Did you know that you can download some of my stories for free? Actually, this month they all are free! I have several short stories available both on Amazonand Smashwords and some of them have always been free but from now until November 7 all my wonderful stories are free to download from my Smashwords page. All you need is the right code to use on checkout.
Why would you want to download from Smashwords? The best reason is format. No matter what you read on from Kindle to PDF’s on your laptop you can get it there, nobody telling you what to use! Just what are these stories about? Take a look – Visitor – An old man is visited by a friend he hasn’t seen in many years. It may be the last chance he has to ask a question that has been eating at him for years. Smashwords code VQ85S Aware – A space freighter is hit by an asteroid leaving Navigation Specialist Jenkins alone to work with a possibly malfunctioning robot to survive. Can she overcome her prejiduce in order for them to work as a team? Smashwords code PT46F Don’t Press the Red X – That bad first day at a new job. We’ve all had it, but for some it can be very, very bad. Already free on Amazon and Smashwords! The Second Coming – Did we already string Jesus up faster than the Romans did? Already free on Amazon and Smashwords! I’m Sorry – A woman trapped in an abusive relationship finally gets pushed too far. Already free on Amazon and Smashwords! The Interview – A man down on his luck has one last chance at a dream job but it might come at too high a price. Already free on Amazon and Smashwords! Contracts of the Father – A continuation of The Interview. Smashwords code EZ66J The Eternal Question – Why are we here? A chance encounter with a strange old may provide the answer. Smashwords code FX69E Futurecaster – Can a fortune teller escape his own predicted fate? Smashwords code TM85G Spirits’ Last Vision – The Mars rover Spirit made one last amazing discovery before it died but mankind didn’t get the message. Smashwords code AA55G All I ask of you other than very little of your time (seriously, some of these can be read in a few minutes) is that you please leave a review. Thank you for your support and enjoy the holidays! Dave P. S. Like the picture at the top? It's called The Truth.
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All the hulabaloo over Kim Davis going to jail for not issuing marriage licenses has me thinking. Simply put, no matter where you stand on the moral side of the issue it is a fact that she did not do her job because of her personal ideals. Hero, martyr, or villain depends on your own personal beliefs.
One of the supposed ideals of the United States is the separation of church and state. To put it simply, the state has no business in which church you go to or who you worship. This separation has been slipping and looking back at our fairly recent history an interesting comparison can be made. When JFK was running for president many in the nation questioned what would happen to the nation with an openly practicing Catholic as president. The nation worried about religion in government. Under JFK’s guidance we went to the moon and saw great advances in science that we still enjoy today and the nation prospered. Flash forward to the election of George W Bush. One of the selling points of the campaign to elect Bush the second was his religion. The nation at this point was, and still is, obsessed with what church the candidates went to. His relationship with God was seen as a path to great leadership. (That, and the tax money he was going to give everybody.) With the election of Bush the younger rather than go to the moon we went to war. Rather than work together to get things done we became a nation that throws temper tantrums and shuts down everything just because we don’t like someone. Our pursuit of piety in leadership has seen the middle class get destroyed. We started giving passes to anybody that causes harm in the name of the correct form of worship. We have given up rationality and compassion to our fellow man in the pursuit of going to the proper church. That is what all this boils down to. Being able to rape, pillage, discriminate, and destroy in the name of religion. You can do whatever you want to do when God is on your side. For example, since 1976 one single issue has brought our government to a halt four out of eighteen times. Abortion alone has caused 22% of the government shutdowns. How much time and effort has been wasted tilting at issues that have no bearing on how the nation functions based solely on the writings of people that died over 2000 years ago? So what is the answer? It’s so simple that the nation should be ashamed that the question even needs to be asked. Kick the pontificators back to the church where they came from and belong. Stop asking candidates which church they go to because not only does it not matter, but church doesn’t automatically make one a good person. (Just ask an altar boy.) Stop cheering when someone says “God wants me to run for office.” Return to distrusting religion that seeks political power. Religion is not what makes America or any other nation great. I challenge you to find any first world nation that uses religion to guide policy. Give rational thought a try. And if the Kim Davis’ of the world don’t want to do the job they were hired to do, fine, that is their choice and they are entitled to object. But they are not entitled to use their government position to force their religion on the rest of us. That is, after all, what the Taliban/ISIS/Iran would do and we hate them. They worship God wrong. For those of you that don’t know, I have a cat. Hereabouts he is known as The Demanding Cat, AKA Braytak. He is large, striped, and there must be some Siamese in there somewhere. This is an important detail to remember as you read on.
As I have mentioned in the past I am not a morning person. 8:30 is a somewhat reasonable time to wake up. (Notice I didn’t say get out of bed.) 9:00 is even better. The Demanding Cat, however, does not agree with my assessment of the morning situation. He is more than happy to greet the morning sun whenever it arises. Much to my chagrin. This morning was a perfect example of what happens in my house - A bit before five AM, as in “holy fuckin’ hell it’s early in the morning”, The Demanding Cat wakes up and proceeds to proclaim his awakedness to all the world. Remember that detail about having Siamese in his bloodlines somewhere? This is where that detail becomes important. For those of you that have never had the joy of listening to a Siamese cat sing you the song of his or her people allow me to try to explain the experience. Think of a banshee screaming at full volume while dragging your fingernails across a chalk board. Anyway, a bit before 5, it begins. Every morning. I swear that damn cat can tell time. “HELLOOWWWWW! I’M AWAKE NOW! IS ANYBODY ELSE AWAKE YET! I’M AWAKE! WHO WANTS TO JOIN MEEEEEE?! To which my usual response is to groan and put my head under the pillow and try to go back to sleep. “I’M AAAAWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Seriously, The Demanding Cat has breath control that would make world class opera singers jealous. It’s amazing. It would be even more amazing if it wasn’t waking me up. Sometimes, like this morning, The Lovely Wife goes to the rest room around this time. This excites The Demanding Cat – “Heyyou’reawaketoo?! Isn’titnicetobeawakefirstthinginthemorning?! Areyougoingtofeedmenow?!” The Lovely Wife, who has a higher tolerance to the dulcet tones of The Demanding Cat than me, blissfully ignores this wall of sound and goes back to sleep. I’m still under the pillow groaning and wishing for silence. Which I get for a few minutes. Just long enough to think it might be over. “I’M GONNA’ TAKE A CRAP NOW!” - Sounds of sand being kicked around - “I’M DONE TAKING A CRAP!” - small moment of quiet – “I’M AAWWWAAAAAKKKKKEEEEEEE!” On this morning the next sound to break the pillow barrier is the sound of The Demanding Cat jumping over the gate into the kitchen where The Neurotic Dog sleeps. He proceeds to get about an inch from her ear before releasing the next sonic attack. I know he does this because I’ve seen him do it to The Neurotic Dog as she sleeps before. “HEY! ARE YOU AWAKE?! I’M AWAKE!” From under my pillow I wish for lightning to strike The Demanding Cat as I wait dreadfully for what I know is next. “HEY EVERYBODY, THE DOG IS AWAKE NOW TOO!!” “Yep, I’m awake!” (She’s nowhere near as loud as the cat) “LOOK EVERYBODY WE’RE AWAKE!” “Ready to start the day!” Now, let me take a moment to talk about The Neurotic Dog. She’s old. Old enough to vote. Soon she’ll be old enough to take clubbing. As anybody that has lived with an old dog will tell you, when the dog wakes up in the morning you let the dog out then and there unless you want to spend some quality time with some floor cleaning supplies. Hopefully before you step in it with your bare feet. So I ooze out from under the pillow to let the dog out. “Wownowyou’reawake! Howcoolisthat?! Didyouknowthattheotherhumanwasupbefore?! Areyougoingtofeedme?!” To which I usually mumble something along the lines of, “Oh my God would you shut the hell up and let me sleep?” I’m not really sure of what I say as my brain is not yet capable of coherent thought. Operating solely on stimulus response, I let the dog out and return to bed closing the bedroom door along the way in an attempt to create another sonic barrier. For about twenty minutes a lovely silence descends upon the house. Just long enough for me to start to drift off back to the wonderful world of sleepy land. “I’M AAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!” And so it goes for the rest of the morning. I finally gave up around 6:45 and got a book to read. In scrounging the internet I found news that should have many fan boys running for thier wallets and standing in lines for days.
That's right folks, a new iphone is on the horizon ready to take your money. "We were looking for a way to make the iphone experience more immersive and also to give our costumer base a way to better flaunt their technical superiority to the world," Stated lead project engineer Charles Trollosski. He went on to add that size was the "...obvious way to lay a tech smack down on lesser rivals." In a show of diversification it is rumored that a new line of clothing with plus sized pockets is also in the works. Just in case you've never seen it, I have been doing a turn as artiest in residence at 1stAngelArts Magazine this month. 1stAngel is a great magazine for finding new art and artists.
My first post went live last week. This week I ramble on about my favorite lens. Take some time to surf on over and check it all out, you'll be glad you did! Last enjoy a little humor for your day! A reader asked me recently about why have schools close for MLK day. The point was made that these kids were getting out of school with no idea as to why or how big of an impact he had on our nation. Wouldn't it be better to keep them in school and have them study about Dr. King for the day?
This is my response - I’ve been spending some time thinking about the issue you brought up about a day off for MLK. Unfortunately, you have run head first into an issue that is controlled entirely by money. The main problem with any discussion about education policy in the United States is how education policy is thought of. If you listen to policy makers in other nations, they talk about education as an investment in the future. They don’t expect results today or tomorrow and they see education as a way to make a better nation generations into the future. To them education is a long term investment. Now take a moment to listen to talk of education policy in the United States. Education is a cost. It is an expenditure that must be controlled and results should be seen tomorrow if not sooner. No fast results? The cost is not worth it. Gotta protect the bottom line. What does this have to do with a school holiday? First understand that school calendars are probably the cause of some of the most heated debates in school administration. Every person in the room, no matter how important or unimportant, no matter how informed or uninformed, wants his or her say and usually gets it. That’s a lot of voices shouting for their own cause and many many many compromises are made. Most of these compromises are made in the name of money. Hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars can be made or lost in a school budget based on when children are in school. Many districts across the US have looked into a four day week simply for the cost savings that can be generated by turning the lights off for an extra day. Parents screaming about the personal cost to them for daycare is the only force preventing this idea from taking hold. (Of course their voting for every tax cut that comes along is what destroyed the school budgets in the first place, but that is a rant for another time.) You can’t find a better example of money making decisions better than the year round school argument. Countless reams of research have been printed on the benefits of year round schooling. It is well documented that year round school prevents loss of educational gains over summer. Especially for those low income and special ed students that keep getting left behind. Many have commented on the question of why is our school calendar based on an 18th century agricultural model (kids get summer break so they can stay home and help with the harvest) when we are educating for the 21st century and beyond? The answer is money. Forgetting about the argument about teacher pay, just consider the thought of keeping a campus of 2000 teenagers cool in the middle of August. Who is going to pay that bill? Money even dictates the time of day that class starts. Just as in the year round argument numerous studies have proven what every parent knows: teenagers don’t do mornings. So why don’t high schools start later in the day? Bus schedules. It costs too much to keep the busses running all day and many high school students can use alternate transportation to get to school so they get the short end of the stick. The district could buy more busses and hire more drivers but… As far as keeping students in school and having a day to look at the impact of MLK when are you going to fit it in? Schools already loose close to a month of teaching time each year to various federal, state, and district mandated testing, not to mention all of the various other social education programs such as say no to drugs and various be nice to each other programs. More days could be added to the calendar, but it costs money to open the doors and remember costs in education in the United States are to be avoided whenever possible. Especially for academics. Also, there is no test covering MLK so there is no reason to lose instructional time on something that is not tested. That is the ultimate reality in education right now. I'm not what you would call a morning person. I'm more than happy to hide under the covers until 9:30 or so in the morning. Like a civilized person. Sometimes that just isn't in the cards and you end up waking up with the sun. This was the case a few weeks ago while visiting family in Colorado Springs. I had two choices: Grump about it or grab my camera. At least I got some nice pictures out of it!
This last weekend over 600 aerospace engineering students from around the world descended on the desert west of Tucson, Arizona for the AIAA DBF competition.
For this year’s contest teams had to design, build, and fly, a model airplane that could complete three diverse missions. First, the plane needed to be fast. Each team took to a closed course to see how many laps could be completed in a set time. Second, they needed to be able to lift a five pound block inside and make a controlled flight for three laps. For the third mission, they had to drop softball sized wiffleballs one at a time while in flight. Any one task can be difficult, but put them all together and the entire contest becomes even harder. This is not even considering the report needed just to get to the point that you are invited. Just being able to show up means you have done well. I look forward to helping with this contest every time it comes back to Tucson. Not only is the contest itself amazing to watch, but the people that I have met over the years as well have become good friends also. These are a small selection of the photos that I took over the course of the weekend. More to come soon! few years ago I started working on a satirical work on education reform. I tabled the project at the time as it was simply making me far too angry and spiking my blood pressure. Sometimes ya just gots ta back off.
I came across some of my notes for this the other day and thought I would share theme here. I give you (drum role please) the education glossary! Next time someone starts talking about education reform you now have a reference for what the hell they are talking about. You're welcome. Education Glossary Accountability - a word that only applies to teachers. AIMS - see Arizona's Instrument for Measuring Standards Arizona's Instrument for Measuring Standards - Arizona's high stakes test, mandated by NCLB, to the tune of 12 to 17 million dollars. Depending on whom you ask. Each state has its own test with its own cute name. Also serves as a great way to cut about two weeks of instruction time out of the school year. Benchmark assessment - quarterly version of AIMS. Benchmark tests are also a great way to cut around another week of instruction time. Because it is quarterly it totals up to around 4 weeks of lost instruction each school year. Bubble sheet - the answer document used on test where students bubble in A, B, C, or D. Used most often on high stakes tests because they are cheap to grade and are well known for their lack of ability in testing higher order thinking skills. Collaboration - the time when teachers are supposed to get together to discuss teaching practices and what works or does not work with particular shared students. This time is more often used by district administration to show power points in order to sell teachers on the flavor of the month. Common Core - A widely discredited idea that was discovered by Bill Gates after sitting unused and unwanted for many years. It operates under the main idea that learning can be done on the industrial revolution model that puts raw material on one end of a line and pumps out identical widgets at the end of the line on a regular basis. See also - NCLB, No Child Left Behind, curriculum, flavor of the month Corrective action - What happens when the school improvement plan fails. This involves the state firing all the teachers at a school and hiring new ones. The only problem with this is that by then the school has such a reputation that no experienced teacher will teach there so all the state can get are new, inexperienced, teachers Curriculum - see flavor of the month Data driven - Teachers should only make teaching decisions based on test data. Even if the data disproves the conclusion. District assessment - See benchmark assessment (notice how it's kinda' like Eskimos and snow?) Diploma mill – the high school version of social promotion. Positive version of Dropout factory. See also: social promotion. Dropout factory – What high schools become to alleviate the overcrowding caused by social promotion. Negative version of Diploma mill. See also: Social promotion. (Important note! If you can convince a student to transfer before dropping out it does not count as a dropout!) Flavor of the month - an all-new way to teach that will magically make all students superstars. Usually something re-packaged from 10 years ago with some new words and has a life span of about two to three years. Or until the next new superintendent or principal comes on board. High stakes testing - any test that is pass/fail for graduation. See also - AIMS IEP - Individual Education Plan A document written for each student in special education. States continually change the requirements for this document in order to deny funding to schools because the paperwork was not done correctly. The ultimate goal is to have a standardized Individual Education Plan that works for all students. (seriously, you can't make this stuff up folks) Instructional coach - A teacher that has been taken out of the classroom to "coach" other teachers. In reality, nobody actually knows what this person does. NCLB - see No Child Left Behind No Child Left Behind - This federal education reform act turns schools into factories by forcing them to focus on numbers and timetables. see also - Common Core Pacing calendar – A document that states when students should be learning a certain skill throughout his or her K-12 experience. see also - Common Core Performance based pay - The idea that paying teachers based on how students take tests will suddenly draw super teachers. Just like bonuses keep all those great minds at work on Wall Street. Performance objective - A long list of stuff that state politicians feel need to be taught at each grade level. Usually numbered for quick and easy reference. An example from the state of Arizona - M10-S1C1-01 . Justify with examples the relation between the number system being used (natural numbers, whole numbers, integers, rational numbers and irrational numbers) and the question of whether or not an equation has a solution in that number system Ping Pong student - an unfortunate by-product of school choice created by parents that refuse to admit they might have a part of their child's education. These parents move their children from school to school, often several times during a single school year always blaming the school for low grades and behavior problems. What these parents fail to realize is the constant school change makes the grades and behavior worse. The most extreme case of this saw a student withdraw and re-enroll in a twelve-hour period. PO - see Performance Objective School improvement plan - A plan that "helps" schools raise test scores by taking money out of the classroom and makes teachers and principals leave their schools and classrooms so that they may go to trainings and then meetings to tell the state what they will be doing to raise test scores. State officials are surprised when these incredibly helpful tactics somehow do not help bring up test scores. Social promotion - The act of moving a student to the next grade even if that student has not completed the required work to move on. This happens most often in middle school and is driven largely by the need to show positive numbers and alleviate overcrowding in the elementary and middle schools. see also - Diploma mill, Dropout factory. Student - What once was a human being that is being turned into a data point for the purposes of tracking and having a product to sell to the public. Smart board - A 21st century version of the overhead projector. Unlike an overhead projector, it is interactive. Just like an overhead projector, it has a tendency to make students fall asleep. Get your Spam today! Great googly moogly I must have been discovered by a new web bot recently because I have been getting some interesting comments from some people with some very interesting names.
Names like "Free 5.0 White Mens For Women Bargain-priced With Complete Product Models", "the High Quality You Want Can Come Ture", "White Mens Clearance Sale Come To Have A Happy Time In Shoes Here", and "we Can Develop Each Other" Even better than the names are the incredibly insightful comments that are being left. I can truly believe that this guy is not very web smart - "I know this if off topic but I'm looking into starting my own blog and was wondering what all is needed to get set up? I'm assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny? I'm not very web smart so I'm not 100% positive. Any recommendations or advice would be greatly appreciated. Cheers" Lots of people want to do link exchanges – “Howdy! I know this is kinda off topic nevertheless I’d figured I’d ask. Would you be interested in exchanging links or maybe guest authoring a blog article or vice-versa? My website covers a lot of the same subjects as yours and I think we could greatly benefit from each other. If you’re interested feel free to send me an e-mail. I look forward to hearing from you! Fantastic blog by the way!” Nice start by the way. “Howdy!” How very Gene Autry. "Please let me know if you're looking for a article author for your blog. You have some really good articles and I think I would be a good asset. If you ever want to take some of the load off, I'd love to write some content for your blog in exchange for a link back to mine. Please blast me an e-mail if interested. Cheers!" Cheers is always a good ending and seems to be popular. Questions about what system I am using are also popular. "I am curious to find out what blog system you're working with? I'm experiencing some minor security issues with my latest website and I would like to find something more safe. Do you have any solutions?" It’s always good when things are “more safe”. Back to ESL classes for you! I think this rambling missive (and it takes skill to present a rambling missive in such a short space) is my favorite of the bunch. "I do like the way you have presented this difficulty and it does indeed provide me personally some fodder for consideration. Nevertheless, coming from what I have witnessed, I simply trust when the commentary pile on that men and women keep on issue and not embark on a soap box regarding some other news of the day. Yet, thank you for this excellent piece and while I do not necessarily go along with this in totality, I respect the perspective." I’m not even sure if a person actually wrote this or if it was just a random string of words but it’s OK because they “respect the perspective”. Oh, and I'm sorry "Free 3.0 CarbonGrey Grey Mens Has Lots Of Choices", I don't have any other suggestions for blogs on the same subject for you. But I do wish you the best of luck my friend. Cheers! |
Step inside the mind of me.Hi. Welcome to my little electron of the internet, where you will find random comments about whatever pops into my mind! Previous mumblings
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