about?

Write about whatever you want! You can see that on my site, I have a LOT of topics. I find that anything to do with celebrity gossip, horoscopes, and popular topics draws attention, so you can talk about that, but you should focus on what it is that your books are going to be about. Being an everything blog is too diluting for your audience - it makes it hard to grab and keep an audience - but if you focus on a niche and serve it well, you will become very popular in that niche. It's not limiting yourself, it's becoming an authority on a topic, and it's simply the best way to go about it.

-------

 I then gave a short demo on how to get signed up and started up, and then challenged them to create an article, post it on my site, and get their friends to read and comment it so they could see for themselves how easy it is to do.

Statistically speaking, there's a 60% chance that ONE of the people I talked to will actually follow through and take up my challenge. It's sad, but most people are not actually serious enough about themselves or their writing to put even the most cursory amount of work into it. They come to a writer's group and think that's progress. Sure, it's a step in the right direction, but it doesn't mean you've made it to Tahiti. To accomplish something, you've got to DO something. If you can't even motivate yourself to handle your own best interests, how do you expect to motivate others to help you?

We'll find out how many people are serious about getting published in the coming days. Even if no one participates, it's not going to stop my public speaking and teaching. I've already got several speaking/teaching engagements coming up, if you know where to look.

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Other articles you'll find interesting or useful:
Dear Mel Gibson
Expose Yourself #2 - Straight to the T.O.P.
Shh-it's a Secret!

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Breaking personal records is fun!

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It's fun to break personal records. It's downright awesome to SHATTER them!

Last week, when the temperatures came tumbling down, I took a run around the block in the evening. A few months ago, I was able to run about 3/4 of a mile. Then last month, I made it to a mile and a quarter, which was a pretty darn impressive improvement. But last week, I shattered my record again and made it to 2.1 miles!

Upon reflection, I recall that this isn't actually the best I've EVER done, if you don't count that one time about 12 years ago at Keebler Elf Force Base (aka, Keesler Air Force Base) when I was just "in the zone" and I did about 2.5 miles. (And no one believed it, since my previous best wasn't even a mile.) So if I get to three miles, I'd definitely beat it. Which I will, possibly by the end of the year at the rate I'm going.

Then today, I got to the gym again. I've been slacking on that score because I've been so busy, but today I went and made some serious gains from the last time I went, which was two months ago. I didn't break my personal lifting records today, but I did a lot better than last time, which had a delay of about three months since the last time I went.

I did break one record, which was the leg press. 120 reps at 765 pounds definitely shatters my previous record, which was only 100 reps at 675 pounds (90 pounds less). I also nearly tied my best shrugging weight, lifting 410 pounds today. It was a lot of fun watching everyone watch me put all that weight on the bar. One guy was completely flabbergasted at my leg press, and when I told him 765 pounds was the max I could put on the machine, and that I'd like to get a couple girls to climb onto it to make an even 1000 pounds, his jaw dropped. Really, I probably could do 1000 pounds, although I'd work up to it, because 765 today felt heavy, regardless of the 120 reps I did.

It's pretty cool to be able to lift that much weight now. A couple years ago, I tried picking up my favorite niece, who is 100 pounds soaking wet, and I couldn't quite do it. Since then, I've lost 50 pounds (and kept it off) and boosted my strength. Now I barely notice her weight when I pick her up.

Unfortunately, I don't look as strong as I am or as light as I am. I'm getting more and more serious about my fitness, being able to run 2 miles or walk 6 miles without too much difficulty, so eventually I'll start looking as good as I feel.

But let me tell you guys something: what's important is that you FEEL good. Being healthy and being fit are two different things. There are plenty of very fit long distance runners who have health problems, and there are plenty of very healthy people who aren't fit but are old. Being healthy is more important, but being both is even more awesome, as it turns the clock back on your age and means you'll likely live longer and better. And it feels GREAT!

And now I've got a question for you guys. I've been calling myself "Jaycee" for a while, and I'm starting to get used to it, although I don't always automatically rememeber to introduce myself that way. Yesterday morning I attended a business group meeting, and one of the guys there misheard me. Most people, if they mishear me, think I'm "Jason", but this guy somehow heard "Juice". I kinda like it. I'm not yet SO famous that a stage name change would really hurt that much, but I also don't want to get into the habit of changing my name every time I hear something really cool. Juice Adams sounds pretty cool, and it's almost unique. There are a lot fewer Jaycee's than there are Jim's, and I'm about 15 of the top 30 Google results, but there seems to be only two Juices, so that means I'd take the top spots pretty quick. 

But what do you guys think? Juice or Jaycee? Use the comments, or send me an email.

While you mull that over, here's a couple things that I saw for sale and thought you'd like to check them out. They don't have any bearing on the article, but you might like them anyway.

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More articles you'll find interesting or informative:
You know you feel good when...
Imagining the Tenth Dimension
It's Official: Asus doesn't Honor its Agreements

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Speak, Jaycee, speak!

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Jim Thompson, leader of the Port Orange Scribes writer's group, has asked your favorite Jaycee Adams (as opposed to all the others out there using my name) to speak to his group about something I've been learning a lot about lately: blogging and self-promotion.

No matter what kind of artistic business you're engaging in - writing, singing, acting, painting, TV or movie making, miming - you need to get the attention of LOTS of people if you plan to live off it. There are lots of ways of doing this: blogging, social networking sites, getting into the news (paper, TV, radio, internet, telepathy), and being interviewed through the various media, to name just a few, and the more you use, the more people you reach, which means the more chance you have to make it big. I'll be going over these briefly, and then focus on blogging for three simple reasons: writers write, blogging is good writing practice, and you get to say anything you want to.

I'm all for doing the least work possible for the most gain possible, so when you show up, you're going to find out the fastest, easiest way to get known and get your work sold. Simply show up at the Java Jungle, 4606 South Clyde Morris Blvd, Port Orange, FL, second floor, at 6:30 pm on Wednesday the 17th, and Jim and I will take it from there.

I'll be discussing your options for self-promotion. Much of it will be about blogging - where to get a blog, how to design it, what to write about, how to get readers, how to get help, and so forth. But I'll also be talking about how easy it is to get media attention for your work.An internet presence is a critical component of success, and I'll be teaching you how to build it and manage it with the minimum effort possible.

For those of you who haven't been to Jim's group, he discusses how to be a better writer, conducts writing exercises to help you stretch your skills, gives you a chance to practice your quick, attention-grabbing introduction, and critques writing. If you have any interest in being a professional writer (or even just a hobbyist) and you can make it to Port Orange, they meet on the first and third Wednesdays.

Jim has two books published under the name J. W. Thompson, and has a series of three more on the way. He's all about helping others get published.

See you there Wednesday the 17th!

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More articles that will interest or amuse you:
Nicholas Marks - 2010
Expose Yourself #2 - Straight to the T.O.P.
What makes for good TV?

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Dear Mel Gibson

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Dear Mel Gibson,

I know recently you've had some troubles, and people like Jay Leno making fun of you just makes it worse, but I'm here to tell you that it's not as bad as it seems.

Yesterday I saw something that, if true, looks like you were having a nervous breakdown, caused by something that none of us would ever have thought someone like you could suffer from. We here in the real world see people like you having a bad day and some of us think you deserve it, while others can't comprehend the pressures you're under, and still others wonder what could possibly be so bad that you'd feel unable to face another day.

I am not (yet) a household name like you are, so I won't claim I know exactly what you're gong through, but I am here to tell you that, if I'm right, you have a very common affliction, and it is curable. It's very easy to cure, in fact.

Judging by what I read, if it was really something written by you, you suffer from a lack of self-esteem. You don't see yourself the way the rest of us see you. You don't think you do anything all that special. You don't think you deserve so much praise from so many people. I know what that's like, Mel. I know what it's like to have an incredible gift, and think it's nothing special, and put myself down. I know what it's like to be afraid to let it show just how special I am for fear of offending someone without that gift.

Does Mel Gibson have any heroes? Any sports figures he thinks are talented? Any fellow actors he admires? Any one at all who does something he doesn't think he can do, and so appreciates it when someone displays that talent? Perhaps you admire my writing talent. Perhaps you think I'm the best writer you've ever had the pleasure of reading. Perhaps I make you happy, and if given the chance, you'd thank me for being here, for inspiring you, for brightening your day. Would it pain you to know I don't share your opinion of me? Would you be surprised to learn I think my writing sucks?

The truth is, of course, that my writing is pretty good. I get compliments on it all the time, a dozen times a week, sometimes publicly on my site, sometimes in front of hot babes, and sometimes privately. People like what I write and the way I write it. Not everyone, of course, but those opinions don't count.

And people like to watch you on the silver screen. People like the movies you make, whether you're in front of the camera or behind it. Believe it or not, Mel, people admire you for your accomplishments, and people like you for who you are as a person. I don't know you as a person, but my sister says you're responsible for saving several lives, and I know from reading about you recently that you've made an important difference in the world.

Mel, idiotic jokes like Jay Leno's will eventually find someone else to fall on. Don't worry about him, his opinion doesn't count. Let yourself see you the way the rest of us see you. We look up to you, whether you like it or not, and we do it because you've done something worthy of that respect.

A lot of people go through their lives and do nothing of substance. A lot of people have incredible gifts and do nothing with them. You are someone who matters, Mel Gibson. You are someone who uses his gifts to help others. Please believe us when we tell you this. It changes your life when you start accepting compliments and ignoring insults and realizing that you really are someone special. I know from personal experience and I can also refer you to other people I've helped to realize this simple truth.

The power to be in love with life is within you. You need no special permission from anyone, be it the lowliest comedian to the highest deity, YOU and YOU ALONE have the power to be happy with who you are. Drugs won't do anything for you. Self-pity won't either. Getting angry won't. You have to decide to be who you are.

Thank you for making a difference to our world, Mel Gibson. Please continue to do so.

Sincerely,
- Jaycee Adams

Profiling: Is It Good or Bad?

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For some people, "profiling" is a dirty word. For others, it seems like the solution to all our problems. Which is it?

On the one hand, there's well over a billion people half way around the world who have declared, not just war on us, but HOLY war on us. It seems perfectly sensible to distrust anyone who professes to believe in a deity who supposedly wants us dead, especially when nearly all of them propounding this war are of the same race and are happy to die for their belief. (Why an all-powerful being can't take care of that himself is never satisfactorily explained.)

On the other hand, there are plenty of insane people who aren't Arabic, and choosing to distrust ONLY Arabic people seems a wee bit on the short-sighted side of things. The Oklahoma City bombing, the Waco siege, pretty much anything to do with the KKK... these are all terrorist actions that weren't hatched by Arabs or Muslims either one.

The problem I see is that ANYONE can be a terrorist. From a little old lady in Pasadena all the way to a dyed-in-the-wool religious fundamentalist (regardless of his claimed religion). Muslims don't have a monopoly on insane cults, they're just the ones in the news right now because they've, you know, declared WAR on us. You know, the JIHAD, which is their word for CRUSADE. Strangely, they don't like to hear us say that word, but don't mind saying words we don't like.

Sure, it'd be nice if the peace-loving Muslim majority would take responsibility and dethrone those who seek to boost their own power at the expense of Allah's good name, but since we don't even kick our own politicians out of office when they drink and drive and kill people, I don't think we can expect much in the way of change any time soon.

So what's the most important concern? It seems to me that we need to know the ratio of Arab terrorists to all other terrorists, and then we need to know at what ratio we're justified in profiling Arabs. What's the ratio at which profiling is the right response? 1:1? 10:1? 100:1? And while I'm thinking of it, what can we do to make terrorists stop profiling US?

Near as I can tell, a 1:1 ratio - that is, 1 Arab terrorist for every non-Arab terrorist - definitely means profiling is bad. It definitely means we're letting half of all terrorists off the hook. On the other hand, with 100 Arab terrorists per non-Arab terrorist, that means about 99% of all terrorists are Arabs, and so profiling is most definitely the way to go because otherwise we're letting 99% of terrorists off the hook. So somewhere between those two extremes is the proper cut off point.

It's my opinion that if any group constitutes at least a 4:1 ratio - that is, they make up 80% or more of the terrorists - then we are completely justified in profiling that group, whether they're Arabs, Jews, Communists, Mexicans, Englishmen, grannies, sock puppets, hookers, or watchers of "reality TV". So, the question is: what's the proper ratio? Is 4:1 too strict, not strict enough, or just perfect (since I did, after all, suggest it)?

Speak up now, or forever hold your peace.

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Other articles which will amaze or illuminate you:
Expose Yourself #2 - Straight to the T.O.P.
Shh-it's a Secret!
Nelson Mandela isn't THAT good

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Nicholas Marks - 2010

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Back in 1999, while I was in the Navy, my boat, the Bataan, was doing its Med Cruise and one of the places we pulled in to was Tarragona, Spain. While there, a couple busloads of us had the chance to ride up to Madrid to the Medieval Times Dinner and Tournament.(Apparently it's closed, because I can't find a link to it.)

It was a great experience, much better than the one that's here in Orlando (which itself is pretty good), not just because of the cosmopolitan audience which came from all over Europe, but because after the main show, we were then moved to a ball room where we were treated to an outstanding display of Spanish culture, including music and Flamenco dancing. I really liked the music then, but I never really thought about it that much until 11 years later. This past Saturday, while at the Downtown Disney Halloween party, my friend and I came across a guy who really made his guitar sing and dance.

His name was Nicholas Marks, and he had me and my friend entranced with his show. The music felt a lot like the music I had so enjoyed back in Spain, except it was even faster and had influences from other cultures. My partner identified Italian elements in a couple of his songs.

Nicholas Marks didn't sing, but he didn't need to. His lightning-fast fingers, guitar trick showmanship, and darn-good music were all the entertainment I needed.

After his show, I bought one of his CDs to autograph and thanked him for the great show and for sparking the great memories of my visit to Spain. I've since been listening to the CD and checked out the Nicholas Marks website to see what else he's got on offer. It's pretty cool; he's met a lot of interesting people and has been performing for some time now. He's also got a couple other CDs, and I just wanted to let you guys know that if you've got a hankering for Spanish music with an Gypsy twist, Nicholas Marks has your medicine, in a delicious dosage.

I didn't get to take a whole lot of pictures while I was down in Orlando for the party, because we didn't get there until just before sundown, and by then there wasn't enough light to take pictures of much. It just so happens that a flash actually worsens pictures of open areas when it's dark out, as I discovered. I took a few pictures, but only a handful even came out enough for enhancement to do anything.

The place was so packed that the big restaurants had wait times exceeding an hour, so we saw a lot of people and a lot of really good costumes. Several different ninjas, a crayon, Raggety Ann and Andy, several fairies, Peter Pan, Mario and Luigi, some princesses, skeletons, ghosts, and a couple of stilt-walking jack-o-lanterns, and lots more. We found a smaller place to eat called Earl of Sandwich, where the wait to eat was a lot shorter, and I had what may have been the best turkey sandwich I've ever had. So T-Rex and Rainforest Cafe missed out on my business, but if they hadn't, I would've missed out on Nicholas Marks' performance, so I guess it evened out.

All in all, it was a great party, and one I'll probably do again next year, but I'll have to tone down my costume because people kept giving me prizes for coolest dude, and for hottest babe on my arm. Hope to see you there!

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Other articles you'll find interesting or helpful:

My Travels - Florida

Leyland French - 1995

You Might not Know the Value of a Dollar

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Did you vote?

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Because, you know, it's that day. If you haven't cast a vote, you've voted for the winner, whoever it is. Way to go.

I probably should've started my political campaign sooner than right now, but it only occurred to me that if you don't like your candidates, you could use me as a write-in vote. I'm pretty sure I can't be accidentally elected since I haven't registered to run for any office, but I do make for a good protest vote, and if I did get elected, I bet I could do a better job than most people we've got in office. I'm certainly qualified to be President, or at least I am since the last election.

So, guys, with all the speculation that the Democrats are heading for a reckoning, what do you guys think? Are we throwing the rascals out of there? And will the rascals we replace them with be any better? Will we have to throw THEM out in a couple years too?

In other news, Californians should be relieved to know their economy is going to pot. Perhaps literally. Yay, American products! Let's keep American pot-growing jobs! I'll bet ya, though, that if it passes, there'll be plenty of imports taking away jobs here. We get all our other drugs from foreign countries, it's only a matter of time before we're too lazy to grow our own pot, since, you know, we'll all be wasted all the time.

That something like that is even on the ballots, I'm pretty sure it's a sign the terrorists have won. Or that the apocalypse has started. Or maybe both.
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Other articles you'll find interesting or helpful:
Writing is Easy
Arizona you evil state you
The War on Cleanliness and Privacy

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