Under The Dome

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Last night I was within fifty pages of finishing the novel, but had to give it up after I would read a paragraph and not realize what I had even read I was so tired. So today I finished the book.

WOW!

This could be Stephen King's best novel yet. It's that good. I don't want to say too much, I don't want to ruin any of the surprises, let me just say again....this novel is very, very good.

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Veterans Day

I really only have one thing to say: THANK YOU!

Just because I might not always support the war does not mean I do not support the soldiers. The men and women that are willing to pick up arm are what keeps us free. Never forget that freedom is sometimes hard won.

Thank you to every man and woman who serves and has served.

Happy Anniversary to Sesame Street

Sesame Street is 40 years old today. There's not a lot I can say about the show that a lot of other people aren't saying right now, but Happy Anniversary! Besides helping more than one generation of kids learn, this show introduced me to my hero....Kermit the Frog!

Bashing Dems

I know most of my rants usually have a Republican as the target. Well, it's not because I hate Republicans, it's mostly because they do so many stupid things they make a good target. And it's definitely not because I'm a Democrat and feel like both parties do now that it's not just enough to oppose the other side, you gotta destroy the other side. I'm a registered Independent. I couldn't belong to the Democrat party, I'm a proud flag waving liberal and to Dems now days that's like the kiss of death. To see that the Dems can be just as stupid and evil as the GOP go read this article about the health care's passage in the House.

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President Obama at Fort Hood

"This generation has more than proved itself the equal of those who have come before. We need not look to the past for greatness, because it is before our very eyes," the President said.

The President spoke at Ft. Hood today. This article at Time makes a good point about a speech a President gives nowdays. It's something I've thought of before. No matter how good (or bad) such speeches are, you're going to hear people on tv, newspapers, radio, blogs and wherever else taking it apart word by word and making it fit whatever side they want. Go read the article, it presents some interesting facts.

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New Stephen King Book!

I've always been a big fan of Stephen King. Have all his books save for the most recent two and I know I'll end up getting them. Not sure why but lately I slowed down on reading his books, like I said I never got Duma Key and Just After Sunset yet. But today Under The Dome came out and I picked it up. I'm pretty excited to read it. I think Mr. King is a very good writer and most of his books I'm a big fan of. This is a big book, in size and tone of the story this book reminds me of The Stand, which can be a good thing since that was one of my favorite books by the writer.

Christmas Music

I think I've missed a week at least since I said I was going to try and post a Christmas song once a week here. Well, here's a new one. It's called "Santa Claus" and it's by the blues singer Sonny Boy Williamson. It's definitely not your typical holiday type song.

Still Needing Peace

On a day that we were trying to talk about peace a tragedy occurred at Ft. Hood. By now everyone knows the details. What can you say about such terrible events? Much smarter people than me will talk about the reasons and perhaps some of them will even make sense, but all I know is that we need peace now.

Dona Nobis Pacem

Today is the day the peace globes come out and we talk peace. For my posting I'm using a story of mine that I've been working on for years and continue to work on. I'm not sure if this will be the final version or not, but whatever the outcome it's a story that continues to haunt me with its cries of being finished. It fits the theme so I thought I'd include it here. The song is "Peace Call" a Woody Guthrie song done by Eliza Gilkyson with help from Patty Griffin, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Iris Dement.

Also I'd like to link back to something I linked to a week or so ago. This is an article by Harlan Ellison that as many times as I've read it it still leaves me with tears in my eyes afterwards. Go to this page and please read.

The peace globe movement was started by Queen Mimi, go to her page and see how the blogging world has rallied to the cause.


Last Fair Deal Gone Down

1.
This is either true or false, depending on your perspective.

2.
Once upon a time there lived a man. He was a black man in a land ruled by white men. He lived during a time that was not very good for black men. White men thought that the color of their skin made them superior to back men.

3.
The blues are a music created by black men and women. It is a music that gives sound to their frustration of being treated as less than human. This man made this music.

4.
His name was Robert Johnson.

5.
Later the times changed and while white men and black men did not actually become equal they liked to pretend that things were better and that everyone was now happy. But sometimes it was hard to pretend. One day four police officers beat a black man because his skin was black. This was not an unusual occurrence, but what made this even stand out was that another man, a white man at that, happened to record the beating on a video camera. So the whole world saw what happened. Later a jury of their peers found the police officers innocent. There was five seconds of film that the rest of the public did not see that was supposed to make the difference. Five more seconds of them beating the black man. The rest of the world, especially the city where this took place, decided that things weren't much better than back when Robert Johnson lived and the black men in the city rioted. Sometimes it was hard to pretend.

6.
Still later things got better. Or at least that's what everyone said.

7.
Robert Johnson was not born with the ability to play the blues. Even as a child Robert found himself with almost no talent as far as music went. All he had was a burning desire to play the blues. He watched the older men play in the town square and afterwards he asked to sit in and play. They laughed at him and told him to come back when he could really play and not bother them. He left downhearted.

8.
Robert knew that there was more in heaven and earth than Mr. Jones realized, so he traveled to the crossroads outside the small town he lived in. He sat beneath a tree by the crossroads for two days, eating out of a small paper sack he had filled with apples before leaving home. He lived on apples for those two days. Finally on the eve of the second day a man came walking up the dirt road. Robert watched the man approach the crossroads without saying a word. When the man reached where the roads crossed each other Robert stepped out from behind the tree where he had been hiding.

"What do you want, boy?" The old man's voice was rough, it sounded like sandpaper over broken glass.

Robert did not let the man's voice or appearance scare him into silence. "I want to play the blues."

The old man was dressed in an expensive suit and tie. He even had a nice hat and walking cane. Robert had never seen a black man dressed so well.

The old man looked at Robert and than turned his back on the youth. Robert felt fear for the first time since he had seen he old man. "Wait!"

The old man turned back towards Robert. He was not smiling. His mouth turned into a sneer. His right hand pointed towards Robert. He held his cane in that hand.

"The blues are learned, boy. The blues are the black man's life, boy. The blues are hard living and even harder dying."

9.
Over the years Robert was to learn what the old man meant. The blues were hard dying for sure.

10.
Robert had been in that city the day the riots started. He was living in a small one room apartment within the area where the riots started. When he looked out his window he saw drug deals going down and drive by shootings. The only time he saw white men in this area of the city was either to buy drugs or to bust those selling the drugs. He saw a lot more of the former than the latter.

11.
In the sixties a lot of white people thought that the black people should be given all the same rights that they had. They especially thought that the black people should be able to vote. They told the black people that if they could vote than they could change the laws and than things would be better for them. Robert listened to a white man, really not much more than a boy, lecture a roomful of black men and even a few black women about this. The white boy probably did not mean to, but he talked to the black people as if they were children. He spoke slowly and he made sure to use small words so they could understand him. His teacher had told him not to use big words or speak in any way to confuse the black people before he had left his home up north to come down south to help the poor colored men and women. Later when the black people had to live with the changes in their lives the white boy went back home and finished college and married his sweetheart and got a job with an advertising agency that did not hire blacks. At first the boy, now a man, though this was bad and questioned it. He was told that they had no official policy about hiring blacks, but that so far there just had not been any blacks with the required skills and schooling. If such a black should apply for a job at this advertising agency they would be glad to hire him. Then with a wink and a smile they told this white boy now a man that such a day was still in the future so there was really nothing to worry about.

12.
Robert was tired of living. He had lived more than his share of years. Long ago he had traded his guitar in. He no longer made music. He traveled road after road.

13.
The old man that Robert had first met on that crossroads years ago was standing in front of the crack house. Last night the police had raided the house and six people had been killed. One of them had been a five year old boy who had been living in the crack house with his mother who was addicted to the drug. She served as a runner and a sexual partner to any of the others in the crack house and thus earned her allotment of the drug. She had not been one of the people killed in the raid. A fire had broken out on the second floor of the crack house and before the fire department arrived and put it out most of the house was gutted.

"I've been dying hard." Robert knew that such an event would bring the old man forward. He looked the same as he had the day Robert saw him on that crossroads.

"Boy, you ain't seen nothing yet." This time the old man did not sneer. A smile played across his lips. Robert saw that his teeth were yellow and stained from tobacco.

"How much more do I have to see? It's been more than a person should have to put with!"

"You the boy that wanted to learn how to play the blues. I'm just showing you how."

The old man walked away from Robert. He knew it would be useless to follow and try and get the old man to change his mind. Years previous when Robert had come across the old man in front of a building that had housed a black militant group that the police had raided and killed half their number the night before Robert had tried to plead. When the old man had walked away from him Robert had knelt in the front of the old man and wept. The old man merely turned away. Robert had grabbed a hold of his leg and let the old man drag him along the sidewalk as he wept and begged. So Robert knew it was pointless to plead.

14.
Another time, which time is unimportant, Robert locked himself in his apartment and decided that he would not leave. The world was too much for him. He ventured forth only to purchase enough food and drink to survive. He knew better than to try and starve himself, Robert could not die. His emaciated body would grow weaker but his mind would still live. The deal Robert had made with the old man at the crossroads would not let him die until the old man allowed him.

He sat in the dark of the four walls and refused to move and tried not to think. It had been years since he has pawned his guitar but as he sat in an old wooden chair he found his hands moving on their own as if they were strumming the strings of a guitar. He still remembered the words to his old songs and almost found himself singing them.

15.
Robert stood in the ashes of what had once been two might towers. Once he might have wept at the sight but over the years he had seen too much to shed any tears. How was he drawn to such events? It was a cruel trick of the Old Man Robert knew.

It had only been days since the planes crashed into the metal and glass buildings and sent them tumbling down. So many dead in such a quick moment. Robert might believe in the Devil but he had a hard time believing in a God that would allow such death and destruction.

He stepped over the broken debris as a group of men dug at pile to his left, hoping to find some life trapped beneath the rubble. How could any survive such a catastrophe Robert wondered.

16.
He gave up his guitar in Memphis. He was walking down Mulberry Street in the early evening. His guitar was slung over his back. Robert never went anywhere without his instrument. Earlier he had listened to a black man talk about the plight of his black men and women. He preached peace but more and more it was getting harder for black men and women who believed in him to share such a belief in a peaceful solution. As he passed the Lorraine Hotel he heard a shot ring out and turned to see the Preacher on the second floor walkway. As the shot echoed in his ears the Preacher fell to the concrete.

Robert watched in the growing dark as men ran around in confusion and fear and tried to help their fallen friend. He heard the sound of sirens in the distance but knew they would be too late. He turned his back on the scene and continued his walk towards Beale Street. At the first pawn shop he passed he went inside and sold his guitar for twenty dollars.

17.
Robert stood outside the music store and looked at the poster of himself on the window. A new two record set of all the music he had ever put to vinyl was being released. Robert looked at the picture and marveled at how young he looked. He had forgotten that he had ever had his picture taken. People walked past him on the sidewalk and not one looked from the poster to the man standing in front of it.

Somehow over the years his music had taken on some sort of meaning. Robert would not have thought his recordings would have lasted more than a few years. When he traveled the juke joints and small towns playing he liked to be able to say that he had made a record. It was a way he could ask for more money when he played, he was a professional. But after his supposed death he had thought his music would disappear and no one would listen to him anymore.

He thought about going inside and looking at one of the records. But he could not afford it, he has ten dollars in his pockets from doing some yard work for a black man that lived in a house Robert would have never thought a black man could have afforded. Even if he could afford the record he had no place to listen to it. His plans for the night were to sleep at the local Y and than move on in the morning.

Robert was not a dumb man, but his schoolings barely went beyond the fifth grade so he would not recognize that what he was feeling had a name and that was the irony of the whole thing.

18.
Robert stood to the outside of the crowd. He was wearing an old Navy Pea Coat he had picked up at a Salvation Army store. A baseball cap with the logo for the New Orleans Saints rested on his head. The crowd in front of him was huge. Robert could not remember ever seeing so many people gathered in one place before. And all to listen to a black man make history.

The wind made the day colder. Robert put his hands in his pockets and moved along the sides of the crowd. The crowd was made up of whites and blacks and every other hue of color a person could be. He saw men that might have been born back in his younger days, he saw Mothers pushing their heavily wrapped infants in strollers, he saw teen agers trying to peer over the heads of those taller in front of them.

On the big television screens stationed alongside the crowd he saw the thin black man walk up to the edge of the balcony and stand before a white man. The black man placed one hand on a Bible and raised his other and from the speakers Robert listened as a black man took the oath of office to become the President of the United States.

Robert stood transfixed.

Looking at the crowd he saw all these faces staring towards the huge Dome and there was a look on their face that Robert could not ever remember seeing before. Some of the men and women were crying. Others were shouting as if they were in a church service and they were giving thanks. Others stood silently, their heads bowed.

Robert turned from the crowd and started to make his way away.

As he entered the downtown area most of the stores and places of business were closed. The majority of the city were gathered around that reflecting pool. But Robert knew that not everyone would be closed. Some places never closed.

He entered the pawn shop and walked up to the counter. The man behind the counter was an old black man that wore a button bearing a picture of the man that had just been sworn in. He beamed at Robert and asked if he could help him on this wonderful day.

Robert stood in front of the counter and didn't say anything at first. He looked around the pawn shop, his eyes searching for what he wanted. Finding it off to the side behind the man Robert pointed at the guitar and said he would be pleased to buy that musical instrument.

The blues might be a hard dying but sometimes they made a hard living just a bit, Robert searched for the word, he didn't think better, but maybe just a little more bearable.

Gone But I'm Back

A few things came up and most of the last two weeks I've been out of town. But I'm back and I'll be posting again, of course tomorrow with the peace globes.

Blog For Peace

Go here and read.

Wall Street To Lose Top Talent

Some of the top Wall Street companies are complaining that if they are restricted in how much they can pay their top talent they'll lose them to other pursuits. And this is a bad thing. This so called top talent is what brought us to the situation we're in now. For more on this go read here.

Windows 7

Has anybody upgraded to Windows 7 yet? I was wondering how you liked it if you did.

I thought I had read that Microsoft was going to make Windows 7 fairly inexpensive. The prices I've seen are all over a hundred dollars. Now maybe that's inexpensive to Microsoft but it's going to make me think about upgrading first.

A Few Things That Have Been Bothering Me Lately...

Why are we still focusing on the balloon kid and his parents? You'd think with everything else going on in the world, you know things like the economy and the war and all, the media would have something a little more important to report on. If the media keeps making events like this EVENTS than parents are going to continue to do things like this.

How hard is it to get the fist in a fish fillet sandwich on the bun, not half on the bun or partly on the bun, but on the bun so when you go to eat it the sandwich isn't falling half out all over the place? This one really irks me, as usually the only time I'll get a fish fillet sandwich is when I'm running the streets and go through a drive through and keep going as I eat. Do you know how hard it is to get the sandwich back in place when you're trying to drive? Really how hard is it to get it right the first time?

Today at work I heard two customers complain about their wait and how it was Obama's fault. Don't ask me how, I had to keep going or I would have gotten into a lot of trouble. This happens a lot at work, I'll hear comments about the President that are so stupid or that make no sense and I just ignore it. At work I'm not there to argue with customers about their politics, but sometimes it's hard.

Ok, that's it for today. Just a few things I've been thinking about lately that has been bothering me.

The Difference Between Pot and Alcohol

Go here to read "Why Is It Bad to Smoke Weed but Ok To Drink Beer?" I don't do either, but I agree with the article. If someone wants to do either it should be their choice.

Two New Books

I recently ordered two books from Amazon and they came in the mail a few days ago. I didn't realize it at the time I ordered them but both comic strips shared the newspaper page around the same time and they both ended the same year.

The first book Looking For Calvin and Hobbes is as close to a biography of the strip's creator as we have and might get for awhile. The author was hoping to get an interview with the publicity shy Watterson to lend some insight into his book, but the creator never even contacted him to refuse his request. As far as I'm concerned Calvin is one of the best comic strips ever created, but after reading this book, I'm reminded of the old adage about not wanting to meet your heroes. Watterson comes off as a pretty cold person. He was passionate about his art and he believed that his comic strip was art (and I do too) but he comes across pretty much as a cold fish when it comes to interacting with other people. Still this was a fascinating book about the author's efforts to learn more about the creator.

The other book is the first in a five volume series that will reprint the entirety of Bloom County. I'm not sure where I would rank this comic strip but it was always one of my favorites and I look forward to exploring it from the first strip to the last.

We're living in a time where some of the great comic strips are being reprinted in deluxe editions. Besides Bloom County, there is the definite Calvin and Hobbes three huge volumes that reprint the entire run of the strip. And of course there is Peanuts which started with the first volume in 1959 and right now is up to the year 1973. Especially with the early volumes there are a lot of strips that no has seen in decades as Charles Schultz never wanted to reprint his early work until it came time for the complete edition. And happily there is Pogo coming, another of my favorite strips.

Peace For Everyone

Peace means more than just an absence of war. We need peace for everyone. I found this video on Mark Eavnier's blog.

Dress For Success

I'm going to sound like an old fart here, but I can't help it.

Part of what I do at my job is interview and hire new associates. This week I've interviewed three young men. Now I realize that people don't wear a suit and tie to an interview. I wouldn't expect it. I had a job for twenty something years where I had to wear a suit and tie and am thankful now that the job I have is a lot more casual. We wear a polo shirt and slacks. So I'm not looking for a potential new hire to come dressed up, but....you all knew there was a but coming right? One guy came in shorts and flip flops! Now I'm sorry, that's way too under dressed to be coming to interview for a job. Another guy when I walked up to the counter where he was waiting for me was chewing so hard on gum that he looked like a cow. Really. I have nothing against gum chewing, but keep it low key. Throughout the interview he kept smacking his mouth as he chewed his gum.

I don't understand it. I would think this is common sense. A pair of jeans and a polo or nice shirt, that's all I ask for. You'd be surprised by how some people come dressed for an interview. I just don't understand it. I'm all for casual dress, but there is a limit.