Attack of the 10's!!

.

OMG! We're being attacked by 10's! And I don't just mean hot girls, either!

It's 10/10/10!

Worse, it's also 10:10:10! Fear! Panic! End of the world!

Forget 2012, the zombie apocalypse starts NOW!!!

.

What makes for good TV?

.

Everyone who knows me is aware that I watch very little television anymore. I was born in front of the TV just in time for Primetime and I didn't move until I was 23, when I joined the Navy. (A tough time to do it, too, because Babylon 5 was in the middle of its run! I missed a lot of critical episodes.) Since being in the Navy, I found I didn't need TV at all. When my dad came to visit me, he had to buy a TV for me because I didn't have one. Lately, I've started watching it a little, mostly educational stuff like Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, and Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe, and some History Channel and Science Channel stuff.

My roomy watches a lot of TV, and sometimes I sit in the living room with my computer so I can write stories and such, and he's watching almost everything they put on cable now, so I get to see a lot of shows in a bystander sort of way.

One show he introduced me to was Burn Notice. OMFG, that's the best show I've seen in a long time!

OTOH, you'd think something like Ghost Whisperer would be good TV, what with Jennifer Love Hewitt showing off her cleavage all the time. She's talented, the others on the show are talented, and it's got a topic I find a little interesting. But I don't watch it, and the roomy doesn't watch it anymore either. Why?

The main beef I had with Ghost Whisperer was that, story-wise, it was a one-trick pony. There's one big name (and one big rack) drawing crowds, and she's in practically every scene. Okay, it's ABOUT Melinda, but it still comes off to me as Hewitt trying to say "See? I can act! Wait, look at these! See? I can act!" I would hope that Hewitt isn't intentionally trying to steal all the scenes, or that she's not jealous of all her costars, but come on, how about we develop some other character once in a while? How about we give another actor a chance to shine; besides just Jaime Kennedy, I mean.

On the other hand, Burn Notice has a main character who gets the most face-time, but the other three main members of the show get nearly equal development. We know almost as much about Fiona, Sam, and Madeline as we do about Michael. Michael is NOT in every scene. Jeffrey Donovan isn't giving off those camera-hogging vibes.

But the cast of Burn Notice COMBINED doesn't have the star-power that Hewitt does. Are the big names "doomed" to be on camera too much, or are there other shows who have had a big name in the lead role, but give somewhat equal time to the rest of the cast?

I'm going to go with NCIS. NCIS is Mark Harmon's baby. He's the only big name (no offense to David McCallum) in the show, he produces it, and he's the main character. BUT, we don't really focus too much on him. There are SEVERAL characters we know almost as well as we do Gibbs: Tony, Kate/Ziva, Tim, Ducky, Abby... we even get to know a lot about Jimmy, Leon, and Jenny, and they didn't have a lot of camera time.

NCIS has as more regular characters than Ghost Whisperer, and we know more about them. They're developed. They get their time in the sun and we get to see them shine, despite Mark Harmon's star-power outweighing the rest of the cast. Ghost Whisperer would not be struggling to hold viewers and forcing Hewitt to show more and more skin if they'd just develop the characters more, and give the other actors a chance to show what they can do, nor would they have to have crazy story lines about switching bodies and adding a kid who's endangered in every episode.

Home Improvement is another good example. Though it was Tim Allen's show, and he was initially the only one with star power, the other cast members got a lot of development and some may outshine Allen in the near future.

Maybe in the past year or so Ghost Whisperer cleaned up its act and I'm not aware of it because I don't watch it, so maybe it's unfair to pick on them. How about I pick on William Shatner's new show, Stuff my Dad Says?

Shatner is probably the biggest name on TV right now (with me at least), and the people filling out the cast of his show are all somewhat unknown. Hewitt's star-power doesn't hold a candle to his. Shatner is playing the main character of a TV show, and in the one episode I've seen so far, he's mostly hogged the spotlight. I don't know that they've got enough material for the show to last past its sample-sized season of 5 shows, but if Shatner is the only character that gets developed, I'm not going to watch it, and I find William Shatner at least as entertaining as Jennifer Love Hewitt's cleavage.

Right now I'm waiting for Burn Notice to start back up next month, and I watch Stargate Universe because it was pretty gripping throughout the first season, and that's about it. I haven't even seen Family Guy for a couple years. As I look back at some of the TV shows I enjoyed most throughout my life, I find that the ones that developed the whole cast tended to be the ones I liked.

If you need further proof that having multiple developed characters is a good thing, take a look at sci-fi shows. Rarely does a sci-fi show have a single person in the spotlight the whole time. They're almost ALL designed to develop multiple characters. Look at the flop Enterprise. Scott Bakula was the only big name in the show, the action centered around him almost exclusively, and the other characters got little development. Only because it was Star Trek did it survive as long as it did. (That and getting Jolene Blaloch to show off for us so many times.) The other Star Treks may not have developed ALL the characters, but they developed SEVERAL of them, and that's why they lasted as long as they did. Anyone who watched was able to find someone they could identify with. When it's just one person doing everything, that's not much of an audience to identify with.

Scifi shows have a hard time getting an audience, so they have to pull out all the stops, and that means developing all the characters. Even those horrible "reality shows" know that much!

Hopefully more people will watch Burn Notice get TV right.

.

Shh-it's a Secret!

.

Thanks to Jay Leno for that headline...

I just wanted everyone to know that THIS GIRL LOVES ME!! (So nya!)

You may be seeing a lot more of her around here later, so start liking her, or I'll write you out of my will. (You guys ARE aware you can click on the pics for a closeup, right?)

Shortly after this picture was taken, the tree fell into the water. She started flailing and screaming about how she was drowning, and wanted me to jump in and save her. I rolled my eyes. I wasn't going in there after her, there could be gators in that water! Besides, climbing on the tree was HER idea.

"Stand up!" I shouted at her, and finally she did. The water wasn't even hip-deep. It's practically a flooded field. I'm not sure what you call that kind of waterway, it's just a waterland that ebbs and flows with the tide.

So she wades back to the shore and she's dripping wet and I'm still laughing my butt off at her. She's grinning, embarrassed, and a little startled, as she takes a look at what happened. Seems the tree wasn't as firmly planted in the ground as she thought. "Real smart going out there," I tease, the laughter subsiding.

"If you got a good picture, it was worth it," she answers.

"Hope so." We start heading back to the car, and then I realize, I don't want her dripping in my car! So I tell her, "You're gonna hafta dry out. Go lay out on that other palm tree until you're dried off."

Oddly enough, she doesn't like the idea. She seems to think she needs a shower first. To say nothing about learning her lesson.

So I don't unlock her door, and I get in and drive off. She can walk home, it'll do her some good. It's only about 8 miles, she's half my age, she can make it, no problem. She's complaning about being a couple pounds too heavy, even though she's 5'2 and barely 100 pounds soaking wet. At least I got a good picture out of it.

I'm just kidding about all that, of course. The tree is just fine.

You know, looking at that picture, you wouldn't think it was possible to take a bad picture of a girl like that, but I've got about a dozen pictures I took while she was here, and that's the only decent one. Well, there's another decent one, but it's taken a few seconds before this one, and she's not looking in quite the right direction, so it's not nearly as good. The rest, her hair is flying in her face, or she's looking in the wrong direction (that's the danger of taking candids), or it's fuzzy. But this one came out good.

What do you guys think? Should she be a model or should she be a model? And I should be a photographer, right? Use the comments for your opinions on the matter. Don't bother asking for her phone number, I'm very jealous about her and I wouldn't want to be forced to kick your butt. Normally I'm not jealous, but she's special. Who she is will have to remain a secret, so as to keep with the title of the story.

In other news, I've got Expose Yourself #2 written and ready to publish, but the person it's about is having website problems and she wants me to wait until she can get them resolved. Who is it? I'll give you a clue: she's super-cute and she owns a restaurant. Nope, it's not Crissy Taylor again! This woman has running restaurants in her very blood because she's spent her life rebuilding them. I'm very excited to get to meet her, not least of all because she's from another country and she really likes me. She called me a great guy today, and shyly punched me in the arm, just like Lacey did. Actually, she reminds me a lot of Crissy, in that she's very cute, very sweet, very shy, and too darned married for my personal taste!

The fine gentleman I originally slotted for #2 backed out at the last minute due to a scheduling conflict, but he'll probably be ready to go in a few months. You'll like him a lot too. BUT, in the meantime, I need to find someone for #3, hopefully to be published November 1st to get me back on schedule. Anyone in the Daytona Beach area got some inspiration to share?

Also, do you know what October 14th is? As you may recall, it's National Talk like a Trucker Day! This year's celebration will actually be the first time it's celebrated, because when I declared it last year, it had already passed. Doh!

October 14th is also the official beginning of Biketoberfest! The place is already starting to reek of bike noise. That will go on until the following Sunday, the 17th, so it's not quite the event that Bike Week is in March, which, as you'll recall, is actually my birthday party.

Next weekend there's an Air Show in Daytona Beach! I plan on being there at some point, come on down!

Lastly, I might be getting some guest bloggers in here. You've noticed my followers have tripled recently; well, they're set to continue to rise, and I'm asking some of the current ones if they'd like to speak to you, my legion of readers who rarely leave comments with your XBOXes and Java clients. (See the recent article about this site's statistics.)

That's all that's important for now. Have a good night, and be good to each other, because if you don't, who will?

.

Writing is Easy

.

They say everyone has a story in them, but not everyone knows how to tell it, and not everyone knows how to sell it. Wouldn't it be nice if you could tell your story in a way that others found interesting, entertaining, even gripping? And heck, why not make some money at it?

Today, after attending a great book-debut party put on by a local publisher, I had the pleasure of reading through a very interesting new book, written by four fun people, about how to write.

Why am I, master writer that I obviously am, reading a book on how to write?

Because it's not one of those typical books on how to write. It's better than that, and this is why:

There are a lot of books out there which try to tell you HOW to write. Grammar, setting, character development, story arc, man vs nature, all kinds of good stuff. This book, Writing is Easy, doesn't do any of that. In fact, the book doesn't actually TEACH a whole lot about HOW to write. What it does is it shows you that you CAN write, and it shows you how these four authors accomplished their dream of getting published, which you can do as well.

The book opens up telling you a stark truth: If you're a writer and you're not published, it's your own fault. In this day and age when the only remaining barrier to publishing is within ourselves, writing a book and getting it published is easy! Hence the title: Writing is Easy.

The Rogue's Gallery Writers - Michael Ray King, Tracy McDurmon, Rebekah Hunter Scott, and Jeff Swesky - each brings their own unique personality to the table with numerous examples of short stories, their inspirations, and the questions that naturally arise, all of which allows you to get into their heads and find common ground, which, with 40-some examples to choose from, you won't have any trouble doing at all. All of this is meant to show you that you're not alone, and that if you want to write and get published, there's nothing stopping you.

After all, the only real obstacle to getting published is you, and once you've found a muse or 10 in this book, you'll see that.

Billions of people out there still want new and interesting stories to read, and that means publishers want lots of new stories to print. Why not yours? But if you never get up the nerve to write, and if you don't actually put forth some effort to get published, then how are you ever going to do that? That's what this book is about: it's about showing you that YOU and YOU ALONE are the only obstacle to your success, and encourages you to overcome that obstacle by showing you how easy it is. In fact, Michael, in his role as the head of ClearView Press, the publisher of this and several other books, says the best stories he's read have come from people who don't have the nerve to get published, and that's what ultimately inspired him to create this book.

I think that's a pretty telling phenomenon, guys. What about you? Do you have what it takes? Do you just need a little inspiration, a few examples to show you the way? Then you'll want to get this book.

Here's a link to the book's official web page, plus I've got three handy Amazon links for you to buy Writing is Easy and some other books these authors have written. You can also order books through ClearView's site, which has more authors to choose from than just the Rogue's Gallery Writers. And don't forget to check out their blogs: Michael Ray King, Tracy McDurmon, Rebekah Hunter Scott, and Jeff Swesky! They've got some cool tales to tell there.
















_______

Other articles you'll find interesting or helpful:
What we mean when we say we will never forget
Ron Riekki - 2010
Arizona you evil state you

.

Winning the Aussie Way and the Scottish Way

.

YouTube - Winning the Aussie Way

Ya gotta love it!

Also, I just noticed Susan Boyle now has a CD out! I'm totally in love with the way she beat the crap out of Simon Cowell... metaphorically speaking, of course. Looking her up for the above links, I see she's got TWO CD's out, plus a couple DVDs and a book, and I'm proud to link them up for you. Congratulations to you, Susan, for making it so big, and especially for wiping that smug scowl off Simon's face!

Lastly, let me throw out some birthday greetings to a couple of my friends. One turned 16 yesterday and another turns 28 today.

















_______
Other articles you'll find interesting or helpful:
"The The Impotence of Proofreading," by TAYLOR MALI
You know you feel good when...
Hey baby, what's your sign? (Updated!)

.

Site Metrics Unveiled

.

Hey, everyone! I thought I'd clue you in on what's been going on around here, because it's pretty fantastic!

The other day, I discovered that Google now includes a modest suite of site-metrics for Blogger.com websites! Outstanding! I've been reviewing them, and you'd be shocked and amazed at what I've found.

For one, I get visitors from all over the world. The bulk are from the USA, of course, but a suprising number come from elsewhere. Canada, The United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Australia, Sweden, Romania, Mexico, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Latvia, Chile, Ghana, and New Zealand all generate a surprising amount of traffic.

Another surprise was that 50% of my visitors use IE, 28% use Firefox, and the remainder are made up of the usual suspects (Safari, Chrome, and Opera), but with a couple surprises, such as Java and Netscape. The real shock, though, was the operating systems and the way the numbers have changed over the past few months.

87% of visitors use Windows, and 6% use Mac. What about the other 7%? I was SHOCKED. SHOCKED, I tell you!

The iPhone users made up over 1/3 of the bulk, and another third went to "Other" Unix. Making up the remaining 2% of my visitors are users of the iPad, Linux, Playstation, BlackBerry, PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo Wii.

Wow! People are visiting my site with GAME MACHINES and PHONES!

I love it!

Thank you all!

Over time, though, the statistics have changed markedly. The stats above are all-time numbers since Google started doing this back in May. In the past 30 days (as of right now), 8% fewer people have used Firefox and 7% more have used IE to visit me. 2% fewer people used Windows, and, get this: IPhone users outnumbered Mac users! Both had 5% of the visits, but there were a few extra iPhone users.

And in the past 7 days, 66% of visitors did so with IE, and only 13% used Firefox. 88% used Windows, and Mac and iPhone both tied at 4%.

That's pretty cool!

It also tells me what the most popular search terms are, where people come from, and which pages are visited most frequently. I was a bit surprised at the results, especially since the most used search term to reach me was the name of a guy I've only used once on the site. I suppose I shouldn't be, since everyone wants to know who he is and there's nothing out there to tell you what kind of a guy he is and whether he's as dangerous as you've probably heard. Since I'm not interested in propping up his career, I'm not going to mention it now. Maybe later. I can tell you that if you google for him, this site is high on the results list.

Which articles are most popular? Probably the one you came in on, since 90% of you are coming for four articles, but staying to read everything else. I'll have more of those topics for you in the future!

When I first came here to Google Blogger, I set up all kinds of helpful cross-linking tools: categories, archiving, and so on, but apparently that wasn't enough, so I just recently added a few links to the end of many articles to direct traffic elsewhere. I didn't restrict these cross-links to similar topics, because I have a plethora of things here worth reading, because I read about a plethora of things. I still saw a corresonding increase in traffic, so I'll be using this tool more often, and now that I've got 80 articles, I'll be able to link up related posts more often and we'll see how well that does for the traffic. I spent a few hours editing articles to add these links in.

The only thing left is to start getting more active participation. I do occasionally get emails, but not many comments or votes or followers. And I do get the occasional PERSONAL comment, like from a friend who reads it. Only a handful of people have bought something through one of my Amazon links, but that's all it takes to pay for this place.

Thank you, to those of you who have helped me out, and thank you to those who will continue to do so. Here are a few things for you to consider buying, and then some other articles to check out.
















_______

Further articles that may interest or help you:
Expose Yourself #1 – Smilin’ Bill
BobParsons is a friggin' genius
Got Lobstah?

.

Nelson Mandela isn't THAT good

.

You've heard of Nelson Mandela, the black African from South Africa who was a political prisoner stuck in some hole for 27 years. He used the time to read and learn about human nature and managed to figure out how to heal his country, so that when he was finally liberated, he soon after became President of the very country which had taken away so much of his freedom.

Most of us would probably be very angry about such a circumstance happening to us. Most of us would probably look for retribution. Most of us would retaliate. But Nelson Mandela built his presidency and his country on forgiveness and enlightenment. He understood that the past need not impact the future, that people can put aside their differences and focus on something much more important.

There are two ways in this world to get ahead, and I'll tell you what they are:

One way is to push other people down. Embarrass them, sling mud, attach negative labels to them, show the world their flaws, prey on them, even ram jets into their builldings. The Bible says "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth," which is supposed to be our justice system. Let those who transgress against us suffer the same transgression against themselves.

The problem with that is twofold: first, transgressions are often imagined or perceived where none were intended. Sometimes they're even invented to justify our own selfishness. Killing people who are different from you at the behest of some one who thinks he's above you is the ultimate form of selfishness, and it doesn't matter if they're a national leader, religious leader, or comes into your head of your own accord. Only the people asking for murder gain, and at the expense of both the murdered and those who do the murdering. I guarantee you that the same figure who tells you to kill someone else will eventually tell someone else to kill you.

The other problem is that when we push others down, we ourselves are also lowering ourselves. You can't push someone down without also going downward yourself. It's simple gravity, man!

The second way to get ahead is to help others. Build them up and you build yourself up. Work together and you both win. It's obvious that this works or we wouldn't have countries, or cities, or even families. By cooperating for common gain, everyone wins.

Without cooperation and building each other up, we would've been extinct long ago. We're all born helpless and depend on someone else to provide for us, and our dependence on others never ends. We can't even die without depending on someone else to take away our bodies.

The human body itself is composed of billions of cells which must work together for the common good. Some cells are heart cells or blood cells, and they deliver nutrients to the other cells. Some are stomach cells or lung cells, and they collect and prepare nutrients for the blood to carry. Some cells are muscle cells or bone cells, and they allow the whole body to move and search for food. Some cells are brain cells or nerve cells, and they keep the whole thing running smoothly, even allowing us to think consciously.

What's more, the human body DEPENDS on certain bacteria. These symbiotic bacteria digest foods that we can't, and they produce nutrients that we CAN use. In fact, symbiosis is the rule of life, not the exception. EVERY LIVING THING cooperates with some other living thing to survive. No man is an island, and so too is no bacteria.

Nelson Mandela understood this. When he became President of South Africa, he could've used his position to punish all who had punished him. But instead he chose to forgive them and move past the hate. As a result, South Africa has become a significant power in Africa, and will likely continue to be one for some time.

That's pretty darn good for one man to accomplish. Except he didn't accomplish it alone. He had help. Just as we all need help, so too did he. He was the brain cell, someone else was the nerve cell, someone else was the heart cell, someone else was the blood cell, and so on. He did a lot of good by guiding his country in the proper direction.

So why do I say he's not THAT good?

A couple weeks ago, a friend showed me a book she was writing, and at the end she had a brilliant quote that came from Nelson Mandela's Inaugeration Speech. It was powerful and fantastic, and I'm going to quote it for you now:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We are born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

This is brilliant, and something I've been learning to live by for the past couple years, so I recognized its value immedately.

However, Nelson Mandela never wrote this. Nor did he read it. According to this page, it was written by Marianne Williamson for her book, “Return to Love” and was never spoken by Mandela. He had nothing whatsoever to do with it.

It's a really great quote, and I'll probably have more to say about it soon, especially if I can find a copy of that book to read.
















_______

Other articles you'll find interesting or helpful:
Up to 5.5 Miles, and a Computer Store in a Hairdresser
Ron Riekki - 2010
Maps are freakin' awesome

.

"The The Impotence of Proofreading," by TAYLOR MALI

.

"The The Impotence of Proofreading," by TAYLOR MALI

This is a short video presentation. It's pretty funny, but technically I wouldn't term it as safe for work.

Reminds me of a couple years ago, back when I frequented forums a lot more than I do now, when I got tired of all the horribly misspelled posts I had to read to get to an idea. I finally created a short saying that summed up my feelings pretty well. Then some over-sensative idjit said I was being "offensive". Here's the full text of what I was trying to say:

"If reeding you're techs tis all-most tore-chore fore pea-pull, pleas bee shore two ewes thee rye-towards too right hear inn thee four-umms; its aweigh too lettuce no ewer knot uh more-ron. It snot sew vary harred two due atoll. Thang-queue."

I'm so bad, as my friend Natalie will tell you.

It also inspired the You Might not Know how to Write in the English Language article, and their follow-ups.

Hey, while you're here, buy something from Amazon with one of these links. You don't have to buy what I'm linking, just go to Amazon through the link and buy something.

What we mean when we say we will never forget

.

What we mean when we say we will never forget

I don't know how it could be said any more succinctly.

_____

Other Articles you may find helpful or interesting:
It's Official: Asus doesn't Honor its Agreements
Arizona you evil state you
To Your Health - Part 3

.

Up to 5.5 Miles, and a Computer Store in a Hairdresser

.

We've been walking a lot more. Last week, my buddy and I walked what I thought was 5 miles over the course of 100 minutes - that's a good walking speed of 3 miles per hour. I finally got around to measuring it on my map and discovered we'd actually walked half a mile farther! That's an even brisker 3.3 miles per hour.

I walked on the treadmill the other day and found out I burn 330 calories per hour when walking at 3 miles per hour, so for that walk I burned about 600 calories.

That's about one bowl of cereal with almond milk, which is what I have for breakfast. Free breakfast! Calorie-wise, anyway.

An hour of walking is good for your circulation and helpful for your heart and lungs, but if all it negates is a bowl of cereal, it's not a fat-burning tool. By that I mean you can't go eating tons of cookies and crap and think you're going to burn them off with an easy hour or two of walking.

Jogging at a comfortable pace of 5.5 mph burns off about 650 calories per hour for me. My jogging has gotten up to about a mile and a third at that speed, for 14 minutes, then filling out at least half an hour with walking, for about 3.5 total miles those days.

If you do the math, you'll see that you don't have to run twice as fast to burn twice the calories. If you can go faster, you can burn disproportionately more calories while you're doing it, and save time too. Higher intensity is better.

Matt Furey, noted physical trainer, agrees with me about intensity. In fact, he takes it a couple steps further by saying you should run all-out for as long and far as you can - essentially go as intense as you possibly can. I haven't tried it yet, but he says it's the best thing you can do for your heart and lungs, in that it does the most to build them up. I think I may give it a try for a few days and see if it improves my speed and endurance for my jogs.

In other news, if you live in Bunnell, I've discovered a great computer repair place - slash - beauty parlor and barber. Get your hair done and a facial while you get your computer fixed! Head to 4751 E Moody Blvd and look for the computer sign on the salon, and I guarantee you'll be pleasantly surprised!


View Larger Map

_______

Other articles you'll find interesting or helpful:
Bob Parsons is a friggin' genius
Curse cookies!
My Travels - Indiana

.