Posts filed under ‘OBSERVATIONS & OPINIONS’
LIFE IS NOT A COMPETITION
LIFE IS NOT A COMPETITION
Life is not a competition.
We all meet people who we envy. Who we consider ‘better’ than we are. Our ego encounters problems when we meet people we envy. But we must be careful, for if we try to emulate others we may lose sight of what we want to accomplish and consider what we have done with our lives. We may slowly drift from the path our life has taken to one which will lead to a dead end. Lose sight of our own importance.
There will always be individuals who are more accomplished than we are. By the same token there will always be those less positioned in society than us. No matter who you meet accept your life and carry on.
THOUGHTS ON THE BENEFITS OF OLD AGE
THOUGHTS ON THE BENEFITS OF OLD AGE
I write this reflecting on what my thoughts have been upon reaching the milestone of old age. But I also write this for the young. If they listen they may benefit from a senior citizen.
During out youth we all have an idea of what we want to do with our lives. They may be as simple as existing from one day to the next. But some of us set out with more concrete goals. Something we want to accomplish on life’s journey. Old age gives us an opportunity to reflect on how we have done with those goals. A chance to examine our past life and ponder the positive and the negative occurrences. To think about the decisions we made along the way and whether they were wise choices or set us in the wrong direction. To think about the circumstances which made us who we are.
I had a friend who would point out the importance of the decisions we make and once made what is done is done. There is no going back and changing things for the better. He would say that life is not a rehearsal.
Looking at my own life I think about who I am today and review the decisions and experiences that got me to this point.
On last comment, and this is for the young.
Take time to appreciate the events of your life as they happen. Before the only thing left are distant memories. When you are older you might be amazed at how minor events hold great importance in who you have become.
TRUMP AND THE EARTHQUAKE
Trump and the Earthquake
When Trump invaded Venezuela he said that it was to help the country. The country now needs more help than it has perhaps since the last century.
The earthquake has devastated the country beyond belief. Recently it was reported that they are starting to lose the ability to use some of their heavy equipment due to lack of gasoline.
One benefit of Trump’s invasion of Venezuela was to restore the country’s oil production, so Trump has connections to a host of oil executives. It seems that if he truly wanted to help the country in this time of need he could have gas shipped to them.
Could that be because extending a helping hand would not lead to profit?
WHERE IS THE GOVERNMENT?
WHERE IS THE GOVERNMENT?
We all remember the devastating fires around Los Angeles where thousands of structures were destroyed. The last update I heard about progress in restoring the area was that 30 houses have been built out of the thousands destroyed. It was stated that one of the main stumbling blocks was insurance companies holding the policies of the homeowners. This leads me to the title of this article.
Where is the government?
There are many aspects of life where we feel that government intervention is not helpful. But these homeowners have been diligently paying their premiums and when it comes time to filing a claim they should not have the amount of trouble they are now experiencing. Why isn’t there some branch of government which can step in and speed up the process of getting these people what they are due?
There is one company which was named in being a roadblock in the process of settling with the homeowners. A company which I will not name but has been named in the past for denying a customer the service they had earned.
There was a resident in Florida who had a policy with the above company paying premiums for 13 or 15 years and the company dropped them. The reason was that they might have a claim in the future. Am I the only one who sees this to be terribly wrong? Am I the only one who thinks that some action should be taken when something like this is permitted?
What do you think?
BOOK REVIEW: THE DELUGE BY STEPHEN MARKLEY
BOOK REVIEW: THE DELUGE BY STEPHEN MARKLEY
The Deluge is an excellently written book where the author takes a surprisingly accurate glimpse into the future.
The book deals with the future of climate change and global warming. Surprisingly the author also has a massive fire which destroys Los Angeles. Among critical events the Capital is also taken over, but this time by an environmentalists’ group. After camping on the Capital grounds, they are thwarted in their mission in a disastrous meeting with the authorities.
There are other conditions in this book which make for a compelling story. Conditions which I hope never comes to pass. States become entities unto themselves regulating entry and establishing a host of frightening conditions for their citizens.
This is an extremely well-written book peopled by interesting characters and weaving an exciting story. The book describes a possible future, part of which has already occurred and also a disastrous future for our country.
TRUMP TRUMPS BIDEN
TRUMP TRUMPS BIDEN
All through Trump’s administration that anything that goes wrong is Biden’s fault. Anything good is because of Trump.
In all honesty Biden was far from perfect and his pardons and use of the justice department were far from above board. But how Trump handles these areas is a few orders of magnitude above Biden’s.
Okay, Biden pardoned his son, Hunter, when he first said he wouldn’t. He also pardoned his family. In my eyes the only reason for a pardon is to forgive a wrongdoing, but that’s only me.
Now let’s look at Trump’s use of pardons. He has pardoned himself and his entire family and his businesses from any crimes concerning the I R S. What could he be hiding? And what are the penalties that are being avoided? Then there is pardoning all the January 6 ‘patriots’ who had been found guilty of a host of crimes including beating policemen. And now he is attempting to reward these criminals.
Now let’s look at Biden’s and Trump’s use of the justice department. It has come to light that Biden is not completely innocent in his use of the justice department. But Biden’s manipulations pale compared to Trump’s endeavors.
Trump constantly accused Biden of weaponizing the justice department, but Trump has done that to the extreme. Trump indicated at the beginning of this term that he was going to go after his enemies, those individuals who prevented him from doing what he wanted to do or those he had some sort of grudge against. And Trump made no attempt of keeping those intentions secret. The entire world would see, by using social media, the identity of those he considered wrong doers. And in doing so negated a great deal of the indictments he had the justice department issue.
In this piece I have pointed out two areas, pardons and the justice department, where Biden and Trump do not have perfect records. But Trump far exceeds Biden in doing what is less than right.
Let us hope and pray that this country never has another president who approaches Trump in the abuse of power which he has exhibited.
OUR DEMOCRACY IS DYING
OUR DEMOCRACY IS DYING
The direction in which this country is moving is both strange and disturbing. Since Trump became president the principles associated with our Constitution have been diminishing. And the separation of the three branches of government has become blurred.
The primaries have become a killing field for Republicans running for office who have defied Trump in some way. Who went against decisions Trump has made which were less than beneficial for the country. To run against these errant Republicans Trump has chosen to supply competition of his own choice with the population being represented having no say in the matter. Their only qualification to run for office is the willingness to accept any decision that Trump makes.
I wonder of the qualifications the candidates Trump chooses keeping in mind the qualifications of those he has selected to serve in his cabinet.
The job of Congress is to serve the people they represent. This has been replaced by fear of losing their job if they defy Trump. Our democracy has been diminished by a president who values himself more than the country he was elected to serve.
Fear has replaced duty in the Republications in Congress. The values associated with our country are disappearing and the direction our country is taking is beyond our control.
AN OBSERVATION FOR MEMORIAL DAY
SCRAPPING HISTORY
Located on the eastern boarder of Newark is Newark Bay, a body of water leading out to the Atlantic Ocean. I have always loved the smell of the ocean, the proximity of primal life. However, by the time the ocean’s water mixed with the additions contributed by the factories, all that was left was a hint of what was once the ocean’s promise.
Located at the water’s edge is Port Newark, an area that we had always referred to as “The Dumps”. The area surrounding the dock was the home of tank farms, sewage treatment plants, junkyards and a few factories. It did not take a great stretch of the imagination to determine how “The Dumps” got its name. On hot summer nights, the family would pile into the old Chevy and take a ride “down the dumps”. It was a chance to escape the heat, get a change of scenery for what it was worth and hour or two away from the house.
We would park along one of the perimeter roads and look at the freighters and container ships, some from countries we could only dream of visiting – distant lands holding even more distant dreams. On one of the roads where we usually parked, if you turned 180 degrees you could see the runways of Newark Airport. This was before the age of jet airliners – props and turboprops ruled the skies. If you watched enough airplane fly overhead, I always looked up at the sound of their engines, you would sometimes see a four-engine plane flying with one propeller lazily turning, a sure sign of engine trouble. Sometimes, when we were being extravagant, we would stop for a pizza before taking our ride.
There was this elderly Italian man – he must have been at least fifty – who decided to open a pizzeria. So, what did he do? He rented a garage, bought a pizza oven, a couple of small tables, and he was in business. The garage was a freestanding cinderblock structure containing three one-car garages. He rented one of the end garages, cut a door through the garage door and this served as the entrance. Located on a narrow street, not more than an alley, it was a far cry from today’s chain-store pizza establishments. Each pizza had a bubbly hard crust and stood as an individual creation – nothing massed-produced here.
Later, when the quality of his product became known, he rented the adjoining garage, knocked down part of the common wall and expanded. Could this happen today, with all the zoning laws and chain-store competition, I don’t think so. But back in the fifties he thrived and produced great pizzas.
So, on hot summer nights, perhaps armed with a pizza, we would go ‘Down the Dumps’, to see the ships and watch the airplanes land. We could escape our tiny house and dream of a world that we might never see as we gazed at the ships and planes coming from and bound for far-off lands and distant cities.
On weekdays after supper was done, and on weekends, the roads of the port were mostly deserted. With its many roads and parking lots, this area was an ideal place to learn to drive. It was along one of these deserted roads that I almost put my father through the windshield. While driving one of these roads he instructed me to stop, not yet acquainted with the feel of the brakes, I performed this maneuver rather aggressively. My early driving lessons occurred long before seatbelts were standard equipment, hence my aggressiveness resulted in my father flying unrestricted around the car. I finally learned to drive some years later on the back roads of Alabama, after I had already learned to fly an airplane, but that’s another story.
At the northern end of Newark Bay there were a series of bridges leading to Jersey City and on to New York. It was from the first of these bridges that you could look down on a complex devoted to scrapping ships for their iron and other metals of value. It was during the 70’s that I remember this area looking like a floating World War II naval museum. There would be row upon a row of Liberty Ships awaiting the scrappers’ torch. There would be a destroyer and the occasional heavy cruiser. Ships bathed in history waiting for oblivion. I know they could not all be saved, but it saddened me to see history reduced to a dollar value. It had been some thirty years since the war had ended; time enough for the whole-scale destruction of military equipment that routinely occurs after the conclusion of a war. Yet there before my eyes floated a living history soon to be no more, it would be gone forever.
I witnessed the destruction of one ship, which touched me deeply. This ship was perhaps the most famous American ship of World War II and for years the Japanese sought its destruction. If ever a ship was worth preserving, to serve as a floating monument to the struggles of the United States Navy during World War II, this was the ship.
During my youth, I devoured books about airplanes; I read everything I could about aviation during World War I and World War II. I rarely read books about ships, but my love for aviation led me to read one book that I have longed to read again. To this day, when I get circulars in the mail advertising military books I always look for that title that impressed me in my youth. The title of the book was THE BIG E, the story of the U.S.S. Enterprise, and that was the ship I saw doomed to the scrappers torch.
Having known its history, I could not believe that I was witnessing its destruction. I would think back to the drama, the life and death struggles that occurred on that ship, but soon it would be no more. More than once the Enterprise was reported sunk by the Japanese navy, but having been severely damaged in battle this great ship lived on to fight another day. I know there were many ships during World War II, whose stories echoed with bravery and glory, but I knew the story of the Enterprise and this to me gave it a closeness I could not feel for the other ships torn apart. There were many ships scrapped at this yard, but the only one I saw mentioned by name in the newspaper was the Enterprise. I was sorry to witness the loss to history of this great ship, but I was glad I had the opportunity to see such an important piece of our naval and aviation heritage.
WHERE’S THE INORGANIC?
WHERE’S THE INORGANIC?
The next time you’re at the grocery store and you see a clerk near a product advertised as ‘organic’ ask where you can find the inorganic version of that product.
Say an apple. To answer your question, he would have to take you to a display of plastic apples. You see, all food is organic. Now if they said the product was grown under organic principles, that would be a valid designation and give it
I feel a great deal of food labeled as ‘organic’ is a scam just to make you think that the product is a healthier choice than other like products. When in effect, there is no difference.
I know something about how difficult it is to grow food in a truly organic manner.
I have a daughter who is a farmer. She once worked for Rodale, a well-known publisher of literature concerned with organic methods of growing produce. The nine-acre farm she managed was owned by St. Luck’s hospital systema and her job was to provide fresh produce for six hospitals.
The aim was to have the property designated as growing organically produced food. After three years, I don’t think it made the grade. For I discovered, from her, how difficult it is to gain that designation.
The most difficult challenge is to try to get an organic designation using land which was once used as a farm using standard growing methods. That is fertilizers, pesticides and other products which are inorganic- chemicals. I’m not sure what is involved in getting such property the designation as a farm producing organically grown produce.
Another problem is neighboring property. If the farm next door is using inorganic methods the property for an organic farm must fallow land next to that farm. If the farm you want to get an organic designation is next to an orchard you must leave an ever-greater amount of land barren dure to the arial spraying of the trees.
I’m sure some produce labeled organic is grown using organic methods. But I think that is what should be stated. Just to say something is organic is meaningless.
AI AND YOUR WRITING
AI AND YOUR WRITING
At a recent meeting of a writer’s group I belonged to we had an interesting discussion on the use of AI in one’s writing. One of the authors present was having a problem in determining if the question of using AI should be considered should come into play when considering a publisher. The problem considered what percentage of the manuscript was AI assisted.
I use Duotrope, a website I have highly recommended in the past, to locate publishers. Many of the publishers I have referenced make it clear that they will not accept any work generated by AI. The question raised in the above-mentioned meeting was what percentage of the work involving the use of AI was used.
Here is my approach in the use of AI in my work. I use a version Word in the writing of manuscripts. Quite often the program suggests a word to use in place of the one I did use or suggests punctuation to use. With word selection I consider the use of the word in the sentence under construction. When it comes to punctuation I’m fairly sure that AI knows more about punctuation than I do. The only exception is in the use of commas. However, I never let AI change an entire sentence, or for that matter, a thought going into my wort. I fear if you start letting AI interfere with entire sentences or the meaning you want your work to possess my style, for what it’s worth, is in jeopardy of being changed from what I have demonstrated in the past or the meaning I intend to get across.
So here is, I think, the problem in considering what you need to indicate in your use of AI. If you let AI determine the use of an occasional word or punctuation, does that qualify when a publisher asks you whether AI was used in writing your work. What percentage does the use of AI qualify in your admitting the use of AI? AI has infiltrated our society, and for better or worse, if you use a program to generate your work, has the use of words or punctuation require to say that AI was used to represent an admission to publishers.?
What do you think?AI AND YOUR WRITING
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