Alive and Kicking...

I'm sure that many of you have noticed my frequent references to A.D.D. Right?  Well, I really am wildly A.D.D. and it's been a problem for a long time. Probably most of my life. A couple of weeks before my last post and after about a thousand prods from one of our girls; I made an appointment with a psychiatrist (who in all likelihood, will read this blog post). After much talking and question answering, I was given a prescription and some hope.  

After a few days of taking the medication, I was AMAZED at how I felt.  I felt FOCUSED!  Focused like I've seldom been in many years. I have a list with about 100 things that I need to do to our house, yard, cars, etc.  A.D.D. people are great at making lists and I'm no exception. The problem is that very few items ever get crossed off the list!  I could start an item, but then get distracted (by nothing at all) and forget about what I was doing. The difference now, is that I'm not making a new list, I'm actually knocking things off the old one, right and left. 

Anyhow, I just wanted to let you all know that I'm doing well and I will be back soon.  I've even created some posts that are waiting to see the light of day. I haven't posted any of them because I just don't have the time yet to respond to comments or to visit any blogs myself. But I will!  

For those that have been with me for quite a while; the daughter that was prodding me was Ashley. Ashley, of the seemingly abandoned, yet amazing StupidGirls blog and her living and breathing Our Journey begins as the Kings blog.

Love you all, miss you all and I'll be back very soon. I promise!
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In the mean time, beware of the giant pelicans!

embiggen por favor...

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Post Number 500

This is apparently my 500 post!

Somewhere around 90 percent were posted on this blog with a small percentage on my now defunct photography blog. I was thinking about putting some kind of deep and wordy post together to memorialize the event.  This isn’t going to be it.

I will say that I totally appreciate all of you who follow and comment on the things I post here.

Truth be told, I’m just too darn tired and burnt out to post anything. I’m going to take a few days off to get some stuff done.  Everything is okay, I promise! I'll be back soon.

Just too much to do…

Just too many plates!

Magic Gumbo Graphics

I recently got a new blog header.  Of course you've already noticed it and many of you have commented about it.  Micael Chadwick at Magic Gumbo Graphics designed it for me. In addition to the special offer outlined below, he also does full graphic blog design. I liked the one he did for me so much, that I thought I'd pass his info along to all my blogging friends. 

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Click here to visit Magic Gumbo™ Graphics or here to contact Micael Chadwick for more information.

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Only a Little Bit Self Serving

I'll get to the self serving part in a minute...

As most of you already know, I have a lot of active projects. I'm trying to write a couple of books, I write short stories, I write poetry, I blog, and I'm addicted to photography.  I know nothing at all about writing. I just know what's in my head and I try to get it on paper or on my blog, and hope it makes some kind of sense. 

Some time ago, I stumbled upon a blogger named Clarissa Draper.
She's a full time writer and published author.  Her blog is a fantastic reference for both writers and bloggers. It helps me make sense of what I'm trying to do.  She's also a very nice lady.

On her main blog, Listen to the Voices, Clarissa's last three posts were:
"Mystery Writer's Guide to Forensic Science - Blood Stain Analysis." 
Book Critique 5:  The Rock Warrior by Jan Morrison.
How to Make a Book Trailer: Part III - Adding Video.

Even if you aren't a writer, or don't aspire to be one, it's still very interesting reading.

Clarissa's other blog is titled The Sholes Key.  This blog is a chapter by chapter posting of her latest and soon to be published novel.  It's a mystery and really good reading.  I'm extremely pleased to tell you that the cover photograph is one of mine.

Please take my word for it; Clarissa's blogs are both worth checking out. If you like to write (after all, you're a blogger aren't you?) the first blog is top rate. If you like to read, "The Sholes Key" is also well worth your while. Maybe you'll like both.  I sure do...

Did I mention that the cover photo is mine?

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Q And A 003 Friday Follow (and why I don’t)

Question 003
Friday Follow (and why I don’t)
From Anonymous

“I first came to your blog as a "Friday Follow" person. I left you a comment and you responded with a smart aleck remark. What exactly is your problem with me, or Friday Follow?"
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I don’t know who you are, but based on your question, I’m pretty sure I can figure it out. If you are in fact who I think you are, I have one problem with you and another one with "FF."  In a nutshell, you “misrepresented” yourself to me, and I believe that for the most part, Friday Follow is nothing more than a gimmick to boost the number of followers a person has.

The first time I noticed “Friday Follow” I thought it looked pretty cool and signed up. Somebody (you?) who also signed up, came to my blog and commented; “Hi, I’m here from Friday follow! Follow me back!” I remarked to her/your comment, “thanks, I’ll check you out!” When I went to the blog I found out a few things.

• She had not “followed” me at all.
• She already followed 300 people and couldn’t follow me, even if she wanted to.
• This person had well over 900 followers.
• She averaged only about 20 comments per post.
• Next, I went to several other sites who also participated. Found a lot of the same thing.
• Three others actually did sign up at my blog. I liked one of them and follow her blog to this day.
• The other two have never left a single comment at my blog.

I’m just not that easy. If I like a blog I follow it. If I don’t, I’m never going back there. I know a few folks who participate in FF on a weekly basis; I like their blogs, so it doesn’t bother me at all. If they like to participate in FF, that's fine with me.

I don’t “expect” a blogger to follow me, just because I follow them. It goes the other way also. I like followers, but if they don’t ever comment, they probably aren’t reading what I post, so what’s the point?

Currently, I feel pretty good about who follows me. I’m happy to say that I get regular or semi-regular comments from about half my followers. They don’t all show up on blogger though. I get a lot of comments on Facebook, on Facebook messages, and email. I clearly spend as much time dealing with comments as I do “blogging.” But I’m fine with that. I feel like I know a lot of the people who follow my blog. I truly think I’d be friends with many of them in “real” life, if given the chance.

At least one person “caught on” to my feelings about FF, because they appear to have signed me up on a few occasions without me knowing about it. I know somebody else did it, because I didn’t.  I must admit, it's pretty funny...

Seriously, this isn’t a contest to see who can get the most followers.

Well, maybe it is to some folks...

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Kazuko Ikegami and Ask Me

There are two new buttons just below my header photo.

One of them is titled "Kazuko Ikegami." If you click that button it will take you to a page that contains the following words.  "After the war with Japan ended, Kazuko Ikegami was lured to America. This is her true story. 
Under that statement is an "under construction" logo." I hope to remove that logo very soon.

The other button is titled "Ask Anything."
If you have something you want to ask me, please hit that button, it leads to a question box. I will pretty much answer any question on any subject.
If it's interesting, I'll post the question and answer.



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Poetry - A New Page

A New Page!

From time to time I've posted original poetry on my blog. It's been quite a while since I've posted any, so I'm sure most of the folks who follow my blog now, have never seen, or read any of it.

Taking advantage of blogger's new page options, I've created a new page that contains links to all the poetry on my blog. It also has the names of poems, not yet posted, or in some cases, not yet finished.

If you'd like to catch up, or read some of them, you can click on the word "poems" that is right below the header (and above this post).

Thanks!  I hope you like it...

A Good Link

You may or may not have noticed that I follow a wide variety of blogs. Sometimes, when I feel a blog is under-appreciated, I like to share it.

I already know that some of you won't give this blog a glance, but some of you will. If you are interested in the subject, or if you participated in the subject as either a kid, or an adult, you will be AMAZED...

The blog I want to introduce to you is "The Great Canadian Model Builders Web page." The blog is run by Warren Zoell. He is not just a model builder, he has elevated model building into an art form. The detail and paint work is amazing. In addition, he also provides very short narratives that relate to the actual full-size item.

Warren started the blog to chronicle his projects for himself. I somehow stumbled upon it and was amazed. If you are at all interested in the subject, or like when any subject is taken to it's zenith. Then this is for you....

PLEASE do me a favor and check it out!

New Pages

I've created two new pages on my blog over the last few days. Under the main header (or just above this post) there are four links to pages, one of them is for Boot Camp and one is for Vietnam.

Most of you haven't seen or read the Vietnam posts. I promise that there is very little blood and gore. It's mostly just a continuation of the crazy things that happen to me.

The Boot Camp page contains links to my blog entries that relate to stories about USMC Boot Camp.

The Vietnam page contains 44 links to my blog entries that relate to stories and poems about Vietnam. Crazy stories in here.

Now if you are interested, you don't have to dig for them...

Blog Problems

I've been posting daily stories from my experiences in boot camp. Most of them are not showing up on your dashboards, or mine for that matter.

I'm getting emails from people telling me they are finding the posts only by going to my blog. It seems that if I post something immediately after writing it, it shows up. If I save it as a draft and publish later, it doesn't.

I'm going to post the rest of them today. If you want to read them, they are on a page called USMC Boot Camp, or you can access them via label.  Sorry about that.

I promise that this isn't a feeble attempt to get more people to read them.

test

last two blog entries never showed up in my dashboard. Hmmm...

One Year of Blogging

My lovely wife (Buymebarbies) just informed me, that the one year anniversary of my first blog post was last week. Although it was in fact the first thing I posted, it was totally introductory in nature. You all know what I mean! It contained all the obligatory “first post” statements.

• “I apologize in advance if the content offends anyone.” (I was worried that I’d offend everyone)
• “I don’t really care if anybody reads this, it’s really for me” (Total BS)
• “I’m posting these things for myself!” (Yeah, right!)
• “…feel free to tag along.” (Please follow me! Pick me! Love me!)
• “Feel free to comment.” (I hope people are nice and tell me how much they like my blog)
• “Blah blah blah! (Well, at least this part hasn’t changed)

My first 75 posts had about 20 comments. My first related “series” of posts about Marine Corps boot camp got a grand total of four comments. That’s too bad because it was really good! Yes, I did just say it! I'm going to post that series again someday.

Thanks to all of you that have tagged along and commented. I truly do appreciate it.

Tomorrow I’m going to re-post my first “real” post. Not the introductory post, but the one after that.

Thanks again...

Technocracy At It's Finest

I promised someone that I would do a vlog. Or maybe I didn't, whatever.  At this time I do not have the means to record a video, but I did find one of me recorded a short time ago while I was still working at the lab.  Please pay close attention...

You are correct, that wasn't really me. I'm much cuter than that...

See?

thanks to John McElveen

Oh My Goodness!

I can't believe there are now 200 people following this thing. Of course I know that most of them probably don't even remember who I am, but still...  Wasn't it just several months ago, that I  had about ten followers?

To those of you who actually look at my blog on a regular, or semi-regular basis. I thank you! I consider most of you, much more than "followers" and I value your comments, support, and friendship...  Thanks!

Importing Photos

I'm starting to import from my now closed photo blog. Many of you haven't seen any of them yet. If you have, I apologize!

If you haven't seen them before, feel free to comment!

thanks!

Photographs

To those of you who have followed both of my blogs, I'm going to slowly start importing the photos. If you've already seen them, I apologize in advance... I'm doing it because most of the folks following this blog don't follow the other one, and haven't see them!
thanks!

My Blogs

I have simply run out of time to do everything I want. To free some time up, I’m going to make some changes. I’m going to combine my “regular” blog and my photography blog into one.

I may lose some folks, from both blogs by doing this, but I think it will work for a few reasons.

1. I tend to post long entries on my regular blog. We all know how those can wear you out, trying to keep up. By posting some photos here also, it will give the readers and me a break.

2. Some folks follow both of the blogs anyway.

3. I’m still going to post the same number of photos, but they will just be spread out a bit. There will be some posted that some of you have already seen at the other site (sorry about that). So feel free to ignore them. Most followers/readers here haven't seen the photos at all.

thanks!