Time to Get Kraken

I'm trying to write here, Mr. Cthulhu

If I'm going to be ready to write a whole novel in November I'm going to have to get ready.  I know it might
seem too late, but I figure if I buckle down and get cracking I can be ready to at least write it as a discover novel.

What is a discover novel?  I'm not sure if it's an official term, but I know that some people are discovery writers.  This means that they have a general situation and characters set when they start, but they either don't know where the story is going to go or they know where they want the story to go, but if the characters take it in a different direction they let them.

I have a couple of guides to help me prepare.  I've done 30 Days of Worldbuilding before, but I don't have that kind of time now.  I'm going to have to use an abbreviated guide.

First, to start a novel Holly Lisle says:

1. Know your world
2. Know your characters
3. Know your conflict
4. Embrace a theme
5. Determine a voice
6. Know your genre
7. Know your expectations

Holly advises in worldbuilding to build only what you need, which includes:

1. "Special physics"
2. Organized terrain
3. Defined inhabitants
4. Uniform method of counting time, weights and measures
5. Defined cultures
6. Spoken and written languages
7. Consistent technological level
8. Cast of characters

Annalee Newitz has rules for Quick and Dirty worldbuilding:

1. Do a little research
2. Have a few rules
3. Don't obsess over consistency
4. Consider what's good and what's bad about your world
5. Create characters who are plausibly the products of your world

Patricia Wrede advises that for worldbuilding you need to know:

1. Trade
2. Religion
3. Geography
4. Countries / maps
5. Politics
6. Culture
7. Magic [or SF tech if appropriate]

Kaye Dacus is currently running a series on prepping for NaNo.  She seems to have nine pieces so far:

1. Pick software
2. Main characters
3. Scenes
4. Props [yeah,I like that, oh, she means the "stuff" in the story]
5. Clothing
6. Minor characters
7. Style sheet
8. Theme
9. Outline and/or synopsis

I've also read H.P. Lovecraft's notes on how he writes a story:

1. Prepare a synopsis in order of occurrence
2. Prepare a synopsis in order of narration
3. Write out the story
4. Refine

So now, instead of 30 things I have 38.  Well, that's not exactly true because some overlap and some are not appropriate.  I think I really have it down to about 10 things, maybe a dozen to do in the next five days.

No problem!

I'm going to share what I can here.  I won't give anything away so I can't share everything.  If I can get the beginnings of the prep work done I know the story and characters will take me the rest of the way.

My Next Book Will Involve a Library

I've talked about this before.

Again, this year the weather is crazy cold and cloudy.  Again, my thoughts turn toward horror, but this year I've been thinking about what I can write and what I can't.  What I can write includes horror.

Did I mention I'm very seriously considering participating in NaNoWriMo?

Well I am.

Time Isn't Holding Up

Kaye Dacus in her blog today says you need to calculate the time you have in November to see if you will be able to write the 50,000 words for NaNoWriMo.

After a "once in a lifetime" trip, when I found myself "in another part of the world," "with a beautiful house and a beautiful wife..."  I grabbed my Google calendar and my notebook do do some calculatin'.

I figure I can write about 1,000 words an hour.  When I'm really in the writing mood I'm actually "writing" all day long and the word count is merely the time it takes to type.  I am a very slow typer (16.7 words per minute).  This means that I need 50 hours in order to get my book done.

The way I counted I should have 58 hours to type.  That's enough, Tha's e-NUF!

Now I just need to come up with the plot, characters, theme, mood, and location.  No biggie at all.

Which One Can You See?

I'm not sure if Cthulhu wants to join the US Army, or if he thinks he can hide on the couch too.

Maybe he's just tired.

Still I think sleeping on the bottom of the Pacific is just a tad less obvious.

Who is that tapping?

"...Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door..."

By Eddie Poe

I'm Baaaaack

I'm back from Tanzania.

I actually got back on Thursday afternoon, but I hadn't gotten the chance to get to the blog until now.  I was in Morogoro, Tanzania helping out the Maarabara at the Regional Hospital.

They didn't keep me from shaving, I just didn't while I was there.  Pretty scary isn't it?

Cthulhu Castle

It's actually a church I think, but I wouldn't go in there.

What I Can't Write

There were some things Lovecraft couldn't draw

I can't write mystery, hard sci fi, romance, police procedural, high fantasy; and I'll tell you why.

I seem to be telegraphing my antagonist when I write mystery.  I don't know if I don't have the right kind of devious mind, but my bad guy is too obvious too early.

I don't have the math skills for hard science fiction.  The kind of sci-fi I'm thinking of you really need to be able to explore the mathematical possibilities of things and I just don't have the math chops to even ask a math/physics person a question they won't scoff at (I know, I've tried).  I also don't have a hard science education.  Anthropology is considered a "soft" science.

I can't write romance or police procedurals because I just don't like them.  I don't like them enough to read them, I would never be able to write them.  You may be confused by my dislike of police procedurals, but you see I don't see that subject as one suitable for entertainment.

High fantasy is a bit of a puzzler.  I love certain fantasy, Tolkien, Pratchett, Asprin, Le Guin spring to mind.  I just can't stand others.  Again, if I can't read it I could never write it.  I don't think I could write it based on a very few authors because the sample size is just too small.  Additionally, I just can't get into it the way some people can.  I'm just not comfortable working in the genre.  I had been at one time, but I think I'm in a different place in my life and it just doesn't sit right with me anymore.

I'm not moaning or whining.  This is purely analytical and I'm using the process of elimination to determine what I CAN write.

What does that leave me?  Soft SF, contemporary fantasy, horror.  What type of horror?  Not slasher, I don't know about suspense, but I think I'm pretty good as weird fiction.

What I like to read:  Mystery (mostly cozies or cozy-esque), Hard SF, very select fantasy and very select horror.

Very select horror?  Why would I be able to write horror and not fantasy if my reading tastes are similarly limited in either genre?  I'm not really sure, but horror is what I've sold.  About 75% of the very very VERY meager earnings I've made have been with horror stories, or at least weird fiction.

I think it may be because it doesn't scare me to write it.  You know how it was always your older sibling, the one that wasn't actually afraid that told all the scary stories when you were young.  They were able to get into it with intensity and enjoy it.  They could dig in and make it ghastly and suspenseful.  It didn't bother them to leave a hero hanging over the edge of a cliff until the next bedtime story or to kill everyone off at the end of a campfire story.

The trick to writing that way is to keep your audience's fear in mind.  I have heard some authors that write what scares them, and that's great because they can check the effectiveness against themselves.  My way I can't do that, but if I always keep my audience in mind, which I do, I can do it reasonably well.

I think another trick is to make it as believable as possible for as long as possible.  That way the audience won't know when you strayed from actual facts and into the woods.  They will just suddenly find themselves in the deep dark without knowing how they got there or how to get out.  No idea how to get out at all.

What Was God Pointing At?

I've really no idea, that's what scares me.

I took this while out walking in the Uluguru mountains on Saturday.

Chicago in Morogoro

My best guess is that there was some sort of dimensional wormhole from Chicago to Africa.  Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I spotted this while I was out walking yesterday.  I know there must have been some sort of strange geometry because it took me about two hours to walk just over 4.25 km.  And then it took only about an hour to get back.

Also frustrating and confusing, I only got to see the first ten minutes of the All Blacks and Springboks battling it out for the Championship Rugby title.  If you want to know more, send me an email.

But Where's the Necronomicon?

I've been looking back on my list of ideas for horror stories, in preparation to write another novel in November.

I have a lot of really great ideas so the first challenge will be to narrow it down.  The second, and much bigger challenge will be to execute the plan.

I went to three bookstores and the regional library today.  I thought that finding Lovecraft in Swahili would be a great boost to my motivation, but alas there was no Lovecraft.  I turned from the L shelves and found this little grouping.

Remember how I was writing about Hemingway, and there he is, very close to Herbert's Dune.  Maybe I need to write about worms (I'll be sure to step without rhythm).

Cthulhu hotel

It may not seem to Lovecraftian, but this hotel next door to me is full of stuff like this wall.  I could easily see Hemingway sitting here and writing a novel.  In fact, last night I started the very preliminary work for my next novel.  This one is going to be a horror one.  I'm getting myself ready by reading "At the Mountains of Madness." 

BTW, this mountain is very real.  It is the Uluguru mountains and I walk by them every day.  There are no zebras (at least there aren't any more) there  is actually a soccer pitch where the painting shows zebras.  The horror!

Been Looking for a Tanzanian Cthulhu Image

Courtesy of Makezine.com

Can't seem to find one.  I looked in here, but no dice.  I wonder why everyone ran out screaming, guess they've never seen an American before.

Kalo mena Africa

It's a marvelous night for a moon dance - not.  It's raining pretty well here.

And here we are again in Cthulhu month except this time I'm starting it in Africa.  I'm roughing it a bit, without my computer right now or my Greek fonts.

Come great old ones or high water I will post the new poll tomorrow.  I might be able to dredge up some African flavored Cthulhu stuff, but for now you'll have to make do with what I find.

Happy INTERNATIONAL Talk Like a Pirate Day

It has been far too long, but I've been trying to get some guidance and some go ahead to post about where I am and what I'm doing.  I've gotten no such communication, but I have to post anyway.

Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.  I have to mention that because I am in Africa.  I have not talked like a pirate, but everyone here thinks I talk funny anyway.

Enjoy the day and as things move forward I think I will get into a better routine and be able to post more.

BTW:

School bus, school bus, school bus (parked at the Kibaha Hotel, not too far from Dar Es Salaam).

Moving, Changing, Updating, Shucking and Jiving

You may have noticed some changes around here.  I'm in the process of making this a more professional site.  I am going to brand myself and make this a site of William A. La Fleur, author.

What this site will include:

1. Full stories
2. Excerpts of FINISHED stories
3. Essays
4. Reviews
5. Commentaries
6. Jokes
7. Publishing reports
8. Writing goals etc
9. Polls
10. World building / story ideas

What it will no longer include:

1. Angsty posts, moany posts and posts with complaints
2. Some of the non-germane comments
3. Partial stories
4. Family reports
5. The faux take-over attempt
6. Personal / private goals

As I'm working to transition I will be trying out a couple of different looks as well. Feel free to let me know what you think about the looks.

Also as part of the transition I will be sorting things into virtual boxes marked:

• Keep As Is
• Keep But Modify
• Move to a Different Blog
• Toss

If you want to weigh in on what should go in which box, that's welcome as well.  I'm already conflicted about the reports on my bike commutes.

I'm thinking of creating separate, stand-alone pages for each of the stories I publish here.  That way the blog posts will be more of a log while the stories will be easier to find and read.

"Got 2 Passports, Coupl-a Visas..."

Καλό μήνα everybody!  I know that traditionally this is a greeting for the first of the month, but I was busy that day.

I don't actually have two passports, but I do now have one (my first).

I have been overseas before, to Europe and to Asia, but that was with the military and you travel on your ID.  I don't have a visa yet, but I am getting on.

I got my shots and a green light from my doctor, so I'm getting really close to going, but I'll still wait to tell you where yet.

I managed to ride my bike to work on Friday, which was good considering my back is still iffy.  I think riding was actually kind of good for it.

But I do have another passport of sorts, I submitted a story to be in an anthology and it was accepted.  I put out more information about it later.  My story was a werewolf story for Halloween.

Doctor Who Had Ink (and other things you probably already knew)

I was just watching a DVD of the first Jon Pertwee story for Doctor Who, "Spearhead from Space."

At one point he was hiding by taking a shower and I saw a very peculiar thing.  At first it looked like a question mark, then I realized it is a snake.  Jon Pertwee had a tattoo:

Still my middle Propette doesn't think he's cool.

In this story there are a group of aliens called the Nestenes.  They are intelligences that inhabit plastic spheres at first, but buy a manikin factory to build plastic bodies to house themselves in.  This is what happened to Rory while he was waiting for Amy and why he was plastic (you probably knew that)!

So, how are you.  I'm doing better after hurting my back, oh, about a week back (ha ha).  Seriously, I hurt my back, but I feel much better now.

Can you show me where it hurts?  Yes.

I've been behind on my Greek study, but Mrs. Prop and I did go on a date for our anniversary (23 years).

I still haven't found anything on the job boards, but I have a new and exciting opportunity to network that came my way in the last two weeks.  I don't want to say too much yet, but it includes another continent.

Just tonight I had a meeting with some of the Assistant District Commissioners.  I'm getting back into scouting shape and mindset so I can hit that District goal running.

I Wish

I haven't posted in a bit because I was trying to put together a well-crafted and developed argument against calling something in hockey a, "scrum."

In my opinion you shouldn't call an illegal activity after the whistle, with no organization, a scrum.

Scrums are highly organized restarts to the game after a minor altercation.  They are much more akin to a face-off.

If they insist on using a Rugby term I think they should call these things rucks.  That's a good, tough, hockey sounding word.

However, I looked in the NHL 2012-2013 Rulebook and the word "scrum" is indeed used for these activities.

So now I'm just a hockey newbie who doesn't know what he is talking about, and I should just sit down and shut up, right?

No.  I still get my opinion and I say it is wrong to call it a scrum.  I'm still going to cringe everytime I hear it, but I will stop shouting at my TV.  At least I'll stop shouting at it for this reason.

Does this:

Scrum

Look like this:

hockey thingie

I don't think so.

I think this:

Face-off

Looks a lot like this:

Scrum (before engaged)

Καλή Ιούλιο! End Super Poll, Start Chicago Icon Poll

Good July!

We had a better turnout for the June poll for super powers.  It seems like the most people would like to fly and shoot stuff.  I'm all for that!

I must apologize.  I have a post on, "Scrums" in sports other than Rugby, but I have to wordsmith it a bit yet before I can post it.  That will be the very next one.

I want to kick off our next poll.  This one is about Chicago.

What is the first thing you think of when you think of Chicago?  What is the most iconic thing about Chicago?  What is the single most visible, outstanding thing about Chicago to the world?  Is it:

1.  Sports Teams / Players (Da Bears, Da Bulls, loser Cubs, Da Hawks, Michael Jordon, Walter Payton, Dick Butkis, Bobby Hull)?
2. The food (pizza, Italian beef, Chicago style hot dogs the restaurants)
3. The theater
4. Gangsters
5. Politics (the Daley family, the Wigwam, the conventions)
6. Architecture and engineering (Burnham, Wright, Sears Tower, the skyline, the first skyscraper, Van Der Roe, reversing the river)
7. Music
8. Museums and Zoos
9. Neighborhoods
10. Schools (U of Chicago, UIC, Loyola, DePaul, Northwestern)

Is it something else?  Let us know.

First Revamped Goals Review

Kicking off the second half of the year I've adjusted my goals for this year down to four.  This is my first goal review with the renewed goals.

1. Learn Greek
2. Gold Commissioner JtE
3. Get a New Job
4. Quarterly Dates 

 First, I'm working on expanding my flashcard pack.  I'll have over 400 words in the pack when I'm done.  I'm going to have to get serious about setting mid-term goals and benchmarks.

Second, my biggest concern is making sure we have enough commissioners.  I haven't really worked on recruiting this week, but I have been working some issues that, if resolved correctly could help, if resolved incorrectly will be very damaging for sure.  These issues are top of my list for this category right now.

Third, I've been learning some new things and have scheduled a tour, so I am working this goal, but there are no prospects right now. 

As a sort of side note to this, I found out this week that I can NOT transfer any of my Post 911 GI Bill to anyone.  I had to have done it while still active in the Guard, and after 2009.  I retired in 2007 so that was never really an option and I found out this week that I can't go back unless they call me back.  I had been under the impression that I could become active again if I needed to.  Since that option is off the table I have to make a renewed effort to use that benefit myself for school.  After April, 2020 I won't be able to use it either.

Last but not least at all, are dates.  We have not had one and we don't have any plans right now, but we are talking about it.

This wasn't a very exciting report, but reporting keeps me honest.

I think my next post will be a bit more exciting.  I'm going to go on a rant about the use of the word, "scrum"  by sports broadcasters when they are describing something other than Rugby.

Congratulations and Moving Forward

First I had to put this.


That's nice, isn't it?  Let's just savor that for a moment.

I've let it sink in for a day and it is really nice.  My eldest went to the store yesterday to buy blank tee shirts to make us all Blackhawk championship shirts.  She is actually very good at that sort of thing.

I promised myself after 2010 that if the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup again I would learn to in-line skate and how to play hockey.  I'm not sure when I'm going to start that, but it will probably be soon.  I just hope it's not too hard to learn.

I wanted to share another thing with you.  Now a-days they call them memes.  I think of them more as motivational images.  I had one years ago of a closeup of what looks like a Rugby ruck and the caption is Jack Dempsey's quote, "A champion is someone who gets up even when they can't."  I loaned it to my Father when he was battling cancer.  I was reminded of this sort of thing the other day so I put this together:

Way to go, you Hawks!

Here is my Stanley Cup story.  For Game 6 we were at home and put the game on fairly early in the first period.  The Bruins looked like they had fire in their eyes, a desperation that the Blackhawks were just not matching.  The Hawks looked hesitant, slow and not too interested in really getting into it physically or with speed.  Then Boston scored and I thought to myself, "This is going to Game 7."

I didn't want to see the Blackhawks wimp around so I went down to the basement to work on some stuff.  I could still hear my older two in the family room whenever something important happened.  When I had to I walked through the house.  Some of the things I had to do required me to move from the basement to the first floor and to the upstairs. 

Mrs. Prop was in our bedroom watching with our youngest.  She would change the channel when things got too tense and/or at commercials.

I did see the first Blackhawks goal, the Toews goal where he took it from the faceoff and pretty much single handedly drove down and stuffed it right between Rask's legs in the 5 hole.  He did it right in front of everybody.  They say the way to beat top line goalies is to not let them see it coming.  They can't stop what they can't see, but Rask saw that coming all the way and there was just something about the way Toews did it that he could not stop.

I had a sort of feeling that I didn't really recognize until yesterday.  At that point I realized that Jonathan Toews would not let this game end in regulation with a loss.  The Blackhawks were not going to lose in regulation that night.  He was going to win it or at least keep it tied into overtime.

It was still too much to take, too much to watch directly.  I had to keep watching from the fringes.

I was upstairs doing something and saw the Bruins' score their second goal.  My oldest screamed, "No!" for a minute, but I also saw how the Blackhawks were skating so much better, with a better sense of urgency and purpose.  I was worried that it would go to a Game 7, but I also thought that they would probably tie it up again.

Eventually it got to be time to get ready for bed.  I still had to get up at 3:00.  I went upstairs with about three and a half minutes left.

I talked to Mrs. Prop for a bit.  I mentioned that there was plenty of time to tie the game again, but not enough time to get the winning goal and then went into the bathroom to brush my teeth.  I closed the door.

You know how long it takes to brush your teeth?  It only takes about two minutes.  I heard my youngest make a little squeaking sound.  A few seconds later I heard Mrs. Prop say something like, "Holy shit!"

I figured that the Blackhawks had indeed tied the game again.  After all, how could they score two goals in that time?  If they had scored the winning goal wouldn't I have heard my very loud teens screaming and yelling?

I finished brushing and came out of the bathroom.  Mrs. Prop had already changed the channel to "Criminal Minds" or something.  I said, "What was the noise I heard; a scary movie?"  They said that it was.

I got into bed and they asked me to plug my ears and close my eyes.  I know now that they were checking to see if the third goal held.  Then she told me that they had won.

I said, "What, how, who?"  but the other two came charging up cheering.  I had to wait to watch them hand around the Cup for a while before they showed any replay and I found out what had happened.  In less time than it takes to brush your teeth the Chicago Blackhawks had gone from losing Game 6 to winning the Stanley Cup.

Which puts me in mind of this:

I have to hand it to the Boston Bruins.  They are a heck of a team.  If they hadn't been playing against my Chicago Blackhawks, I'd have been rooting for them.  I like smashmouth football.  I don't like the passing all the time, glamor, flash, all offense all the time football.

The Bruins play smashmouth hockey.  Their success is driven by tight team play delivered aggressively and hard.  I know the city of Boston was really looking forward to an emotional lift after the struggles and pain of the Marathon Bombings.

In the end the Blackhawks played just as tough as Boston did, but the Chicago Blackhawks played with toughness and skill, speed and flash.  Boston ended up having to resort to brutality.

The Blackhawks were the better team, the tougher team and they are my team.

Congratulations!

Growing Hockey (and Hawkey) Fan

I am becoming more and more of a fan of hockey.

I'll admit I jumped on the band wagon in 2010.  I had  been watching the playoffs that year casually, but what really sealed the deal for me was when Duncan Keith got his teeth knocked out and only spent a short time out of the game before returning.  When I heard that I said, "I have GOT to watch this game."

I have been to one Hawks game.  When I was very young (probably about eight) my cousin took us to a game and we sat in the corner right up against the glass.  This would have been about 1974-75.  I had no idea what was happening but I was thrilled by the big men slamming against the glass and the Gino's East pizza we had after the game.

Despite this I never got into ice hockey as a youth.  We weren't too big on watching sports at our house anyway.  We watched the Bears, but not really anything else.  We were always outside playing, mostly football.

We were a fairly rough and tumble bunch.  If we weren't playing football, we were playing dodgeball (usually our own invented brand that we called Tron, using Frisbees) or floor hockey.  I even got stitches playing floor hockey.

I never played anything more organized than intramural softball (16 inch, and only because that was the only intramural sport we had) and a season of floor hockey in the park.  Everything we played was sandlot or in the church basement at Boy Scouts.

We did love watching the Bears.  When we played sandlot football I tried to run like Walter Payton and tackle like Dick Butkus.  Walter never ran out of bounds, he ran his would be tacklers out of bounds.  I loved that sort of gutsy, hard hitting play.  I loved watching Butkus drive ball carriers into the ground.  I never saw either of them get into a fight.

That brings me to the first reason I never got into ice hockey, the fights.  It seemed, at least to me, that back in the 70s and 80s there were a lot of fights in hockey.  There was a joke about going to a fight where a hockey game broke out.  I hate that.  In a hard hitting sport I don't know why anyone ever needs to fight.  It spoils the game and there is no reason for it. 

The second reason was that the Blackhawks never made it easy to watch them.  I never knew when they were on or what channel.  Eventually they had their own private channel that you would have to subscribe to.  You could not watch them in Chicago for free.

Even if I could have watched them when would I have had time to watch that many games?  There were just too many games to keep track of.  I feel the same way about baseball.  Baseball's sin of lethargy on top of that means I will never warm to that, but with hockey I'm beginning to see how I might be able to work around it.  I especially liked this year's shortened season.

The last reason I never got into hockey was because I could never play it, not ice hockey at least.  Even when we played floor hockey you couldn't emulate your favorite players, the Bobby Hulls, the Stan Mikitas, the Tony Espositos, the Denis Savards, the Daryl Sutters, Chris Chelios', the Jeremy Roenicks.  I knew all those names, but I didn't really watch them play because I didn't feel the need to study them so I could learn how to play like them.  I knew I would never be able to even imitate that play.

I've overcome that.  Now that I'm old enough to realize that there are just some things I'm never going to do, I can appreciate someone doing something that I will never be able to do. let alone top.

The NHL has gotten away from fighting (at least there is less than I remember) and the Blackhawks are not a brutal team anyway.  With the style they play it is in their best interest to keep the game moving and use their speed and skill.  I love that.

Also, as bad a my knees keep getting (I hurt my left knee just playing 45 minutes of tennis yesterday) I need to find a low / no impact cardio activity to pick up.  Skating seems like just the thing to try.

I also have another forever memory of ice hockey and of some of these Blackhawks.  When my Dad was sick we watched the Olympics together when I was over at his house.  I remember watching the Gold Medal Ice Hockey game between the USA and Canada.  There were Blackhawks on both sides.  I'll never forget watching that game with my Dad.

So now I'm watching the games.  I'm trying to learn the sport.  I'm learning the names and numbers and styles.  I've looked into other teams (gasp) to see what they are like.  I casually watch whatever hockey is on when I have a free moment and a fleeting control of a TV.  I'm talking about it at work.  I'm nervous about how games will turn out.

I like these current Blackhawks.  I love how they started this season.  I like that they won the President's Trophy.  I have been watching them casually since 2010 and was genuinely disappointed when it looked like this season might not happen.  I know what the new alignment will look like and bemoan the loss of the Redwings in our division.  I'm even thinking about getting tickets to some Wolves games, both to see the Wolves (which I have done a few years ago and had a great time) and to see the Rockford Ice Hogs.  I want to see the if I can watch some rising star.

Go you Blackhawks.  Take the attack, yeah, I'll back you Blackhawks.

Καλό Καλοκαίρι! Happy Summer!

Wow, Greek again.  That is indicative of my renewed efforts.  I think the only major goal I'm going to have for 2014 is to learn Greek.  I'm going to have to get serious about this.  It has been going on far too long for me to not know it better.

I rode my bike to work four days this week.  That's the most in one week so far this year and I finally hit 25 commutes.  That's very far off the pace I set two years ago when I rode my bike to work over 75 times (that's about 1/3 the workdays in a year and several hundred dollars of savings in fuel alone).  I got rained on very much yesterday and a little earlier in the week.

Let me review my goals:

1. P90X - done
2. Learn Greek - behind
3. Quarterly Dates - No dates so far this year.
4. Get a New Job - I've been checking the job boards, but haven't found anything yet.
5. Get Girl Scout Training - done
6. Gold Commissioner JtE - working on it.  I have to, others are depending on me, especially scouts.
7. Fortnightly History Podcast - Although I'm far behind in my original schedule,  I've been reading up on Chicago History and podcasting.  I set up my podcasting equipment in anticipation of recording a podcast and of recording the guidebook for the Chicago Lincoln Avenue Trail, but I'm having some trouble getting it to work right.  I think I'm going to tank this as a goal because I need to work on the CLAT more and the others.
8. Learn the Trees  - I am going to put Learning the Trees and Participate in an Archaeology activity on hold for this year.  By not fretting over these I think I can concentrate on my Greek studies.
9. Participate in an Archaeology Activity
10. Join a Club - We'll see.  If it helps to concentrate on Greek to skip this one too, then I will.

For the second half of the year here are my goals in order of importance:

1. Learn Greek
2. Gold Commissioner JtE
3. Get a New Job
4. Quarterly Dates

Four goals, six months.  Think I can do it?

Καλό Μήνα Ιούνιος

Good Month, June!

Just finished watching the Blackhawks win game 2 against the LA Kings.

Today was the final day of Exercise Across Abbott, and I did more exercise each week for four weeks.  I think our whole team did, so we get tee shirts.  It was mostly on the strength of riding my bike to work most days of the week.

I checked the job board, but it was empty (no jobs in my area).

I have fallen behind in my working on The Chicago Lincoln Avenue Trail, which is tied into my history podcast.

I am also woefully behind on my studying Greek.  I will have to redouble my efforts in June.

Once I get caught up with something I have to do for the Lincoln Avenue Trail I have something special in mind for this blog.  I found some interesting writing exercises that I will share with you.  I'll share my efforts in the exercises as well.

Late Report Again

Let's see, I last posted on 12 May 13 and it is 22 May 13 today, that's 10 days and I'm supposed to be reporting my progress on my goals weekly.  Also, if I want readership then I have to post regularly, but I'm not.  You can't see it, but Sister Mary Agony of OLBA (Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration) has a yard stick (Sister don't truck with no metric) ready to crack my knuckles, as well I deserve.

I did start Exercise Across Abbott, and that's a good thing.  From 6 May 13 to 9 June 13 I have to track my workouts and try to increase the number of minutes each week.  The first week we went to Boston to pick up Little Propette #1 so it was easy to keep the minutes to a minimum.  I increased the next week by 53 minutes.  This week I am on track to increase again, even though I had a cold the end of last week through yesterday / today.

I've also been studying Greek a bit more.

I'm feeling extra guilty though because I let the deadline for two writing contests slip by and I didn't submit anything, although I had started stories for both.

I know that both Terry Pratchett and Ray Bradbury say that you need to write daily.  I think Pratchett said 400 words and Bradbury said 500.

Not an excuse (or maybe just a little excuse, please don't tell Sister) but one thing that has me a bit flustered is that I've stirred up interest in Howlina, and while I am interested in that story, it is just a bit too involved to get into right now.  Also, I really want to write a mystery story, but I'm not really sure I can do it.  All the previous mysteries I've written just don't seem to work.  I'm also fidgeting with wanting to write a fantasy, and a horror story (two different stories), but those come easy and they feel like cop-outs, but on the other hand the better fantasy stories and better horror stories don't come easy.  I suppose that seems like several (excuses) but it really comes down to state of mind.  I'm not sure what state of mind I want to put myself into and keep myself in long enough to write a story.

I know I can throw 1,000 words on a page a day, but I have to stop doing everything else to do it and in the end I have a pile of pages each with a pile of words.  I've done it multiple times and I have multiple unpublishable novels to show for it.  I don't think that's the answer.

And anyway, that's not a goal I set for myself this year.

I suppose I should go off to check the job boards and do ten Hail Mary's.

Goal Poll, and Poll and Goal

My April poll was very simple.  Are you still working on your New Year's Resolution?  I'm the only one who answered and I said, "Yes."

I don't know how much easier the polls can get.

The May Poll will be about super powers.  Which one would you like to have?

This week my goal work is as follows (I'm only going to cover the goals that are not finished yet):


2.  Learn Greek = I am back to about 50% of the days, so I'm improving.  I'll have to continue to get better
3.  Quarterly Dates = I need to work on this for this quarter
4.  Get a new job = I'm checking weekly for an appropriate position
6.  Gold JtE = too early to tell
7.  Fortnightly History Podcast = nuthin' yet
8.  Learn the trees = I am going to have to start this this week
9.  Archaeology activity = I am going to learn the trees and learn to start a fire the way the Amerindians in this area did it, by hand rubbing two sticks.
10.  Join a club = I have joined the on-line group for The North Shore Ukulele Society. I will probably start meeting with them next month.

Χριστός Ανέστη

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ ΑΝΕΣΤΗ!  Happy Pascha (Greek Easter) everyone!
I'm enjoying some Greek coffee on my in-law's patio on this beautiful day.
Yesterday, my youngest and I were out camping with the Girl Scouts.  We went canoing and she also did high ropes and built a lean-to shelter.
I have not much to report on my goals this week, but as long as I'm here I get a "free" Greek lesson.
Enjoy the day.

Late Καλό Mήνα Again

Good new month everybody.

I'm going to give a quick rundown of my Goal progress for April.

1. P90X = Done
2. Learn Greek = fell back some in April, but I will get better
3. Quarterly Dates = Fail
4. Get a new job = I got nuthin'
5. Get Girl Scout trained = DONE
6. Gold JtE = too early to tell
7. Fortnightly History Podcast = nuthin' so far
8. Learn the trees = not yet, but we're getting close with the warm weather and new buds
9. Archaeology activity = I got one picked out, but haven't done anything about it, yet
10. Join a club = actually this one is probably the most interesting.  I volunteer with someone who also plays ukulele.  He's part of The North Shore Ukulele Society.  They meet and jam once a month.  I may join them.  This month's meeting is on Πάσχα so I won't be going, but coming soon...

Late Report

It's been two weeks since I posted.  That's a shame, but since I've finished two big goals I didn't think I had too much to report, but it turns out I do.

I started riding my bike to work.  Not too much to start, I rode one day two weeks ago, but that was a very rainy week (more rain than most entire months of April).  Last week I rode two days.  This week I'm hoping to ride three days.

I think I'll more fully report those rides in a later post.

I took a week off of exercise for the most part, then last week I worked out 4 days (down from 6), but back to pretty intense workouts.

I went looking for a second yogo DVD.  I have a Kathy Smith one from Beach Body, but that is only 20 minutes.  The P90X one is 93 minutes.  That's too much of a drop.  I guess I'll keep using the P90X DVDs but in my own mix, and only on days I don't ride my bike.

We went camping with the Girl Scouts last Friday.  We were in one of the leaders backyards but, it was pretty intense since we were out from about 18:30 until 09:00 the next morning and we squeezed in three meals and a snack.  Everybody got a chance to light a fire, learn some knots, erect a tent and cook. 
Next Friday we are going to the local Council's Camporee, but that's in cabins with dining hall meals.

I had been working on quite a bit of Greek too, spending my lunches with electronic flashcards.  I'm building my vocabulary at a glacial pace, but now I need to practice.

Finished P90X!!!!!!!!

I did it!  I finished!  I am indulging myself today and I feel kind of fat, so I think I'll save photos until I go back to doing cardio and feel thinner.

This is the chart I used to keep track of what day I was on.  I started after the first month because it got a bit confusing and this was much easier than most other formats.  I crossed off any day I did.  I circled days I missed.  The Xs are the week I doubled up so I  could make up days I missed.

I didn't get where I wanted to from this program.  After 70 days of P90 in 2008 I was down to 216.  That's the lowest I've weighed since I don't know when.  Admittedly I did a lot of other things in addition to the P90, but I expected to at least get below 220 and I only got down to 225 this year.

I'm not blaming the program.  I probably didn't do something the right way.  I suspect my bad knee and the days I had to miss were part of the problem.

Anyway, I'm done.  I did it.  I am a P90X graduate.

Now, what's next?

I should reward myself, but how?

I'll have to think about that, but for now, I have one more goal down.

P91X or Is It P87X?

Today was Day 91 of P90X or was it Day 80?  I repeated one of the hard weeks last week so now I'm on the last real week, the one with all the cardio.

I'm going to make up the most of the 10 days I missed by doing that extra week, so in the end I will have done 87 days out of the 90.  I don't think that's too bad.

I'm certainly stronger than I was and all my clothes are looser.  I am 226 still and I was about 232 when I started.  I was probably at about 24% body fat when I started.  I don't know where I am now, but I'm not going to take the final measurements and pictures until I'm all done with this week too.

I Won!

After a long hiatus, I've started participating in contests at Anotherealm.com again.  My previous story there had been in 2004.  I sent in a story for the June-July Flash contest and one for the February-March Flash contest.
Flash is a story of 1000 words or less.  Anotherealm is a website of Science Fiction (SF), Fantasy and Horror.

Anotherealm is the first place I ever posted a story on-line and the first place I ever wrote a flash piece for.  It was also the first place I ever actually SOLD a story to.  It was a Lovecraftian horror story called, "Alone."

The June-July contest was to write a flash story with Tourists as the prompt.  My story for the contest was called, "So Many Shades of Black" and it was a fantasy piece.

The February-March contest had the prompt of Microbial Small.  My story, "A Little Dominance" is a SF story set in Howlina, the island nation I created here on Illini6.  The story was very heavily influenced by Blue Oyster Cult's "Dominance and Submission."

AND IT WON FIRST PLACE!

Go read it and please comment, here, there and everywhere.

Pope Poll Gives Way to Return Resolutions

It seems like March came in like a Lion with no Roman Catholic Pope and went out like a tom cat and a new Pope.

It wasn't exactly spring-like around me for the closing of March.  There are still patches of snow and the nights are in the 20s.

With the closing of March comes the closing of the March poll, which is good because it concerned the steps the new Pope should take.  Since Francis has taken office already and the month has ended it is time to review and set up a new poll.

The March poll was:

Assuming you are elected Pope and assuming you accept the job and assuming you can actually change some things, what would be the FIRST thing you change?

1. Homosexuality is no longer a sin
2. Priests can get married, and/or married people can become priests (all clergy really)
3. Women can be priests (bishops, Pope, etc.)
4. Birth control is not a sin
5. Fertilized human egg cells are NOT people
6. Zero tolerance policy on pedophilia and other sex crimes
7. Reunite with the Orthodox Church
8. Other

There were 2 votes for a Zero Tolerance Policy.  I think that is also what the Cardinals were thinking, and is most likely going to be very high on Francis' To Do list.

We also had a comment about Cafeteria Catholics from LTC John.  I'm glad we finally had some discussion about a poll.

For April I was thinking that we could keep things very simple.  Since Quarter 1 - 2013 is under our belts let's look at New Year's Resolutions.

Are you still following your New Year's Resolution?

You may not be doing very well, but I want to know if you have completely abandoned it or if you are struggling with it. 

It would also be nice to know if anyone is being completely successful with it.  By now, if you have stuck with one single resolution it has probably become habitual.  If it has then there is little possibility that you will fail at it for the rest of the year.  Let's hear from you too, but don't brag too much.

Belated - Weekly Report, Kαλό Mήνα, etc.

Happy April everybody.  I missed reporting last week and I missed wishing everyone a happy new month.  To top it all off I posted my "Papa Story" in the wrong blog (I've also posted it in Papa Stories so no worries).

Let me tell you a bit about P90X.  The system is designed with 12 different exercise routines.  5 of them are cardio based (Cardio, Plyo, Core, Kempo, Yoga) and 5 of them are circuit based weight training.  Each week you do a circuit day, followed by a cardio day, circuit day, cardio day, circuit day, and finally a cardio day.  There are two more DVDs: an intro disk and an Ab Ripper X disk.

Since you have 5 cardio and 5 circuit disks each they do 3 of each type in a week.  They then divide the whole program into 3 phases.  There are three really hard weeks in each phase followed by an easier week.

I'm in the last week, which is an easy week by design.  I'm on Day 85 today.  Since I had to miss 10 days throughout the program I've decided to do an extra hard week before I bring it in with an easy week to finish.

As if that weren't confusing enough, the hard weeks are divided into a more general routine and a more specific routine.  For instance, in the general week you get a disk called "Back and Arms," in the more specific week, one of the disks you use is, "Back and Biceps."  In Phase 3 you do one general week, one specific week, one general week, one specific week and a rest week.

I'm adding in a hard general week.  BTW, I'm still at 227lbs and my knee still bothers me.

I think my knee is going to bother me forever now.  I don't think it will ever stop being something of an irritation.  I will probably have good days and bad days, but I suspect that it will be generally down hill now until I need to get it replaced some years in my future.

On a much brighter note, I DID finish my Level 2/3 Girl Scout Outdoor training.  I'm now certified and our Girl Scout troop can officially go tent camping.  So we can check that goal off as completed.  Hooray!

That gives me an idea for this month's poll: 
Are you still following your New Year's Resolution? 
I say that I am.  Is anyone else?

In my monthly goal review, I'm on track for P90X, and my Girl Scout goals.

We did not go on a date in Quarter 1, so that is a fail so far.  However, there are 4 quarters of course, so I can still get 75% in this category.

I have met with my mentor and I think I have the new jobs board at work figured out.  I attended a class on setting up your career development in our new system.  So that is all positive for finding a new job, but there is nothing currently out there for me to apply to.

I'm working on the Gold level of Unit Service for our Boy Scout District's Journey to Excellence.  It will take all year to find out how we do, but it's looking good so far.

I have not really worked on the Fortnightly History Podcast, but now that two of my primary goals are coming to an end I should be able to work on that more.  I'm also getting ready to start riding my bike to work again.  When I do that I will have more time to think about things, and I will have a better view of the trees in the neighborhood.

The weakest spot in my work on learning Greek.  I havent' done much in that vein, but I have decided that I am going to get up from my desk and walk around a bit each half hour.  When I do that I will study my Greek flashcards.  This should help me a bit.

Another Anniversary. Is That Down?

As I sit here with my bad knee up, and thinking about Dad's anniversary I am reminded of our 1981 trip to the Great Smokey Mountains portion of the Appalachian Trail.

In 1981 Dad was 39, seven years younger than I am now, but he too suffered from a bad knee that year.  That combined with a bad experience he had on the 1971 attempt at the same trip made him take up a particular strategy for the '81 trip.

In '81 Dad and Rich Zeremba were the two adults and there were seven scouts, Jac Charlier, Dave McCormick, Don Cotar, Shawn, Ken Klusendorf, Myles and me.  I was the Senior Patrol Leader, but we were all very seasoned, experienced, expert campers.

Dad's strategy was to hang back with Z, be the last ones to leave camp each day, and to be the last into camp each evening.  We had no problem with this as we had a crack crew and a great youth leader (me) with a plan (duty roster).

We young bucks loved to stop for a rest and as soon as the adults reached us on the trial, we would hop up and rush off.  I rarely saw Dad on the trail.

One day as they we were hiking along we passed a Ranger who was doing some sort of ranger-y things in the National Park.  I remember I didn't pay him much mind, but when Dad reached him they had been having a rather rough day.  It was one of our longer days and it seemed like we were hitting several peaks.

Leaning wearily on his hiking staff, and breating heavily, Dad asked the Ranger how far it was to the campsite.  The Ranger said that it was only another couple of miles and not to worry because it was all, "basically down" to the camp.

It was five miles I think and when Dad and Z finally made it up the mountain to the top where our camp was he collapsed in the Adirondack shelter mumbling something about how, "Up" was the same as, "Basic Smokey Mountain Ranger, 'Down.'"  From that day forward Dad used that phrase whenever he could.

We woke on our last day on the trail with only seven members in our shelter.  Dad and Z were gone, and so were their packs and gear.  This was very disturbing because we woke with the dawn.  They must have left in the dark of night.

We quickly got ready and got on the road ("hit the bricks" as Dad would say) as soon as we possibly could.

I was hesitant and wanted to search around before we left, just in case, but the rest of the boys were determined to catch Dad and Z up before the end of the trail.

I was the last to leave that day.

Somewhere about halfway through the day's hiking Jac and Don caught up to the adults.  They wouldn't let them pass.  It seemed that my Dad was, despite being last every other day, and clearly the slowest member of our group (with his bum knee and all) determined to be the first to finish with whole length of the park.

Sure enough he was.  I found him laying on the grass beside the road with his feet up and his shoes off.  We had reached our pick up point about four hours ahead of schedule and with no way of alerting our Ground Support (Aunty Mae).

So, in the end the Ole Man put one over on us.  He pulled a Kobiashi Maru and changed the rules of the game so he could win.

As the song says, Dad, "...cut a hole and pull me through."  If anyone can, you can.

Weekly Goal Report - Some Good, Some Bad

I am very late in reporting.  This report is actually for the week of March 10-17.

That's not the bad news.

The bad news is that I have now missed 10 days of my P90X program.  I'm on day 73, but in the past 4 weeks I have missed at least one day in each week.  The program calls for working out six times a week, but in the past three weeks I've only worked out four days each.

This is due in a large part to my injured left knee.  I would estimate that it is now at about 95% and doesn't cause me pain at all when not in use.  When I first start walking or when I exert myself a little then it does cause discomfort.  I have no real pain at all with it unless I exert myself quite a bit at a certain angle.  I am nervous about it though and shy away from what may, at the time, seem like slight discomfort when I'm exercising.  When I actually hurt it this time I didn't really feel any pain when I was actually exercising.

Day 5 of the P90X weeks is almost always a leg workout, so you can see why Day 5s have been missed, deliberately and not.

Day 6 is Saturday and the day when I have to actually steal time from family time to make exercise time.

Excuses are over.  This week I am determined to do whatever it takes to get in 6 workouts.  I only have a few weeks left.

The question is begged though, with 10 days missing, should I continue until I make them up?  If I just go 90 days from when I started then the end is on 7 Apr 13.

The trouble with just continuing is that the program is not regular.  The concept is to cause muscle confusion by varying the workouts.  It is not the same thing every day or even every week.  There are two kinds of leg workouts and probably about three kinds of arm workouts.  Sometimes arms are combined with back and sometimes legs.

I also can't just go back and do those exercise days that I missed because as I said, quite a few of them are leg workouts and I can't do back to back to back legs.

I'll let you know what I figure out.

The good news is that I'm on Day 73 of P90X and the last time I weighed myself I was 227.  That's the lightest I've been this year.

In other good news, I finally signed up for Girl Scout Outdoor Training Module 2&3.  This is an all day outdoor training and I'm going to do it tomorrow.

And to close out with just a hint, a pinch, a whisper of bad news, it is supposed to only get up to 37 degrees tomorrow.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

I wrote two new jokes this year, but I only like the one so that's the one I'll share.

A man was drinking in a bar one St. Patrick's Day and he needed to relieve himself, so he went into the men's room.  He couldn't believe what he found there.  Standing on the rim of the urinal, dressed in green knee pants, a velvet green long coat, and a tall green hat, was a tiny man with a huge orange beard. 

"Oh my goodness, are you a leprechaun?" the man asked as he joined the strange little man in using the facilities.

"Why, sure and begora.  A leprechaun I am certainly, lad."

"Do you have a crock of gold?"

"Well, I sure do, but t'day it's cloudy and there are no rainbows, so here I enjoy the day, safe in knowing me fortune is far from prying eyes."  He closed his fly.

They young man finished up and went back to his friends.  A little while and not a few beer later he needed to visit the facilities again.

In the men's room he found his new friend standing on the edge of urinal again.

"Hello again."

"And hello yerself.  Are you enjoying the day?"  the leprechaun asked.

"Certainly!"

"Slan leat!"  They went their separate ways once again.

The young man drank even more with his friends then he had before, and it wasn't long at all before he had to make another visit to the little boys' room.

Sure enough the leprechaun was filling up the urinal again.

"We seem to meet here very often," the young man said as he move up in the next urinal.

"They don't call us the Wee folk for nuthin."

Slainte chugat!

The New Pope is an American

Pope Francis is an American in the proper sense in that he is from the Americas.

I'm very excited about the possibilities.  Being a Jesuit he has taken a vow of poverty and is dedicated to education, I'm really digging that.  It's a great start.  He took the name of Saint Francis of Assisi whose peaceful association with nature and charity I greatly admire.  He seems to be doing some things that show he is going to be a reformer with common sense and lead by service.

There are just three things that concern me.  He is old; and he is against birth control and gay marriage. 

Clearly birth control is the right thing to do in a world of over 7 billion people and not seeing that is troubling. 

The problem I have with his discrediting of gay marriage is not really about gay marriage itself.  I can certainly see where there is a very long and well established tradition of heterosexual marriage.  I am personally not opposed to gay marriage, but I wonder if someone who is against it doesn't see homosexuality as a sin.  That I have a problem with, and I think it would be detrimental to bringing the church into the modern age.

Clearly you and I were not elected Pope yesterday (unless Pope Francis is reading this and in that case I am very honored indeed Your Eminence) so my poll is somewhat moot now.  No body has voted on it anyway.

Clearly there is going to be an emphasis on where I think religion should be, charity, community responsibility and service.  There will be a de-emphasis on hierarchy.

On my poll I'm guessing we can forget about any moves to make homosexuality not a sin, I doubt priests will be allowed to get married, birth control will continue to be a sin, and fertilized human egg cells will probably still be considered humans (Pope Francis is against abortion).

Any moves to reunite the churches and ordain women is to be seen, but I doubt they are likely.  On the other hand, I'm sure there will be a zero tolerance on sex crimes. 

You can still vote on what you think the new Pope should work on, and I encourage you to in the most extreme way.

Whether you are Catholic or not, this is an important and historical event.  When 1.2 billion people have a new leader there will be changes in the world that will likely impact almost everyone in some way.

Weekly Goal Report

I missed two days of P90X this week. 

The first I laid off of because it was Legs & Back.  My knee is about 80% or 90% back.  It still hurts a bit and I can't really run on it without the kind of pain that makes me shy away from fully using it, but I can walk fully normally and I can do all  the other exercises.  I could probably do the Legs & Back, but I didn't want to risk re-injuring it.

The second day I'm going to blame on my oldest child returning home for Spring Break. 

Although it wasn't a goal I did enter a story in the latest Anotherealm Flash Fiction contest.  Please go there and vote for me.  It's based on my Howlina country work.

Καλό μήνα Popeless Lion

Retiring to Cancun? Via con Dios!

Today there is no Pope (well, there is, just not a Roman Catholic one) and March came in like a lion around here.
There is an old saying that goes something like, in like a lamb, out like a lion.  In other words, if the March starts out mild then it will end bitter and cold.  I've always considered the opposite to be true too, in like a lion, out like a lamb.  So this lion business today is good news.  It was snowing this morning and in the mid 20s (F).

Pope Benedict XVI's resignation was official yesterday so there going to have to elect a new Pope.  I am putting up a new poll about what you would do if you were elected.

Before I get into that I wanted to report on my goal progress.  I'm continuing with P90X fairly well.  I've got some aches and pains which seem to come to me right around the 60th day.  The wear and tear gets to me and I'm going to have to fight through it.  I have been bouncing around the weight I started with (actually I've been yo-yoing under it) so I'm hoping the last 30 days is when you loose all the weight.

I've been very lax on working on Greek.  I've let it slip and I'm going to have to buckle down.  It's mostly a matter of discipline.  I have some things to work on and I planned on working on it whenever I get a free moment, to fill up the empty minutes between things.  I haven't actually been doing that though just because I've had a hard time motivating myself.

I've also let the job hunt slip a bit.  They've changed the job search system  here at work and the automatic notices of posting has stopped working.  I haven't figured out how to get it back yet.  That's the next thing I need to work on.

I have to get my Girl Scout training in this month, so I'm going to be VERY busy doing that.

We are moving our Commissioner meetings starting this month.  I think that is an important step in getting our Commissioner staff right.  We will see what we can do with that.

I've been reading a lot of Chicago history blogs and forums lately.  I have a bunch of DVDs produced by WTTW and Geofery Baer about Chicago and I watch them pretty often.  I think I've decided that I'm going to go with a detective theme for my Chicago History Podcast. 

I've figured out a way to synergize my spiritual and Archaeology goals by learning how to make fire the Amerindian way.  This will involve learning the correct woods to use, which involves learning the trees.  I love it when a plan comes together.  I'm going to work on it after it gets warmer, later in the Spring.

My last goal is to join a club.  As you can see I've been pretty busy and this is my last priority so I haven't done anything with this.

Last month's poll was, "When do you think the USA will fall from superpower status?"  This poll didn't get very much traffic at all.  There were only 3 votes including mine.  Within the next 15 years won by two to one against, "In this century."

Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria

My new poll will hopefully garner more enthusiasm.  Since the College of Cardinals is currently meeting to elect a new Pope, and conceivably they could elect ANYONE that God tells them to, they could elect YOU (or me).

The poll has this in mind as a starting point.  Assuming you are elected Pope and assuming you accept the job (pretty secure and it includes room and board, and uniforms) AND assuming (and this is the biggest assumption) you can actually change some things, what would be the FIRST thing you change?

• Homosexuality is no longer a sin - This would allow gay priests and presumably gay marriage etc.
• Priests can get married,  and/or married people can become priests (all clergy really)
• Women can be priests (bishops, Pope, etc.)
• Birth control is not a sin, do it people
• Fertilized human egg cells are NOT people - we can argue the validity of abortion and so forth so other time, but here I'm thinking about the RC policy that as soon as a single egg cell is fertilized it is a human and must be treated as a human, even if it would be naturally aborted and COULD NEVER develop into an actual human being.
• Zero tolerance policy on pedophilia and other sex crimes - if they are found they are out, excommunicated, turned over to the law enforcement community instantly, no exceptions
• Reunite with the Orthodox Church
• Other

Oddly enough none of these things are really theological except maybe reuniting the churches.  They don't really deal with who God is, but more about who we are.  I don't know if these are really the most important issues, even though they are certainly the issues we more secularly minded people are most interested in.

Let's talk about it and certainly vote on it.  Come on people let's vote.  The Cardinals are doing it, so should we.