My Inner Author

This is still not finalized I think.... As my friends know, I am a huge fan of the science fiction genre. For me it all began with Star Trek, despite William Shatner’s overly dramatic Captain Kirk. By the time Star Wars debuted in 1978, I had been hooked. To me the real power of Science Fiction is the ability of the writer to craft his or her story in whatever “world” or “universe” they want. Not all fiction writers can take advantage of such a powerful tool. Your average legal drama today requires a setting in today’s society (or a well documented past one) where there are certain rules in place. For example, you can’t have a story today where you can probe the suspect’s memories for the truth with a machine. You can’t have a chase scene that spans a continent. You have to use a judge, a jury, and follow the norms of today. In SciFi, the author can have all sorts of possibilities. Want a chase scene across galaxies? Sure. Want a truly invisible stalker? Alright. Time Travel? Okay. But...

This will not be one of my usual blogs. I just had a thought about something and decided to jot it down quickly before it got washed away by an afternoon of college football. Why are we Conservative, Tea Party types so upset over the Health Care debate and runaway spending? There are many reasons, but here is one very large one to consider. Why are people inside Washington so clueless? Do you know George Bush (41) had no idea about bar code scanners in checkout lines at grocery and other retail stores? He had absolutely no idea such a thing existed. Do you think Bill Clinton ever had to run out at 9pm to get Chelsea some cold medicine because they had run out of Nyquil? Has Nancy Pelosi ever had to check a bag through when she has flown on an airplane? When was the last time "W" went to the grocery store and saw the prices of food? Do you really think Harry Reid pumps his own gas? When was the last time Barrack Obama actually bought a car at a dealership? Think about nearly a...

Recently, I had the interesting experience of watching the political debates of the day mushroom into epic verbal battles here on the pages of Facebook. I know for many, this is why they stay far away from the political discussions altogether. Very few desire confrontation in general, and certainly not over something like Health Care Reform, the Nobel Peace Prize or government spending. I don’t welcome a war of words. However, I am not willing to sit on the sidelines and allow others to censor my thoughts or my voice. Somewhere there is a happy medium. This past week, I had a “Facebook friend” who decided to throw down over the role of government. Facebook friend? We attended the same high school, where we were never really friends, but one of my other friends knew them, so I accepted their Facebook request when they invited. I guess I thought I might expand my circle. I don’t know. Well, I did learn from this: I will never accept any future invites for people I did not “friend" w...

Well, I have been waiting for the right motivation to pen another socially relevant blog, but there haven’t been any major political debates to ignite the passion within. So, how can I still be interesting? What sensational or taboo topic could I come up with to stir the pot? I know a topic sure to be quite thought provoking and emotional: the subject of sex. Don’t get me wrong, I am a big time supporter and proponent of sex. Honestly, I think one of the failings of many churches, indeed even many families, is the “taboo” of talking openly about sex. There are so many topics and viewpoints on sex this could turn into a series of blogs. But, first I will begin by writing about the stigma the topic gets today from so many in the religious community and how many academics and educators are ruining our society (with their treatment of sex) as well. There needs to be balance on the topic given its elevated importance in our culture, and much like the political arena today, it is a topic...

Well, I have quite enjoyed poking fun at the football team in Hogtown this week. I know they are quite poised for what should be a repeat National Title and a potential first perfect season ever. However, being a Gator hater, I also have high hopes things will go awry and since they are starting with such high expectations, there is no where for them to go, but down. And I pray one of my teams can be the one to deliver the dagger to the heart of Gator fans the world over. So, I will recap and add a few extra nuggets before turning my full attention back to the week to week battles in College Football (I will try and conjure up some new material when my sacred Dawgs face the Drunken Horde of orange and blue in Jacksonville on Halloween). Much has been said, made, revered, cherished and regurgitated about Tim Tebow over the past 3 years. Before I go further, let me say LOUDLY, I like Tim, the person. My issues have been strictly with the Gator fans, the media, and the unholy hype surroun...

Okay, I had another idea for some "light" writing and decided I would take advantage of the sentiment. No hard issues of the day, no life altering epiphanies, just one of thousands of random thoughts that crossed my brain yesterday. Television has played a huge role in our society and certainly boomed in my lifetime. From a black and white picture with 3 channels, to full color, high definition pictures on a thousand channels. It is almost a mirror of our society, from the small minded, limited views of our world in the 1960s, to the full and rich experience of our global world today; both good and bad. In all the hours of watching TV there have been some major events which certainly will stay with me forever. Some I vividly remember, others not at all. Neil Armstrong walking on the moon doesn't count for me, I was not even 2. But I do remember seeing the news of the hostages being taken in Iran, seeing Reagan get shot, watching my beloved Phillies win the 1980 World ...

Okay, I have been (accurately) accused of providing far too much social commentary lately, and while those issues remain very important to me, I do grow tired of the battles from time to time and wanted to take a step away. So, when wondering what a socially irrelevant topic might be, I thought...me. Just a brief FAQ of my own. Since I will likely be the only reader anyhow probably, I get to choose the questions... 1) What do you really do? I work in I.T. (Information Technology, or computers for short). I presently work as a Linux Systems Administrator, Storage Area Network Administrator, and have been a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer in the past. Okay, thanks, now in English please? I work on enterprise class servers (big computers) which run Linux, an open source operating system which is much more secure than Windows. (The normal non-IT person translation: I work on blah blah blah computers blah blah blah.) A storage area network is a huge collection of hard drives cl...