tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6983251535022720612024-03-13T19:51:44.700-07:00The Village Idiot PressAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.comBlogger103125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-42297558567068997392015-12-08T08:01:00.002-08:002015-12-08T08:01:41.662-08:00WYSIWYG or IS NOT Or My E-holiday Card to FriendsUp in the sky, upon the ground<br />
<br />
the claws of Saint Nic<br />
<br />
deep in the minds of children found.<br />
<br />
Giving gifts of toys despite<br />
<br />
all we read 'bout the speed of light.<br />
<br />
So how can he belong to all<br />
<br />
and amongst all a delight?<br />
<br />
To the masses here while to the masses there<br />
<br />
doth he jets in his underwear?<br />
<br />
No, me thinks this and me thinks that<br />
<br />
tis 'bout say, a quantum bit more;<br />
<br />
some thing we have yet to set store<br />
<br />
in our compendium… pray stay,<br />
<br />
of learn-ed truth,<br />
<br />
superposition is, for sooth.<br />
<br />
All these places and all these times<br />
<br />
initiated, a blink,<br />
<br />
and… gone.<br />
<br />
Be still and consider anon:<br />
<br />
No speed measured, no sled seen.<br />
<br />
Where none can see and none can guess<br />
<br />
just how fast St. Nic is.<br />
<br />
So by laws of science he can<br />
<br />
be,<br />
<br />
in all places one, two, three.<br />
<br />
A simple answer yet complex<br />
<br />
Quantum superposition is<br />
<br />
my best guess.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-86569738962088980972015-11-17T09:41:00.001-08:002015-11-19T05:47:43.971-08:00THIS AIN’T THE CIRCUS OF THE SUNGrandma clams a laugh, yet escapes a sigh<br />
<br />
Remembering well times gone bye<br />
<br />
Her daughter’s answer years ago<br />
<br />
Similar acts tonight, so apropos:<br />
<br />
“What have I always said?<br />
<br />
What DON’T we want to do tonight?”<br />
<br />
And<br />
<br />
(You know that Grandparental taciturn silenced stare)<br />
<br />
To that first question raised above,<br />
<br />
A silence with falsely pondered thought,<br />
<br />
and<br />
<br />
For a second,<br />
<br />
And then,<br />
<br />
Replied with a smile, with a grin:<br />
<br />
“The house is not a jungle gym?”<br />
<br />
“And so what else have you to say?”<br />
<br />
Grandma knows the one that answers first looses face,<br />
<br />
So taciturn silence follows hence.<br />
<br />
Deep thought’s silence again…though we know<br />
<br />
They know,<br />
<br />
and<br />
<br />
that we know they know,<br />
<br />
And then,<br />
<br />
staccato’s laughing refrain:<br />
<br />
“Let’s-not-visit-the-emergency-room-again?”<br />
<br />
As if to reinforce the admonition<br />
<br />
Adding to the loco-motion<br />
<br />
Through the air the little one flies<br />
<br />
Smiling all the while glides<br />
<br />
From the fifth step high<br />
<br />
Into the arms of her big sister crashing slides.<br />
<br />
Grandma clamps a laugh, escapes a sigh.<br />
<br />
To the kitchen for some pie.”<br />
<br />
“Stop! Enough! Or I may die.<br />
<br />
The endAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-38979409240454984602015-10-16T04:58:00.002-07:002015-10-16T04:58:05.908-07:00EVERY NOW & THEN<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<b>The one in many,<br />the self in it all,<br />the self as it is here today, the individual<br />felling unconnected.<br />But in reality is part of the whole,<br />As it is on a greater scale.<br />Beyond all imagination.<br />Seen only a curtain pull away<br />A keyhole look fills the mind beyond<br />comprehension, realized 4<sup>th</sup> dimension<u></u><u></u></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<b>This It-Is, we all breathe together.<br />I feel you; feel we all feel<br />communicate-touched-<wbr></wbr>instantaneous<br />knowledge of, non-local quantum weirdness.<u></u><u></u></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<b>I have that memory,<br />that experience, and I forget it most of this time,<u></u><u></u></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<b>only to stop;<br />Aha, yes with a laugh of recognition<br />I recall-remember-fell/felt it back there,<br />then,<br />the totality of IT-IS.<u></u><u></u></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<b>Words do it not justice.<br />I don’t know what to call it.<u></u><u></u></b></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-53373908823076401642015-10-08T07:13:00.001-07:002015-10-08T07:13:08.590-07:00QBITS<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />One bit, Two bits, Three bits<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and… QBITS?<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Quantum based talking stardust.<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We can’t be the only experiment.</span></span></b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-67913389077512274312015-10-01T09:55:00.001-07:002015-10-01T09:55:38.680-07:00September/October poemAutumn , rain, a hurricane might be approaching<br />
<br />
I sit with a watered down glass of wine<br />
<br />
An orange cat and a book of poems.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-5585231264060876922015-09-29T18:00:00.002-07:002015-09-29T18:00:39.102-07:00HOME INSPECTION<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The house not old, but creaking.<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The constructing quality? Oh so sadly lacking.<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Looking up, is the ceiling leaking?<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">****<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The rain was strong, the siding rattling-shaking-swaying.<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Did the water underneath get blown then seep<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">into-onto the not so dry wall there above me leak?<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">The insurance will not pay, for damages done <i>this</i> way.<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">To my store room a ladder grabbed<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> and to the ceiling my finger stabbed<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">and it.. must… be… said,<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">not watching ladder height, up the steps I took hasty flight<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;"> with a bang and a bump as I looked up<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">oh my head,<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">intimately met the ceiling’s top.<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">And yet to my relief, though pain up on my head<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">was not such fun and that can too be said,<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">Just dust bunnies and nasty nail pops<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center; widows: 1;">
<b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: large;"><span style="font-size: 16pt;">and down the ladder I was carefully led.</span></span></b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-73535840264982437072015-09-18T10:52:00.000-07:002015-09-18T10:52:26.396-07:00Quantum Mechanics on StrikeMy I-pad won’t work and I ain’t no jerk.<br />
<br />
My screen stopped scrolling, and my keyboard’s corroding.<br />
<br />
My FiOS and bios are fried.<br />
<br />
Quantum Mechanics on strike!<br />
<br />
As for craft in the heavens and jets that fly,<br />
<br />
that fly by wire and computer alighted?<br />
<br />
Just tumble, down from the sky.<br />
<br />
Quantum Mechanics on Strike!<br />
<br />
An approach broached, grounded and not theoretical.<br />
<br />
Controlled-through by digital, your autos mechanical,<br />
<br />
now crashing, bashing and thoroughly smushed.<br />
<br />
Quantum Mechanics on Strike!<br />
<br />
QED and Maxwell’s equations,<br />
<br />
the keys to life’s situations?<br />
<br />
Quantum Mechanics on Strike!<br />
<br />
An end as you know it.<br />
<br />
To the 19th century, or earlier?<br />
<br />
You’ll go it!<br />
<br />
Quantum Mechanics on Strike!<br />
<br />
Still got gravity’s push<br />
<br />
It ain’t all that much.<br />
<br />
But without it, good-bye tush.<br />
<br />
Quantum Mechanics on Strike!<br />
<br />
We want parity with reality.<br />
<br />
No spin around, no up, and no down.<br />
<br />
No lucky charms or Feynman yarns.<br />
<br />
A union with relative’s theology!<br />
<br />
Quantum Mechanics on Strike!<br />
<br />
It may take some work.<br />
<br />
We know you’re not jerks.<br />
<br />
We’re not diabolical,<br />
<br />
just quantum mechanical.<br />
<br />
So give us the same:<br />
<br />
relativity’s unity claimed.<br />
<br />
Quantum Mechanics on Strike!<br />
<br />
The EndAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-33511619619937189152015-09-17T07:21:00.000-07:002015-09-17T07:21:14.948-07:00Editorial<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I decided to get out of the house, home office. There is no humidity to speak of, the temperature is quite pleasant and I’m waiting for the delivery of a drawing by an artist that painted a painting 2 years ago that I let slip through my hands for good reasons, my wife had just been laid off. The painting was one of those that stayed on my mind all night, a clue that I really wanted it, and just looking at it brought back the memory of the smell, the perfume of the streets of NYC in the early morning when I would be going to The Art Students League. This drawing is the sketch for that painting.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That memory sense, the reality of the past as I remember it, and today all came together the first time I saw it. This brings me to the meat of the editorial, reality and art. Can art, writing, visual representations (film or otherwise) and possibly music, reflect reality or can reality reflect an avant-guard mindset that lays hidden, but yet connected to humans around the globe?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I don’t know the answer to that. What I do know is that sometimes science fiction, and historical prognostication do at times meld with reality. Specifically I am referring to My story They Never Knew a modern Fairy Tale and the reality of cyber war as we hear about it, and then the parts we don’t hear about.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">My story was taken from bit of data that were there in the open for all to see if they had a desire to.-no blame just reality. A few years later the national Academy of Sciences published a study on Net-centric Security issues, which outside the specific aim of the subject-The Navy, read like they used my story as an outline.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That was 2010. It’s now 2015 August and what do we have? I still see no coherent response to one of the main thrust of the subject of my story and the NAS book, the lack of inherent security in the devices we use every day due in a great part to where the devices are manufactured and all that that fact implies. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">My story took the facts at the time and with a bit of crystal balling it, I made some wild guesses as to what could possibly occur in our lifetime. And as I have seen are occurring, here and there, and yet, even though I see the hand wringing, and hear the talking-heads speak to the need of hardening the infrastructure, blah blah blah , I only see more of the same problems and potential problems.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So what’s my point?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">My point is that we as artists of different skill-sets sometimes see what those in power fail to recognize because of their stupidity, greed, usually lots of greed, and ignorance. I really wrote that story as a “heads up”. Only one person in the field of cyber war called me and in a humorous but serious manner warned me, and I quote, “I would never hear the bullet that got me.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As Sun Zi said, the ultimate skill of a general is to win the war without firing a shot. While shutting down the infrastructure is an act of war, no missiles would be fired. The software and hardware made in China would see to that. Only a few switches would be thrown.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Bring the jobs and technology back home.</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-71948722265877913062015-09-08T03:22:00.001-07:002015-09-08T03:22:34.791-07:00DECOHERENCE & SYMMETRIES or QUANTUM SCHIZOPHRENIA The visible----the classic observation made<br />
<br />
making all else………. at that point, collapse<br />
<br />
Or?<br />
<br />
an illusion<br />
<br />
@ least becomes a visible alternative;<br />
<br />
universes for all the others and I am here<br />
<br />
and still sometimes there too?<br />
<br />
mentally connected/straddling<br />
<br />
wondering did I<br />
<br />
OR?<br />
<br />
an illusion?<br />
<br />
Didn’t I,<br />
<br />
I swear I said it to you……and<br />
<br />
you deny that reality.<br />
<br />
OR<br />
<br />
the other, a dream away,<br />
<br />
to happen again as I split away<br />
<br />
from this the only trail I have<br />
<br />
my only road map<br />
<br />
my writing.<br />
<br />
OR?<br />
<br />
And this too I wonder if the other of me<br />
<br />
or where ever or whom ever<br />
<br />
his notebook too<br />
<br />
full,<br />
<br />
thinking, wondering similar things<br />
<br />
of poems stories and sketches<br />
<br />
classical art, or not.<br />
<br />
Did I say that to you?<br />
<br />
Or?<br />
<br />
(Fini)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-49459078833657875982015-06-30T17:18:00.001-07:002015-06-30T17:18:36.304-07:00The DIARY CONFESSIONS OF God’s SHRINK Or The GOD CHRONICLES, Second Entry<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Courier; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Entry II, </span></span></b><span style="font-family: Courier;">is a doozy. This God never asked for directions. No wonder he wandered for a long as he did. My wife would have killed me and my children would have revolted. Hmmmm?<b><u></u><u></u></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<h1 align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 24pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: center;">
<b>Are We There Yet?</b></h1>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></span><br />
<hr align="center" size="2" width="100%" />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">We are called wizards, witches, warlocks, magicians, priests, gods, scientists -- and frauds. Our titles equate to the level of development of the society in which we exist. We are trained in languages, current, ancient, and forgotten. We study the sciences and arts. We are caretakers and we are shape shifters molded to fit the given environment. We are dedicated to progress. Well, most of us anyway.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The caveat we accept upon taking The Path, not known by the populations we serve, is that we <i>must</i> have a following, a group that is dedicated to <i>us</i>. Without support we disappear and perish. Ignore us and we go away. Abandon us and we die. We need followers as much, no, <i>more</i> than they need us. They can continue on as they are until their sun collapses supernovas or burns out.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In a modern world, the scientist/polymath is the highest and most coveted status. As such he or she is supported by the society as a whole. Unfortunately some worlds sow the seeds of their own destruction through ignorance and pride. Most worlds are generally better for it; understanding the power and progress inherent in the technology.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the Lesser Worlds, we are witches, magicians, wizards, and at the base of the pyramid, we are gods and devils, omnipotent, all knowing and feared. In reality we just are, and that's all. However societies must begin somewhere. Organization is the key. Fear is the carrot and stick that works most every where getting the cart of civilization to move.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">****</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I'm the youngest of <i>them</i> all. There were so many they ran out of names for me. I was called "<i>Him</i>". I am "Him" to most everyone. And that, folks, is how I introduce myself: "I am <i>Him</i>." Names are nothing but mental place holders. No big deal, you could call me Tim for all I care.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<i>They</i> all picked on me. "Your powers are weak, your physics are flawed, you don't know anything. Go away. You're such a loser. We have better things to do then let you hang out with us. We have real work. Go find some bugs to impress."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Being the youngest I got the dregs. Everyone else has the good planets. There was nothing left for me by the time I reached the age where I was supposed to, "go out unto the universes and make one world my own". Yeah, right. Critical to my existence and survival or any of our kind's existence and concomitant power is the fact that if we don't succeed in gathering a flock (I liked that term, "flock". No one else was using it. The "flock" idea and its defined implications came to me through an incident), <i>We</i> die! There are no second chances; no reappearing later. This is not a dress rehearsal existing in a god-eat-god universe. I needed to convince a group of people -- a few people -- <i>two</i> would do as a start! -- of my scientific/magical/wizardry skills. <i>Hire Me!</i> I will create for food.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">What I was to discover over time was simple. I had to present a convincing reason for anyone to buy into my story and existence. Just being doesn't sell.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the beginning...</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Out of "kindness, I was given a shot. The world I was handed operated at a cultural level that was, to put it nicely, retarded. Even here the "best spots" were taken. Golden Calves, Bulls, Giants, Swans, and all manner of mental constructs "roamed" this planet of semi-civilized warlike apes.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To Expand:</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">One's career is one's pride. I don't care if one is a scientist, witch, or a god; one has to have a job in order to feel worthwhile. Without work -- and an appreciative audience -- our kind perishes, disappears, ceases to have ever been. What's worse, we're not even missed. There were so many others roaming the planets vying for supremacy, a totem, an award or a niche at a minimum.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I needed to eat, to work, make a living, and no one wanted duck decoys. I carved these for relaxation and possible profit. I couldn't even give them away. A duck god did not present a very strong picture either. I was a lousy carpenter too. That was something else I needed to work on later.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I hunted around, seeking, but no takers. All I could do was to keep knocking on door after door, or, in this case, scratching at tent flap after tent flap. What a way to gather a "flock". I displayed my skills all over this miserable little planet. I kept getting any one or more of the following rejections, "We've seen that. Nah, our guy does it better. We've taken up with someone else. No, not interested, maybe next solstice." Staff into snake and back again, big whoop. If it was possible to slam a tent flap, some of the people I tried to win over would have slammed their tents in my face. Sometimes I had to duck the occasionally thrown rotten fruit -- or worse. This went on for more mortal lifetimes than I cared to count.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The rejection really got to me. After a while, dispirited and wondering what was to become of me -- all that time without followers had drained me almost dry -- I spied this loner in a desert wasteland (don't ask which desert wasteland it was -- they all look alike). He was a miserable specimen, tending a bunch of ratty sheep. Smelled like them too. It appeared that personal hygiene was not a big priority out there.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Thinking that I hadn't tried any techie stuff in a while, I figured <i>why not have some fun?</i> Not nice, but what the hell, things were so bad it.... I dug my particle beamer out of a pocket dimension, torched a bush (too bad -- it was the only thing around that looked like it was thriving), and spoke to him in a booming, amplified voice. Old school, not likely to impress anybody with two camels to rub together.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He fell down trembling like fire of any kind was a miracle.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<i>Whoooo, I </i>am<i> good</i>, I thought. <i>Or maybe sheep-boy is Not Too Bright...</i> Not Too Bright seemed like as appropriate a nickname as any for the guy, so I mentally labeled him NTB for short.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<i>Finally, a potential follower!</i> "What is your name?" I asked him, cranking the subsonics until the ground vibrates.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He told me, slobbering out a string of syllables that sounded like he was working up enough spit to put out the fire. Too glottal for me, linguist or not, so I called him Mike. It was easier on my ears.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I discovered he was in this wasteland, tending his sheep (this is where the flock idea begins to cross my mind) and hiding out from one of the biggies back in The City. Nice place. Expensive. Open all hours and you could get anything you wanted -- for a price. I knew the Big Guy he was talking about -- one of my Kind, from a few classes before my time. What a bully, and as usual picking on this regular sort of guy. He always was a bit of a <i>scheiss kopf</i>.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Listen Mike," I said, "I know the guy who's busting your chops"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Mike looked confused. "Chops? What are chops?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Giving you a hard time, making your life miserable, that sort of thing"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"<i>Yes</i>, oh Great One!"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<i>'Oh Great One'?</i> I thought, <i>Where has this guy been hiding all these centuries? With my luck, he's brain-addled from too much sun, and won't be any use in recruiting more followers. 'Oh Great One'... </i>Still, he was the best thing I'd found since They dropped me on this planet. I was feeling better than I had in decades, soaking up his unsophisticated -- extremely unsophisticated -- awe.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">After a decent amount of conversation -- and I had to keep telling him to get his face out of the dirt -- I presented this proposition, "Listen, tell you what. You have any friends? How about family? You want to get out of this dump? Exit this place? You want to move to a better zip code?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">All he picked up on is, "Code? What code? A secret ...."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"No! I mean -- do you want a better place to live?" I really had to match my vocabulary to local conditions if I wanted to get anywhere.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Yes, Oh Great One!"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<i>'Great One'</i>, I thought. <i>I could get used to this.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">To Mike, I said, "I have an idea. This is going to take some time. First, personal hygiene. You smell like your sheep. You have to clean up your act if you want to make something of yourself. Get your friends and family together. Please, for god's sake clean up. Get fresh clothes and meet me at that mountain."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I pointed to a large mountain close enough so as to keep him from being noticed by those idiots back in The City.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"I'll be back. I want to meet you on the top. There's a nice plateau. Just wait for me there. It gets foggy and damp, so bring warm clothes and firewood"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Yes, Oh Great One. But why --?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Do it," I boomed, loud enough that the burning bush collapsed into a pile of smoldering embers. I don't know who bleated louder, Mike or his sheep.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">****</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I went back to The City to deal with the Big Guy, my older -- cousin. He had a group working under him. They formed a 'Magic Collective'. They denied the concept of peoples or nations to expand their strength -- accepting (or drafting) adherents regardless of race or former religion, and downplaying the importance of any relationship except membership in their group. While internally organized, it was an elite-based hodge-podge. What a bunch of wankers. Maybe they were afraid of what an organized people could accomplish? He and his buddies thought they owned the whole place (apparently <i>They</i> never mentioned to Him that I was being assigned to the same planet). What a limited perspective. This organizational stuff had me thinking... but first, I had a task to accomplish.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">After attempting to convince Him to back off Mike and his friends, pleading his case to no effect, I went toe to toe with him and all of his. Me against them. He was good, but he hadn't gone to the upgrade classes in technology, arts and humanities. I had tech and techniques He'd never even heard of, so despite the odds, I figured I could put him away. It would be temporary at best, and it would take some work: see your snake and raise you a swarm, on and on. I was pissed and getting hungry -- the charge I'd received from Mike's boneheaded adulation was running dry. I wanted to get this over.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I played to his ego. Hubris usually gets His type -- but not this time. So I hit him with a quantum singularity that squirted him through to another universe and pureed his followers as they fell past its event horizon. Nasty. Didn't know I had it in me -- hunger and fatigue apparently brought out my mean side.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">On my way to The Mountain:</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I wondered if the Big Guy sent Mike out here so he and his ilk wouldn't wreck anything too decent. And me? Why me? Why here? Ho hum, make do with what's at hand. Work with the clay you've been given, as they said in ceramics class. One thing I learned out of all of this, be nice only once. If they don't listen to reason, fuck them. Let them have it. This is my new rule for dealing with like beings. However, regarding The Monkey Boys, you have to give a little. At this point in their evolution they head up the NTB department.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">****</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Back to Mike:</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Mike was on the mountain top, as ordered. He was waiting for me, looking good, clean, tall and impressive. I appeared in a cloud and lots of smoke. If I was going to work at bringing these people up, I might as well have some fun too. I could see he wasn't sure of the situation. Imagine what his friends and family thought. I spent some time with him, hours, days, weeks. I don't keep track of that stuff. It is not of my concern. I filled him in on the situation. "Here's the deal. I <i>need</i> you and you really <i>need</i> me to survive in this place." I gave him a demonstration of some of my "real powers". Remembering too that I was dealing with primitive types here and quantum physics was beyond their ken, I tried to explain the universe in the simplest terms. I gave him a foundation, a beginning, from which to build. I prayed that it sank in with a broader <i>weltanschauung</i> and got those wheels in his head turning pointed toward those larger and greater things. Working through that was another long complicated effort. We must have been up there for better than a month.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It was physics and philosophy for sheep herders, intro class. (I do not want to explain all this again, please! Once was enough.) Maybe just pushing one leader out and taking His place, while simply substituting new names I liked for the old ones would be a whole lot easier. I would be able to relax and exist in a style to which I would have liked to become accustomed. I would think about that depending upon this adventure. It sure would make my business easier and more secure.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Now back to <i>realpolitik</i>," I told myself and Mike. "I can supply you with protection. No one will bother you too much when I'm around. You, your family and friends and any that want to join our club, have to <i>act</i> like I'm <i>It</i>, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega..."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Mike's eyes have that frightened-rodent look again, so I finish with, "To believe in Me would be better, but acting the part will do. Most people being sheep..."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He gave me a funny look and smiled as if he understood. If I hadn't seen exactly the same look on the face of a wolf cub, I would have felt confident that I was getting through to him.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"To reiterate, Mike, they must act like I <i>am</i> the Big Guy, your chief, wizard, boss..."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Club?" Mike gargled. "Chief-Wizard-Boss?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Let's try this again."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Club is what you would sort of call tribe except you gotta pay to get in. Give a little skin. You know what I mean?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">No answer. Only later I find out he took this literally.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"The Chief, the Wizard, Boss bit -- okay, <i>you</i> choose My name. Make it simple and easy to remember. You have free will. Pick a title which reflects, let's say, great reverence to Me. How's that?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"'God'? Will that be okay?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I was floored.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"WHAT? You want me to be your god?" (He <i>was</i> nuts! I had been hoping for something else, not sure what, but anything other than <i>that</i>. That's the bottom of the heap -- lots of obligations, not much reward.)</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"If not 'God', then what should we call You?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I sensed that Mike was taking a stronger stance here. This was good.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"'God' is a bit strong...but...if you think it will work....I am....Just--" Mike interrupted before I could get the 'Him' or the rest of the idea out.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"A God with a hidden name," Mike murmured.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It's never good when a follower gets too quiet like that.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"A <i>just</i> God, greater than any other!"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Mike, you're quick!" I was beginning to like this guy more and more -- although the implications of that 'just' label could be tricky. "Okay, I am..."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"<i>I Am</i>," Mike says it over and over again, jumping up and down. "Yes, we'll call you I Am. No one will ever know your name. By that very reason alone You, I Am, will be protected and so will we through your miracles. All they will be able to say is "He Is."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Right! I like it" This was better than anything I could have dreamed up.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Back to reality.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Mike, let's move on. We need an org chart, rules, procedures, CMMI..."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Please explain," Mike said. "'Org chart', 'CMMI'?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Laws," I said. "You understand 'laws'?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Yes, oh I Am, sure."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Okay, this stuff has got to be written in stone, so no screwing around with what I say."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Oh great one, I am not a stone carver."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"'Written in stone' is just an expression," I said, but Mike gives me the wolf-cub look again, so I said, "I'll do it myself."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I got him to describe their writing system in detail. Then I pulled a laser out of the air and burned the guidelines into a slab of rock. Then I did it again. And again. It took me a while and a ton of rocks to get the grammar correct along with the feeling I wanted to convey. Here were the basics from Positive Social Movement 101 in this his own language. I cut it into two easy-to-carry pieces -- easy for somebody used to hard labor, anyway.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Mike, I forgot to mention it, when I was gone for that little while I scouted out some great real estate, nice river, good hunting, game, ducks. By the way, I carve duck decoys for relaxation. Want one?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Gladly," he said. "We'll dump the golden calf. It's too heavy anyway. We'll melt it down and distribute the gold among the tribe. We'll share the wealth to show we have some backing. This will be a positive incentive for people to join up. Money talks."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Mike had come a long way from kissing the ground because a shrub caught fire in front of him...</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"But...not to be too rude," he said, "you mentioned -- something about land?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Right, the land: good views, and cheap, just for the taking. Did I mention cheap? You have warriors, yes? They might be needed to convince non-believers... Be prepared. Remember, political power grows from the point of a spear." Oh, I liked those lines, too. I should have added those to the stone tablets. Maybe in the Creator's Cut special edition.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Yes," Mike said, "Many and brave. It's in their heritage."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Many and brave what?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Warriors. You asked."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Right, just checking," I said. It never hurt to be sure with Mike -- he could misinterpret the simplest things. "I will lend a hand in the armament arena if needed. You just follow my directions to the letter -- <i>Got It?</i>" This last part I said with Major Amplification to make sure Mike understood that it was an Important Point.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"You think there's a market for the duck decoys?" I asked. "I'd like to unload them. They are too nice for kindling and they don't go with nomadic tent interiors."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Yes to both and <i>all</i> You say. You are The Great One. I think we can find a few buyers." Then the confused-puppy look returned. "I'm confused by one of Your Sacred Words, I Am -- armament?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Weapons, magic, spells, fire... You know."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Yes, very well as a matter of fact. We have bows, arrows, spears, slings..."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"A good start," I said. Then I said, calmly and gently:</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Go down the mountain get a consensus so we can move as a cohesive unit with a purpose. It will make you stronger. Trust Me. I'll give you the directions. In fact I will lead you out of this wilderness."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"'Con-senseless?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Consensus. Agreement. Make them agree, however you want to do it. Just Do It!" Another good line. I wished I'd left more room on Mike's stone tablets -- or had wasted less material getting the wording right.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">****</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">All in all, things were looking better. Even though the former Big Guy had found his way back from the other universe, and gathered a new Collective, I was prepared. I had a following, a flock. Survival was going to be a challenge, even so. It was likely that He had detoured Home and updated his tech, so this time, I might be the one using outdated weapons. If I made it, maybe I would get a promotion in the future. I could only hope and pray.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">My thoughts were interrupted by Mike in a frenzy. "What if we're attacked?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"You read my mind! But I will take care of it, not to worry. Trust Me. I'll supply the material and technology."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"The what?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Miracles, magic, armaments."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Yes, magic, armaments, miracles, that I understand."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I felt I had to go over the importance of our organizational principles once more.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Remember the rocks We wrote on? Those are my 10 Steps For Success. No one else has them. You listen and follow what I say, period. No ifs, ands, or buts. These rules will keep you safe from those other idiots for an eternity." Hyperbole could be effective and this was one time it was needed.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"An eternity?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Yes Mike, an eternity. Now let's get moving before we're boxed in and no amount of 'Magic' will save our butts."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"What?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Let's go, everyone, camels, sheep, tents up, move out!"</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">****</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This was going to work I could feel it. If we got the business plan vertically and horizontally organized with a purpose that can be understood, the others in The City will be toast in the long run. They are so disorganized compared to my people.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"They thought my MBA minor was a waste of time," I muttered. "Well, <i>I</i> don't think so. 'Just study science,' They said. 'That's all You'll need.....if You can master it.'</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"We'll see Who masters Whom."</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">****</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Hey Mike, you think that burning bush thing will work with all the folk down there?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"No," he said. "That was great, but with a crowd that size, it would have to be more like a burning forest..."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"A little difficult in a scrub desert," I said. "Okay... let's try some lightning, thunder and some crustal movement and a few minor river flow changes."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A little fiddling with charged-particle projectors and gravity wave manipulators, and things outside our perimeter got really interesting.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"How's that?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"You have their complete attention," Mike said, his eyes very wide. It had been a while since I put on a real show. "Now what?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Let's take a look at the real estate."</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">****</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">For what seems like years:</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Oh Great One, we've been at this for a long time. And, ah ...we seem to be...lost?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"You believe that <i>I</i> Am lost? <i>I</i> Am supposed to ask directions? How would that look? Anyway, I have this map and....</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<i>Oh damn, it's for the wrong planet.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"And?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Listen between you and me, no mention of this. Just tell them the whole wandering-in-the-desert thing was a test. A really long test. The place I told you about is just over those mountains. I'll give you a hand if the squatters won't move."</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">****</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"All of you, Trust Me. This is going to be a long term relationship for all of us. If we stick together, no problems. Just follow my Ten Steps. It's carved in stone, get it? Now let's go."</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">****</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And my family thought I would amount to Nothing.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"You're doing this alone? No help?"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"You're going to fall on Your face."</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Everyone was right. You are an idiot!"</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Ha, fooled them!</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Almost everything worked out fine. There's only one thing left to do.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 32px; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"So, you wanna buy-a-duck decoy? It's a fire sale and we're moving to a new and better location"</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-38076268044121916992015-06-29T13:20:00.000-07:002015-06-29T13:20:04.672-07:00The DIARY CONFESSIONS OF God’s SHRINK Or The GOD CHRONICLES, First Entry<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I am the shrink to the Gods, yes those GODS. Well five or six of them. Could you imagine the whole pantheon as clients? It’s good money. They pay in gold and dispensations. But really now, five gods as clients are about the limit my sanity clause in my contract allows me. There is no sanity clause you say? You must believe, trust me.<u></u><u></u></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Anyway, it’s my job to listen to their stories. I secretly transcribed them. You think they would be so frank if I told them I was recording their most intimate thoughts? I save them for analysis at a later date of my choosing. It takes a bit of event-space to separate their story from the god in ones very presence.<u></u><u></u></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Through this action, I allow them to unburden their souls, if you will allow me to use that term, with their stories so they can return to the tasks to which they as Gods have self ordained upon themselves. You know even shrinks need a shrink, and so do the Gods, what with all this creating and destroying and lifting up and damning. It wears on ones soul.<u></u><u></u></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">By-the-way, You ever wonder what happens to the last shrink in that shrink-for-a-shrink line up? He or she probably goes insane. I mean who you going to tell if you’re the last one? Oh well.<u></u><u></u></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Each story is unique to each god though you will find a common thread running through most of the stories. In fact some of the stories dove tail. One would almost suspect they were one and the same entity.<br /><br /><u></u><u></u></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I think that the nature of the job only allows for so much diversity in a reality and universe like ours that there must be some overlap and some similarity in cause and effect.<u></u><u></u></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Courier; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">With that introduction, I will relate my first story as was told to me by Him or Her. In case you didn’t get it, the gods are not all male.</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-51096261021846615852015-06-18T09:39:00.001-07:002015-06-18T09:39:58.220-07:00ROLLER BLADE GIRL<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It’s raining, it’s pouring, it’s early Monday morning.<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As slippery as ice, can be<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">yellow-orange leaves soaked, just waiting<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">as slippery as ice, can be.<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Twirling-whirling lavender purple umbrella<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">spinning above,<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">five wheel bladed confidence rolling-gliding<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">sliding-gliding below.<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Lavender, winter jacketed fur collar-hood, smiling<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">face outlined-framed.<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Umbrella spinning,<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">school books back-packed<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">on her way,<u></u><u></u></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial Black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“hello, good day.”</span></span></b></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-79808130636567701942015-06-01T06:50:00.003-07:002015-06-01T06:51:24.742-07:00The Unknown<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdcc1iSaftyGjL4WgVMjT_10OKS0V41F9e_SAv7OsfCa-wp4-oD_DNrC8O_Y-FZjnYgrxdz9pd_wuBLHH2skWyZ0fvAelEwJ-1kuSvscJzuzVijbv3aF9fhrnqxOPM-Fe4_mOw791BwSt/s1600/alien+craft+leaving++west+VA.Gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIdcc1iSaftyGjL4WgVMjT_10OKS0V41F9e_SAv7OsfCa-wp4-oD_DNrC8O_Y-FZjnYgrxdz9pd_wuBLHH2skWyZ0fvAelEwJ-1kuSvscJzuzVijbv3aF9fhrnqxOPM-Fe4_mOw791BwSt/s400/alien+craft+leaving++west+VA.Gif" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-22602832637277192432015-05-27T07:24:00.003-07:002015-05-27T07:25:39.812-07:00THE DARK kNIGHT Or A LOVE STORY*, Pt. II<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Well, not any more.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The princess looked around. “This is a big mess. I know some good people with the right skills I can enlist to straighten this chaos out. Not a problem. They owe me big time anyway.” she said to the Dragon.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He had a good idea what debts she was referring to but thought it wiser to remain silent. Besides he was rather content. He had not had so much fun in a long time. A slight burp erupted from his mouth and some smoke spiraled up from his nostrils. The combined scent had the faint aroma of seared flesh.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The princess attired in all her regal travel outfit stood on a balcony. Dragon was behind her occasionally burping. Below her were the former wizard-kings wage-slave workers. She informed the huddled masses below the castle, in a voice of strength yet in a caring tone,<span style="color: red;"></span>“Don’t cry for me.” He burped louder this time. She turned to the dragon and hissed, “stop that.” And back to the growing crowd below, “The dragon is my friend.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">I have made a change in the governing authority. It once upon a time existed. Now it doesn’t. I assure you things will improve for all of you in a short while. I have taken care of that.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They looked up never believing this would happen, ever. The fact that they were looking up instead of cowering was new. They were not sure how to behave.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Her like minded and similarly skilled friends, who had been <span style="color: black;">summoned,</span><span style="color: red;"> </span>arrived almost immediately. The situation was explained in detail. They got right to work setting up new a new fair government and industrial base.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Some time later when things had been put in some semblance of order, she addressed the now more relaxed citizens. “My associates are fixing the mess the former, the late, evil Wizard King royally created. Enjoy your new found freedoms. I will be leaving for my home where they are sure to be worried for my safety and health. I believe things are much better. I will return some day.” She blew them all a kiss.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Cheers where heard for miles and tears flowed like rivers as she left the land with her dragon.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">****</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As the sun <span style="color: black;">shone</span> through the clouds for the first time in ages, people all over began to breathe better and better. The crops grew and minds began to clear.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The princess had discovered the source of the problems, achieved her quest, and returned home. The king wanted her to marry but she said, “I achieved the goal of the quest. I can and will do as I please.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“And, I’m not finished. Not… just…yet. And yes Daddy I will marry,” she said to the king.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“What mischief are you up to now?” he knew something was up. Something was always up with this girl.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Oh, nothing too weird papa. Trust me,” she said coyly.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">‘<i>Too weird’</i> was all he heard. “Sweetheart…” he began.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The king was wrapped around her finger.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Shhhhh ,”she said putting her fingers to her mouth in the please be quiet sign we all know. “Daddy, now please.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Like I said, I like them big and strong. They don’t have to be all that smart.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“I pick him.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She looked at the dragon. She always liked what she saw. With a magical incantation she turned herself into a dragonette.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Off they flew. They lived happily ever after too.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The End</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">______________________________<wbr></wbr>______________________________<wbr></wbr>___</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">All characters are a total fabrication of my mind. Any <span style="color: black;">resemblance</span><span style="color: red;"> </span>to any country, political entity, any persons living, dead, or fabricated by other minds is a coincidence and unintended.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">*Though I have to tip my hat to Babette Cole and her writing which in a very long drawn out way and through time, inspired this story. RT</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-58616985375132298302015-05-22T11:26:00.001-07:002015-05-27T07:25:27.916-07:00I'm Still Standing<br />
A probe of some kind is jammed into me. A hand, a strong perfumed hand, grabs me. I<br />
<br />
cannot see. My sight has been cut off. This hand grabs my neck, lifts me up, yanks me<br />
<br />
back and then rams my face into a metal wall. Then slam-slam-slam –slam-slam.<br />
<br />
I keep telling myself, I will not break, I will not break, I will not…slam-slam-slam. My<br />
<br />
god, that hurts. The shocks run all through me. I could just crack and die. NO!<br />
<br />
I’m strong I will not crack, I will not break, no matter. What?<br />
<br />
One of them just shoved some metal thing up my… my god what’s wrong with these<br />
<br />
people?<br />
<br />
And again this same hand, I can smell it, grabs my neck, pull and push and slam-slam-<br />
<br />
slam-slam.<br />
<br />
I have no idea where I am. Now it’s cold. I’m on the floor. I can tell it’s concrete, and it<br />
<br />
is cold. They leave me here, blind and with no protection. Why what have I done?<br />
<br />
A different hand grabs me and throws me on a table; some greasy wet instrument is being<br />
<br />
shoved into me again and again. When will they stop?<br />
<br />
I WILL NOT crack. I will not break! I am strong.<br />
<br />
It’s so cold.<br />
<br />
I must have passed out. It’s that perfumed hand again. She’s grabbing me and what now?<br />
<br />
I feel warm, no not warm, I feel hot. I want to scream but I can’t.<br />
<br />
Someone else jams me up with that probe and rams me against that metal wall.<br />
<br />
Slam-slam. It’s only two times. What do they think I’ll break? Have they no mercy?<br />
<br />
And it stops. They never talk; they just do, and do. I can hear their breathing and their<br />
<br />
laughter. And I hear the fingers hitting a keyboard.<br />
<br />
And… what…wait, they’re gone. I’m expecting more of the same that I didn’t hear them<br />
<br />
leave. I heard no door open. I’m still blind. I hurt, I’m burned, and I’m dirty and greasy<br />
<br />
all over from that shit they put on me and into me.<br />
<br />
The door opens and I hear her. “That session was a good one. Let’s see if this one will do<br />
<br />
the job.<br />
<br />
Not a fucking chance. I will not break. I’d better never meet you. I’d better never see you<br />
<br />
or know your name, I’d better…another probe is shoved in me, I’m slammed against the<br />
<br />
metal wall and it feels like it explodes inside me. I’m going to die, my god. I will not<br />
<br />
break. I will not crack no matter what they do. I will not…<br />
<br />
####<br />
<br />
Well Dr. Wells. What do you think of our experiment?<br />
<br />
“Mr. K,” says Dr. Wells, “I’m impressed. This metallurgy, the combination of the<br />
<br />
graphine and chrome moly in this new weapon is stronger and lighter than anything<br />
<br />
we’ve made or anyone as manufactured before. It won’t jam and it morphs to accept all<br />
<br />
ammunition including a mix of the NATO and Russian calibers. This should, no it will<br />
<br />
knock the AK 47 off the bestseller list once we get these out to market. The Board of<br />
<br />
Directors will be very pleased and more so once we get that export license.<br />
<br />
“How long before we can start production?” ask Dr. Wells as she handles the weapon.<br />
<br />
You said you added some other things to the manufacturing process which makes it more<br />
<br />
adaptable in all combat situations.<br />
<br />
Mr. K responds, “Dr. Wells, regarding production, we already have. The warehouse is<br />
<br />
full. And as far as your other question goes, all I’m allowed to disclose is that we<br />
<br />
developed a granular sub atomic artificial intelligence function that’s imbedded into the<br />
<br />
whole gun that allows the alloy to remember and learn from experience.<br />
<br />
“We’re experimenting with the next generation. You’re holding one of the prototypes it<br />
<br />
in your hands right now. We think we’ve discovered something odd about the AI<br />
<br />
functions and we’re shipping them to Aberdeen and a DARPA lab for some classified<br />
<br />
testing tomorrow.<br />
<br />
Mr. K adds, “Dr. Wells, if you want to play with it out a bit more we recommend five<br />
<br />
shots and running a cleaning rod and a few patches through it. This way you maintain the<br />
<br />
accuracy for testing purposes. In the field it’s not important. The gun will function in any<br />
<br />
environment. The patches, cleaning rods, jags, cleaning solvent and oil are on the table.<br />
<br />
Have fun.”<br />
<br />
Dr. Wells nods, puts her ear protectors on, grabs the gun, and checks the chamber to<br />
<br />
make sure it’s empty. For some reason there is a shell in the chamber. That’s odd and<br />
<br />
dangerous she thinks. She ejects it, picks it off the floor and looks to see if it was a<br />
<br />
misfire. There is no firing pin hit on the primer. She puts the bullet into her left jacket<br />
<br />
pocket and then stashes a few magazines of different calibers in her shooting bag and<br />
<br />
heads back to the range. I’ll speak to Mr. K about this later.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-74349297242204355142015-05-22T11:26:00.000-07:002015-05-22T11:26:12.826-07:00BALTICON<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Well this week I am going to BALTICON. This will be my first one of theses since when my son was 7 or so in the 1970's . It was a STAR TRECK thing. My main goal is to locate and identify possible artists for the web zine QUANTUM MUSE where I am the Art Director. I have met some interesting people. The level of talent is amazing. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px;">I still have slots open for July and November and December so if you're there this weekend say hello. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-40940630689446029202015-05-14T08:32:00.002-07:002015-05-14T08:33:20.801-07:00 THE DARK kNIGHT Or A LOVE STORY*, Pt. I<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">DRAMATIS PERSONAE:<br />A princess and her quest free her land from a dangerous curse and an idiotic promise. An evil warlike wizard, a peasant, a dragon and a knight .<u></u><u></u></span></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">_____________________________<u></u><u></u></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Once upon a time, in a constantly gray overcast, mushy, musty, mustard painted land, there lived a diminutive darkly armored knight. For years and years the land he loved had been visited by repeated invisible destructions creating horrors that can’t be described in polite company. These invisible, indefinable ethers may have caused the defects in the reasoning abilities among the population. That was the outstanding human characteristic within this plot of socially cultivated earth. To a lesser degree than most of the population, the knight too, was a bit brain addle<span style="color: black;">d. And for some strange reason the royal household was unaffected.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This land’s king, distraught as he was, had no clues what to do. The technology that may have ameliorated the situation was not available to him. Finally, one day, in total frustration and without consultation, the king of this foul waste land made a proclamation: “I, the King of this land, I do hereby proclaim and promise and offer my daughter up in marriage”, as if she was a piece of reclaimed property, “to any one who will rid our land of this curse, this plague on our house.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Pictures of her majesty, like wanted posters in a small town and mushrooms in a swamp, sprang up all over the land. She was a beauty. She may have been known to many but now she was known to all.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The knight, sheathed in a dark armor made of a metal never before seen, and impenetrable to the weapons of the time, accepted the challenge. He was brave in heart and small of mind. He rode up to the castle. In the formal language of the time declared, “I hereby announce, pledge, and promise, giving my word and honor, as a knight, I will take the quest and not return until I am successful.” All the while he was making his pledge he was looking at the princess. She smiled a small polite smile and waved the royal wave. Then she turned aside, and in an act unseen but to her pet dragon, rolled her eyes and stuck her fingers partially in he mouth as if to indicate she wanted to gag. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But the knight was greatly inspired by that slight smile and the delicate curve of her wrist. In his mind the future was bright; the danger was but a dim concern, so brave of heart was he.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The knight withdrew from the castle<span style="color: red;"> </span>armed and provided for by the king and country. A poor, quickly commissioned copy of a painting of the lovely princess was pasted to his left arm on his dark armored suit. He sighed a lost lover’s sigh every time he looked at it, which was most of the time. The Knight inadvertently kept pulling harder on the left reins and wound up riding in circles.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Eventually, realizing the origins of his repetitious situation, he pasted the picture to the horses head. He reoriented himself and trotted off to the hinterlands in search of the causes of the plagues upon his land, their cure and in the back of his mind, the memory of his future bride.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The princess witnessed this, pointed it out to her dragon and said, “My future husband? May the gods help me.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The dragon burped.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Dark Knight assumed that a solution would become obvious. The direction he chose arbitrarily. To his horse and back at the castle and declared in a voice that belied his physical stature<span style="color: red;">, </span>“I will free our land from this curse and marry the beautiful princess. I’m sure the gods will direct me for I am true of heart and brave. I have been given this armor for just purposes. I will prevail.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The horse just wanted to go back home.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The princess rolled her eyes toward the heavens and got a drink. “Gott im Himmel,” She said and had another one.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Some months later, the horse returned to the castle minus its rider. It was hungry but otherwise unharmed. And what of The DARK KnIGHT? He died as did countless other armored fools. But they’re a story for another time.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The princess was unaffected by the curse for reasons that will be uncovered at a later point in the story. She was not a piece of meat and was disgusted at<span style="color: red;"> </span>being put up for auction. She was tired of smiling at the daily increasing long line of idiots, male and female alike who thought they could accomplish what no one else had. For so many, the idea of her hand, a royal position and access to other parts of her beautiful body were causes enough to warrant these attempts.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As she was smiling to another bunch of losers, she recalled The Dark Knight. He was kind of cute and not quite as messed up in the mental processing capacity<span style="color: red;"> </span><span style="color: black;">department</span><span style="color: red;"> </span>as the others. She pitied him. <i>He might have been some fun, for a while</i>.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Finally after enough of this nonsense the Princess decided to do something. She spoke to her pet dragon, a supposed guardian of virgins, of which she most certainly was not. Her list of lovers was about as long as the list of dead suitors. Come to think about it, many of the names dovetailed.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The dragon, only itsy bitsy slightly tipsy and affected by the curse, was not as mindless as the rest either. However, and this is a big however, he forgot his true purpose in life. The Princess appreciated that fact and never brought the subject up.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She said, “Dragon, honey, you big hunk of walking, talking, flying armor, we will go and seek the reason for our lands demise and discover an antidote, spell or some such solution. If we have dragons that speak,” pointing to him, “why not witches or wizards that can help to brew antidotes and cure what ails us?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Sounds about right,” he said and burped again. She generally made sense when all about them were <span style="color: black;">losing </span>their heads figuratively and sometimes literally. <i>She’s a piece of work he thought. I like working for her, no pretenses. But what an appetite. She’s insatiable.<u></u><u></u></i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She prepared her travel arrangement, her baggage and informed the King of her plans.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“You’ll die like the others, I will not have it,” he declared. “You’re my only daughter, my only child.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Daddy!” she said in a certain tone she used with him when it was verbal combat time, all the while staring straight into his eyes.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> “Don’t look at me like that,” he said backing up.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Oh daddy, I have dragon to protect me. None of the others had a dragon. Pleeese, you know I can do it. Daddy, come on. You believe in me.” She batted her lashes knowing she had her father wrapped around her finger.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“You have my blessing.” The king said with tears in his eyes. Saying no was naught but impossible. It was if she cast a spell on him. Ask any father of a strong willed and smart daughter.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> And off they flew. Well, not right away.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The dragon initially crashed a few times until he remembered how to fly straight. It had been a while. Off they went, again. This time things went right. They made a great distance and speed even flying into the wind.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Flying in this direction, she assumed would bring her to the source of the problems. If the plague came from the wind then the source had to be up wind. They flew and flew and flew landing in different towns and villages. It was depressing and inspiring at the same time.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Each area was worse off <span style="color: black;">than</span> the next. She was excited. She was getting closer to the source. She knew it. The dragon just followed directions. It was easier than thinking. Because, if he thought about it in any depth, and occasionally the tiniest idea entered his brain, he would have known this princess was nuts attempting to accomplish what none had, and dumped her right then and there.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Why would he, a fine upstanding dragon, not be able to find employment with any good King and Queen with daughters to protect? And though he kept forgetting his true role as protector, why not dump this wacko chick he had on his back and get a decent day job, or in the case of teenagers, a night job?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Why did he remain when others would have departed you may ask?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She was fun, she’s cute and smart. And he was used to her ways. <i>I’ll just see what <span style="color: black;">happens</span></i><span style="color: black;">,</span> he thought to himself.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Eventually, they arrived a location where a primitive industrial complex was making war machines for a great wizard king of the known world. His land was upwind and therefore not affected from the toxic byproducts his greed and desires. The smoke and effluent poured out of the industrial complexes and infected everyone else.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">All land immediately downwind of the locations were barren. The further away from this hell hole, the bit of environmental recovery that there was to be discovered, was warped and mutated.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Just beyond the castle walls were the rotting carcasses of knights and various opportunists who had attempted to save the lands, then by their proven success and valor, win her hand and a few other parts in marriage. She guessed their ultimate goals <span style="color: black;">were</span> not necessarily as high minded as many surely pretended.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She thought she recognized the battered remains of one armored corpse.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Well, it appears as if some made it this far. Poor boys and girls,” she said to her dragon shaking her head.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He looked down, as they circled around and viewed the remains that lay about and then up at her. “Do you really want to go on?” he inquired.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She nodded to the <span style="color: black;">affirmative</span> looking for something to wrap around her face.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“What a stench. It’s like the New Jersey Turnpike by the refineries, living next to slaughter houses and chicken farms in the summer all rammed up my nose at once.” She gagged.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Gaaaagyesss<span style="color: red;">,</span>” and puked.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She looked all over and wondered who and why anyone would commit such horror. Then she remembered she was on Earth. “Ah yes, people,” she sighed and puked again.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“I have to find the shithead who is doing this and why,” she declared to the dragon. “Let’s land here.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Wings spread wide, the dragon glided in, flared, and landed with a gentle plop.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dismounting, she saw a passer-by and called out to him, “You, you the one with all the sores, may I have a few words with you?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The youth who had been in his own little warped mental world was scared witless. First, the sight of a dragon did not reduce the fear any normal human would have at such and encounter. And second, then this beauty, with a dragon no less, wanted to speak to him, a lowly peasant? “Are you a witch? Do you wish me harm?”<span style="color: red;"> </span>he asked trembling, falling to the ground, burying his face in the dirt, and pissing in his pants.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Get up, I wish you no harm. All I want to know is who is responsible for all this mess?” She spread her arms wide and pointed to the death and devastation.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Please, My lady,” he said as he stared constantly from her to the dragon and back again. “Please do not speak ill of our all knowing Wizard King, his Greatness. He will know if I speak in such a manner and punish me.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“All knowing Wizard King? I Never heard of such a being. He’s either a fraud or is able manipulate a few controlling spells. Though he seems to have an engineering knowledge.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Yes he is great and his war machine conquers all that stand in his way. He allows us to live.” He spokes this with pride.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“It’s not funny, how the victims adopt the chauvinistic pride of their keeper,” she whispered to the dragon. He nodded in agreement.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Turning back to face the peasant she pointed out the obvious, “Live? Just barely, look at you. Look at all this mess.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“May I leave, please I have tasks and they must be <span style="color: black;">completed</span><span style="color: red;"> </span>or I will die,” he cried. “I should not be speaking to you. Oh please, I beg you.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Go, go, yes I mean you no harm,” she declared<span style="color: black;">. “</span>All a bunch of sheep,” she said to no one.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The dragon thought a few sheep might be a good idea for a bite to eat. “You mind if I get a few to munch on?”<br /><br />”Yeah, go ahead. Just cook mine well. Make sure they’re upland from this disaster.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The princess knew from human affairs, and she had quite a few of them, that no amount of reasoning would work on someone with so much pride as this Wizard King. Her sub quest was to discover a way to stop this insanity.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">After a bit, the dragon returned with dinner prepared. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“How you do that I’ll never understand.” She decided long ago not to question. He was a good chef and hunter to boot. Don’t look a gift dragon in the mouth was her motto.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Do what,” he inquired?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Nothing, thanks for the dinner,” she said picking her teeth.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“But what to do? What to do?” She muttered pointing to the distressed environment.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The dragon looked at her and inquired, “Why do anything? What’s the point? Everyone is not right in the head and you want to fix it?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Yes I do, because I live here.<span style="color: red;"> </span>If I do it, I won’t have to put up with any idiot for a husband that comes along and does what I can most certainly accomplish. That’s why.”<span style="color: red;"><u></u><u></u></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Okay that makes sense to me. But no one else has been successful. So what’s <i>your</i> plan?”<span style="color: red;"><u></u><u></u></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The princess was a knock out beauty. That fact was not lost on her. She always packed for any affair. “I just happened to notice a proclamation about a ball being held at this Wizard King’s palace this evening.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Dragon I have to freshen up. There is a warm spring over here. I will bathe and dress for the ball. Maybe I can influence this wizard creep to stop making his war machine and quit poisoning my home land.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“You and what army?” the dragon mumbled.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“I heard that,” she yelled back. “I have a backup plan. Would you bring me a towel?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“I’ll bet you do,” he hollered back. “What a piece of work she is,” He mumbled. He thought about that for a while.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That evening she arrived at The Ball. She was a show stopper. The wizard left the women he was with. He was enchanted by this new unannounced beauty. She had charm, wit and a certain je ne sais quoi.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He knew he would score. Who could not be charmed by his power, his humor, Himself?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The princess went through her mental check list: <i>Got beauty, check; got brains, check; got a dragon parked just out of sight, check. A great, dangerous combination,</i> she thought. She turned to the wizard king smiling in and ever so ‘come hither’ look.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> He propositioned her.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She hesitated, and stalled, and said no, and smiled for effect.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He turned the level of charm up with some magic incantations.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She accepted as was her wont. She <i>allowed</i> him to feel in charge.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That evening when the bedroom games had been completed, though much too soon for her complete satisfaction she coyly smiled. She didn’t let on.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The wizard king, lying back relaxed, was smoking a cigar blowing smoke rings. He was proud of his performance, as was his wont.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She leaned forward toward him, her head cupped by her long slender fingers and purred, “Hey big boy. What’s with the weapons and all that? There is no one in the world that is a threat to you. What’s the big deal?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Don’t know. Just wanted to and because I can. Why?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“You’re killing all my people with that stuff.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Really? No one ever mentioned that to me. But why should even I care? Effluent flows down hill and I’m up wind and upland. You can move in with me forget that hole in the wall you came from.” And he blew another smoke ring.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Who cares about the poor anyway They’re just fodder and funds for the machine. They reproduce like rabbits. I always have enough to accomplish,” and he stressed, “my desires,” while staring at her.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She smiled and said in a growling sexy voice, “Yes that’s true. Come here and give me a kiss. I like them big I like them strong. And and most of all, <i>I like them politically powerful</i>.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Pride and lust being what they are, he gave it no other thought. He rolled over into her waiting arms, kissed her and instantly turned into a warty frog.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Surprise!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The princess was also a very powerful sorceress. And <i>that</i> was something she <i>never ever</i> let on.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Oh Dragon, honey, sweetie,” she beckoned with an added whistle. Dragon was the only one who knew her secrets, all of them.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He flew into the bedroom looking around. “Yes, you called?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Here, a treat for you.” She threw the frog at the dragon who swallowed it down.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Nice appetizer. What’s for dinner?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Any and all of the other guests.” She growled pointing to the door. This was in a tone ever heard. “Go at it,” she commanded again as if he didn’t hear her the first time.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">He did much to his delight.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">She washed up in a leisurely fashion, got dressed, and waited for dragon to finish with his fun and games. She heard roaring and screams and crunching of all sorts and manner. She smiled. “Being a princesses witch is so nice,” she said to herself.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Too soon she was bored while she was waiting for the machinery of that state to be shut down. The ruling elite had been dissolved in a manner of speaking. So to bide the time, she did her nails in a deep red. When she was finished she looked up and around. The relative silence was deafening. “Dragon must be finished with his little games. Good timing. I was going to have to go out there and assist. What a bother that would have been.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The people throughout the land stopped in their tracks. Never before had this occurred. Work, work, work, scramble, scramble, eat, pay taxes and die. That was their lot in life.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There was no smoke billowing from factories, no activity coming from the castle, and no screams, nothing.</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-68493771369835835002015-05-10T09:27:00.002-07:002015-05-10T09:27:41.075-07:00Looking Back-Looking Forward<br />
<div class="hq gt" id=":un" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 15px 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
</div>
<br />
<div class="ii gt m14cc7eadc36addd1 adP adO" id=":ta" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; direction: ltr; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 5px 15px 0px 0px; orphans: auto; padding-bottom: 5px; position: relative; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div class="a3s" id=":t9" style="overflow: hidden;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt;">
<div style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">
<br />Spring time;<br /><br />Cherry blossoms skittering about.<br /><br />Ah, youth<div class="yj6qo">
</div>
</div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: black; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">
<i>For Allyson</i></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-62219427759787670972015-04-21T07:08:00.000-07:002015-04-30T07:09:02.957-07:00In The Air TonightSheila rolls over and turns the light on. She inhales deeply and she smells the coffee her<br />
<br />
partner has brewing down stairs and smiles. She’s all cozy and warm. She sleepily<br />
<br />
recalls, Tommy was up late last night working on some telecom device to connect with the<br />
<br />
cable. Now he’s up early making coffee, that crazy boy, how sweet.<br />
<br />
<br />
The early morning radio alarm turns on. “It’s a cloudy humid 90 degrees in downtown<br />
<br />
Washington and outside our plexiglas bulletproof enclosed transmission nerve center.<br />
<br />
The orange tabby cat picks her head up from the foot of the bed and looks to see what’s<br />
<br />
next, food or just a few more minutes of waiting for her human to get out of bed and then<br />
<br />
food. The smell of the coffee brewing is one cue. The bed is fluffy nice and warm. She<br />
<br />
can wait. She’s fat and happy.<br />
<br />
<br />
The voice continues on the radio and the announcer transitions from the local traffic<br />
<br />
disasters, misnamed the rush hour, to a few murders, and then the advertisement segue<br />
<br />
comes on, “We are Lockstep Martinini, we build air…”<br />
<br />
Bzzz crackle, weeeezrerwerwerrrr…..snap!<br />
<br />
<br />
“We interruuuuuup,”<br />
<br />
<br />
“Hello? Hello? Ni hao ma? Gut morgan. Ah yes, ahem…We are The Abel 520 Flight<br />
<br />
Craft Command and Design Center. We build the craft that buzz your planet; that your<br />
<br />
silly little air induction based craft chase in the sky and we are the beings that run<br />
<br />
experiments on your cognitive processes. Yes we bring life to good things. And no, we<br />
<br />
don’t probe.<br />
<br />
<br />
bzzzz, crackle zzzzzzzzp,<br />
<br />
<br />
“Jeeze Zyborg can’t you get this right?<br />
<br />
<br />
“We are interuuuup-ink your commercial announcement to bring you The Good News<br />
<br />
and its not the Jehovah Witness line of mass hypnosis you all seem to be we billing to…<br />
<br />
oh forget it the point is, We of the ABEL 520 Cluster have impregnated all DNA of the<br />
<br />
the the the the,” zzzzzzeep crackle bizap.<br />
<br />
<br />
“Zyborg can’t you lock onto the source signal? I don’t care about directed energy.”<br />
<br />
“…the females of your planet for the next 10 generations who will give birth to children<br />
<br />
that will evolve to a higher level of species. There is no getting around it. And it’s about<br />
<br />
time too.<br />
<br />
<br />
“We are sorry about our….zzzzzz bzz zap crackle …technical problems.<br />
<br />
<br />
“Zyborg, how are we supposed to gain any credibility with these beings if we can’t even<br />
<br />
get a complete declaration out?<br />
<br />
<br />
“Hello again all you humans. We just decelerated from deep space and the com systems<br />
<br />
appears to be malfunctioning. Oh never mind it’s not your affair.<br />
<br />
<br />
“Let me continue. Zyborg where’s the prepared speech I’m supposed to give. I don’t<br />
<br />
care if we were just hit by their puny laser weapons. Where is it? Keep the shield up.<br />
<br />
<br />
“What do you mean I was on the air? They heard all this, this, they’re hearing… “<br />
<br />
There is a sudden silence, albeit with a 60 cycle hum through out the planet’s radio<br />
<br />
transmissions.<br />
<br />
<br />
“If I may continue, we just demoted our com officer and promoted a new one. This<br />
<br />
should be better. Now back to our declaration.<br />
<br />
<br />
“Humans, if by chance you try anything untoward we suggest your telescopes focus on<br />
<br />
Phobos, one of the moons of the planet you call Mars. We will vaporize the whole thing,<br />
<br />
since it makes no difference to the microbial life forms on that forsaken rock, as an<br />
<br />
example.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
“And now, we will turn the control of this radio transmission back to the inane broadcasts<br />
<br />
you call news. We have no desire to mess with your satellite radio. The music that you<br />
<br />
are broadcasting to the universe is one of your saving graces. No one else in this or any<br />
<br />
other universe has this so we are giving you all a chance.”<br />
<br />
<br />
####<br />
<br />
<br />
“And now the weather from our plexiglas bulletproof enclosed nerve center, Today’s<br />
<br />
weather will be cloudy with temperature in the high 90’s. For a January in the nation’s<br />
<br />
capital it is unusual. The weather report has been brought to you by the The Petroleum<br />
<br />
Institute, an association dedicated to a cleaner planet and Lockstep Martinini a company<br />
<br />
dedicated to…” <br />
<br />
<br />
As the radio drones on Sheila thinks, it’s January silly boy not April first. She sits up,<br />
<br />
slides out of bed and is about to laugh. The perfume of the specially blended espresso and<br />
<br />
mocha roast coffee that smelled so good just seconds ago makes her sick to her stomach<br />
<br />
and her period is late.<br />
<br />
<br />
THE END<br />
<br />
<br />
Idea inspired by 1981 Phil Collins, In The Air TonightAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-45081885150808201592015-04-10T13:35:00.001-07:002015-04-10T13:35:54.820-07:00THE HORSE HEAD NEBULA’S WHOREOh to the gods she swore<br />
<br />
The Horsehead Nebula’s whore<br />
<br />
a curse upon all matter dark and light<br />
<br />
that her gas cloud’s touch would blight.<br />
<br />
All and deep within that touch of skin<br />
<br />
twisting the minds of all and kin<br />
<br />
from her, her stardust gave<br />
<br />
both life and thought, and an early grave.<br />
<br />
And whether newly born ore<br />
<br />
eons before this present formed,<br />
<br />
a girdle a curse so tightly bound.<br />
<br />
And why this universe so cursed?<br />
<br />
From 4th dimensional blast was burst<br />
<br />
a lover long ago and forever lost<br />
<br />
who eternity’s love that promise made<br />
<br />
cannot forsaken, love’s lost slaked.<br />
<br />
So lost to her and her revenge<br />
<br />
to all her sworn curse makes<br />
<br />
borne to us and all she’s touched<br />
<br />
our twisted planet and all about<br />
<br />
There through time we record it well,<br />
<br />
acted out in earth time hell.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-80515767258137695372015-03-19T03:47:00.001-07:002015-03-19T03:47:23.002-07:00DRAGON BREATH Or THE LONELY LOST DRAGON, Pt. II<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">By the time the people reached the base of the mountain they discovered food, lumber for shelter and other items as they might require as the dragon understood them to be. “How did this happen? Who could have done this? Is it for us?” Of course the dragon was not so foolish as to come out of hiding and say, “It was ME! Thank you very much.” They looked around and found no notes, letters or tracks for that matter. It’s as if the all this bounty appeared out of the air.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Day after day stretched on until the spring. The dragon managed to assist the people as they themselves grew stronger and more settled. You might ask how the dragon was never spotted. Dragons have a cloak of invisibility! Well we all know about cloaking. Even scientists today can manage a simple example of light bending. Light bends around an object and the object seems not to be there at all. Dragons are born with the skill. They can turn it on or off at will. Really! The dragon made sure the people were cared for and protected. And day after day they attempted to discover their great benefactor, to no avail. The Dragon cared for them as his own not looking for benefit or power. That was the dragon’s nature. It mattered little if the humans knew it was their “local dragon” who out of the kindness of his heart kept them alive in the first rough year.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As it was wont to happen, one day the Dragon, tired after his exertions, let his cloak fall as he rested under a great cedar tree. Where that tree came from in this forest I will never know. It was the biggest tree in the whole forest. There was nothing like it. It was the dragon’s favorite tree. He seemed to feel he some received nourishment from its perfume. </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Around the same time the dragon was dozing two children came upon him. They had been wandering through the woods. The two looked at each other and back at the dragon and then to each other again. They smiled. They picked up some tree limbs and acting like soldiers began to attack the dragon. They were really too young t know better but old enough to know this was a good and proper action for the given situation. They were not afraid.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They poked and prodded, banged and yelled all sorts of things. They did a dance around the sleeping dragon. The dragon became aroused as one would by a fly buzzing around while one slept. He opened one eye to see just where this bothersome noise was coming from. He spied the two and let them continue their attacks for a while. Then he realized, “What’s all this! They can see me! How can they see me?” He realized he had dropped his cloak before he dozed off. He awoke fully, quickly and alert!</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">His head turned around to face his two attackers who were yelling and laughing until the two big dragon eyes bore down on them. The two children stopped immediately. The dragon inquired gently, “Children, just what are the two of you attempting to accomplish here? And more importantly, why?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“You’re a Dragon,” the smaller of the two replied quickly. “Yes, and we are soldiers and we are supposed to slay you” said the other. Both were nodding in agreement.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The dragon breathed in a deep sad breath and sighed asking. “Why must you slay me? Have I done anything to harm you?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“NO, you’re a Dragon. It’s the rules,” one of them shouted. They renewed their attack.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Brave little ones,” he thought. “And who made those rules?” he was heard to ask over the clatter of their wooden tree branch weapons banging harmlessly of the dragons armored body.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The children never had contact with a real Dragon before. They had only heard stories about dragons. They stopped their attack. The two children looked at each other and back at the Dragon and each other. They shrugged their shoulders. “Just because,” said one. “Yes, just because,” said the other in joint agreement.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Just <b>Because</b> is not a real reason for anything when you think about it, <b>is it</b>?” the Dragon attempted to reason.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The children had no answer and were puzzled. The Dragon gestured for them to sit, which they did with out fear. They sat by his tail and wondered what was to happen to them. But they were not worried. They had seen worse than a sleepy inquisitive dragon.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As if the Dragon could read their minds, “Well first, I’m not going to hurt you, just because.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">A giggle</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“And, I’m not going to hurt you for cause either. How’s that for starters?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“OK. We like that,” Both of them said while nodding in full agreement. Intuitively they both knew if something bad were going to happen it would have occurred.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“GOOD.” The dragon smiled inwardly. Not that any one could tell from Dragon’s facial expressions anyway.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The dragon was now serious when he inquired, “Now answer me this, how did you two get here? Why aren’t you with your families?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“That’s easy an one,” quickly said by the smallest. We are all looking for the person or people who gave us the food and supplies. They never show themselves. We think it’s magic. The adults don’t know what to think. They want to thank who ever it may be.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The dragon thought, “That was a nice gesture but at this point in time I’m not sure anyone would believe me, less these two youngsters here. What to do?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Instead he said, “Listen you two. I will help you find your benefactor.” ‘That’s a lie,’ he thought. ‘I have no intent of doing that, at least not now.’” He continued, “However you must never mention me or that you met me until I tell you. You may meet me here and I will have some information or some assistance for you, your family and your quest. If they ask simply tell them you found it under this tree. You won’t be lying since I will leave what I find and what you require under it. OK?” The dragon was unsure of this plan considering the fact that these two attacked him and they represented the group think of their kind. “I will chance it,” he thought.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Yep we will,” they responded to his question.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“See you tomorrow. By the way what do you think the elders could use most?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“BOOKS, nails, tools, supplies for household activities… and toys,” they added sheepishly.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Dragon heard books! “BOOKS? What kind of books?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“We’re not sure. We do want to educate everyone. Everyone reads writes, does mathematics and science. We have few books since we left our homes during the wars.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hmmm, thought the Dragon. There was the old abandoned city on the other side of the mountain there was a library. Somehow who ever designed it made it so the books and goods inside would remain in stable condition. The books were preserved. As was the town. It was the dragon’s second home especially in very bad weather. The forest was his first home with all the trees and animals.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Little did the Dragon know but his cloaking had an unintended effect on most any human that ventured near. For some unexplained reason the area seemed to be there and not there. No one took particular attention to anything and simply bypassed the whole place as if in a dream. Children were less affected but no one listened to children’s wild tales. So as a result the town just was. Dusty, dirty but preserved and whole.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Dragon gave some thought to the requests. Basic requirements I can do easily enough. Books are another question for other reasons. He would have to guide someone to the library. That would take some doing and trust. Trust would have to earned from by the dragon and less so by the children.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Over time the dragon supplied the settlers with less and less. He was able to observe they were able to fend for themselves rather well. He also noticed these people were not warlike as the others he had met in the past. He chalked up the initial rude awakening he experienced by the two children to their past experiences and cultural myths. The two children met him every now and then. He was polite but careful knowing quite well what humans were capable of doing especially when they were afraid.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">As the children grew older and bolder they asked more specific questions. The Dragon answered as best he could to describe in detail aspects of his existence that no one ever knew.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Dragon had some questions for them too. For example he wondered how they got away with the level of chores he noticed everyone else doing. And why weren’t they missed on these long excursions from home? So one day he inquired.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“We’re Jews . Some of us in addition to the physical work you have noticed, have a duty to teach. All of us have a trade or business. But as we said we have been chosen to become teachers for our people. Parts of our lessons are to go around and explore our surroundings, discover all there is to discover and uncover. We are trusted and not questioned too much. We have to write stories, relate to our work linking back to the older books and making relevance to our times. We, like all of our people, are given lesson in mathematics, sciences, the arts and other incidentals. To answer directly, we were chosen and we are free to go about as we please.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The older of the two began, “We must tell you that meeting you, AND your very existence, has altered some of our preconceived ideas which leads us to question the basics from which we take root.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Dragon was amazed. “Those are big and wise words for such young children to say nothing of adults. Maybe they are special and have been recognized as such. I can only imagine a world of such minds.” He was more and more inclined to show them the old city and the books. As of this time he had not. As he was deciding upon a correct and safe method for this he asked, “Children are you still searching for books?”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Of course. Always. We love them and what they bring to light good bad and otherwise.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">“Come sit on me and I will transport you to a place where there are more books then you can ever read in a lifetime. It’s not too far as the dragon flys,” he said with some humor. “Yes, no, maybe another time? It is up to you.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The older of the two put hands on hips looked up straight into the eyes of the dragon who I have not mentioned was a more content being than ever before he could remember. “YOU are a dragon. And up until now you are the first dragon we have ever met. You are supposed to eat us or enslave us or do something terrible horrible. But you haven’t.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The younger child said to the dragon, “We questioned the concept of DRAGON with the elders one time. They told us You are not supposed to exist. You are supposed to be an allegory of some kind for the myth structure of the general society according to them.” They continued to explain their logic. They concluded, “that being the case we said no more to them. However here you are! You do exist. Your existence and habits are contrary to our myths. In conclusion, and based upon the contradictions we feel safe. Yes we will go with you.” And off they flew.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They flew high and wide. The Dragon wanted them to see their world from his vaunted position as a sky animal as well as their land perspective. They flew to the abandoned city. He circled around it so they could take its size and direction from their home. They landed in an open old park. The streets were dusty dirty and like any abandoned city except things were intact. Oddly there were no broken windows, though there were rats and cats and bats along with a few dogs. No thing appeared to fear anything else and all the animals seemed to know the dragon. It was almost as if by the very fact that these beings were escorted by the dragon they were safe.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Dragon led them to the library. They knew what it was immediately and squealed with delight. The library was the dragon’s favorite building. This was his home. He lived here. He read here he loved HERE. The Dragon knew great knowledge. Some he was born with. Other knowledge and wisdom he acquired in his home, here.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The two gasped as he opened the doors. They were huge. The building was one of the larger ones on a strangely designed city grid. It was flanked by two other great buildings with a road leading straight down to yet other impressive structures with dusty monuments. As they walked the halls and stacks they knew the elders had never seen anything like this in their lives. There were stories about places like this. Everyone thought they were just that, stories.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">After many hours of pouring through the stacks they had to return home. Not wanting to leave they set up another time to come with the dragon. The Dragon smiled inwardly. He had to fight fear and prejudice to protect and hide his treasure. This was his treasure, the library. And now he had an even greater treasure, someone to share all this with. He did a loop the loop, a barrel roll and finished up with a cobra stall to a controlled glide in, wings wide and a gentle flare. Plop. The children were laughing all the way.</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-54242781232327454152015-03-15T19:06:00.001-07:002015-03-15T19:06:18.492-07:00DRAGON BREATH Or THE LONELY LOST DRAGON, Pt. I<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Once upon a time in a lush mountain setting there lived a very lonely and unhappy dragon. Unlike his old home, he now lived in a world where as beautiful as it appeared to be, humans despised dragons. Dragons were considered bad and evil. They would do much harm. As such, dragons were always in open season. He vaguely remembered his old home having left it when he was oh so young. The dragon arrived in this world after being blown off course during a terrible tai fung. Never having flown so high and so so long, with out the older guides or familiar landmarks, he could not find his way back home. He was a little lost dragon.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Having numerous nasty experiences with people in this world the dragon withdrew to a locale away where he felt no one would ever find him. In order to survive, the lonely lost dragon hid in the great mountain forest far away from those who would do him harm for no reason other than his very existence. Even though the memories were fading as time went on, for dragons live for a very long time, he knew deep in his heart that he missed the good people and animals of his home world. Sad and alone he said to himself over again, “Dragons don’t cry. I’m secure here, I have the animals. I am alone but safe.”</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In a story of unfortunates, sometimes extraordinary happenings arise even though they may not be recognized as they occur. The dragon came to have just an accident of history befall him. The recognition of such, even as smart as he was, and due in part because he was cautious, took some time.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The worlds of men and women wars are a common occurrence. Though they cause great suffering and not too much good comes from them, humans have persisted in this ritual blood letting throughout the ages. In our story there were numerous wars followed by famine and pestilence. A great number of one village, whole families, had to flee their home land. They unknowingly took refuge in the dragons lonely wooded and mountainous home. It was so far away from all that had gone on. No one ever bothered to explore it. It was almost as if the land was invisible or forgotten. It certainly was not located on any current map.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The refugees that entered the forest had very little food left, almost no shelter and winter was approaching. The colors were changing, the geese flew in large flocks almost blackening the sky and the little animals disappeared as they began their winter hibernations. Amplifying the food and shelter situation, the people were tired and frightened. War does that to people even after the conflicts are over. The scars remain.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Dragon saw them approach his home with dread. He knew from experience that humans in this part of the world were dangerous.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Dragons have keen eyesight and incredible hearing. Dragons also have the gift of understanding. They have no trouble with different languages. All languages are the same to them. Some where back in the early days of their existence the Dragon Clans were given the gift of understanding. The story has it that a kind wizard from a distant world bestowed this gift thinking that the earth would be a better place if the most intelligent beings would be able to understand each other no matter from what direction of the wind they bore from. The dragon saw the refugees arrive and overheard their conversations long before they got close and set up camp. He knew what he had to do.</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-17159406726339377972015-03-10T12:22:00.002-07:002015-03-10T12:22:12.290-07:00Hey Hey She's a Cyborg<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">(To the tune of “Hey Hey We’re The Monkees”</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">
</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">With some apologies to Boyce & Hart)</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Here we come walkin’</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Down the street.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We get no looks from the people we meet.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Hey, hey, she’s a cyborg.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">She looks like a human bean.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Hey hey it’s the software.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Ain’t no body been told.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">New tests with upgrades,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We leased her out this way.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">She’s got a perfect skin shade</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">So no one will say:</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">“Hey, hey shes a cyborg </span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Let’s put her down today.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Hey, hey she’s a cyborg</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We don’t want here here today”</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">We’re just try’n to get you</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Accustomed to the facts,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Hey, hey she’s a cyborg,</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">This is a new generation</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">There ain’t no lookin’ back.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Hey, hey she’s a cyborg</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Ain’t no control/alt/delete.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Hey, hey she’s a cyborg</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">And love with her with all our might.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Hey, hey she’s a cyborg</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">She’s my little sister, and she’s alright.</span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"></span><br /></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The End</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-18896952969005088042015-02-28T06:58:00.002-08:002015-02-28T06:58:13.754-08:00NO DIFFERENCE<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The target is the mind,</span></span></div>
<span class="im" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The arrow the vehicle.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The fingers release</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The cross hairs are the mind</span></span></div>
</span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Exhale, inhale, hold, release.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span class="im" style="background-color: white; color: #500050; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">One finger pushing.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The bullet is the mind</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
</span><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The target is not.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There is no arrow.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There is no finger.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">inhale, exhale, inhale-hold-release.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">there is just…now.</span></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-698325153502272061.post-47112763181040948472015-02-25T08:44:00.000-08:002015-02-25T08:44:11.881-08:00An ode to pastry Chefs<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Lance Corporal Lent, Lance Corporal Lent</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>His custom made uniform is cut from a tent.</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>He’s a pastry chef of tank sized girth</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>He’s as wide as tall and full of mirth.</b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Waddle here and waddle there</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>To keep his thighs from chafe and view </b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>He’s got long legged carbon fiber under wear</b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Oh yes, Corporal Lent, our Corporal Lent</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>A pastry chef of great renown.</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Self critical of his art only lets the cream depart.</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>All the failures he gobbles down,</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Wouldn’t serve them to a clown.</b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Then we have di-rect boss, A?</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>A Sergeant-major Glut Ton-A</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Who was trained in French Canadian way.</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>He would not serve what he would not eat,</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>“better between the toes of my feet,</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Or for the mice and rats to eat.</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Keep your honor truly </b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Poor food shown is only </b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>A picture of your mistakes. </b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>“Best to eat the evidence away.”</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>That’s what Sergeant-major</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b> Glut Ton-A would say.</b></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span class="s1"><b></b></span><br /></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>The two of them would work their magic</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>In the Pentagon and for Congress.</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Trouble was no one could pass</b></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>After one serving of their best</b></span></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><b>Any type of physical fitness tests. </b></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07370465394647870745noreply@blogger.com0