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[caption id="attachment_1814" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Boycott Target\[/caption]

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Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe and a very special… and very personal article. From the very beginning I am going to beg your patience and indulgence My Dear Readers. As I have never, in my life, engaged in the type of activity I’m embarking on tonight. Tonight I am going to share this single most terrifying incident in my entire life. An incident that forever changed my life and the major reason I find myself in a wheelchair today.

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The date; August 25, 1987. The place; Target stores electronics lock up in Manhattan Beach California. I was nearing the end of my shift working in electronics for Target in Manhattan Beach California on Pacific Coast Highway. I was in the lockup storeroom they used for electronics. I was in the process of doing a visual inventory, minding my own business and doing my job, when my life was turned completely upside down.

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Everything I am about to tell you, My Dear Readers, I have pieced together from information given to me after the fact, and my own memories. I was not alone in the electronics lock up on that day. There was another girl… She was on the top of a very tall ladder at the other side of the room. She was moving stock around at the very top of the steel racks that contained merchandise. To this day I fear that she, unintentionally, put the events in the action that resulted in my injury.

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As I said, I was doing a visual inventory of a stack of oddly assorted merchandise. Everything in this lockup, except what was in front of me, was on steel racks. However the pile of merchandise in front of me… was not on any kind of supports whatsoever. In the stack there were; boxes of photo albums, boxes containing video games, boxes containing pretty much every other odd and end you might find in the electronics department from calculators to cameras to… A single electric Smith Corona typewriter.

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Aye. there’s the rub… the electric Smith Corona typewriter (for some stupid reason) was on the very top and a 15 foot stack of miss-stocked items. At that moment I had no idea how that typewriter got all the way to the top of an unevenly stacked and precariously held together 15 foot pile of electronics. However, in a matter of moments that typewriter would change my life in ways that I would not fully understand till 26 years later, today. The other employee and I were not talking. As I remember, I did not know this employee very well. I recognized her from the store I had seen her around before, but we had never talked are engaged each other socially. Odd, this person and I did not know each other but in a matter of moments her being in that room would set about a chain of events that ended up putting me in a wheelchair today.

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She was looking for something, on the very top rack of the steel that she was working on at the entrance of the electronics lock up. She was very busy shifting boxes around and moving things back and forth. All I know is; the next thing I knew was I saw her left hand push something… then a box… it fell over. Then as I looked up… she shouted  “watch out!”. The next thing I know I see this typewriter falling from the top of the stack towards my head. My Dear Readers looking back on this today I wonder… I think to myself. Why didn’t I jump to the left of the right? Why didn’t I fall to the ground and curl up into a ball? Why didn’t I put my hands over my head and go into a fetal position? The fact of the matter is, I did none of those things. All I did was lean forward and try and move my body to the left as this 30 pound steel electric typewriter fell 15 feet towards my head.

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I remember the typewriter striking the back of my head and my neck, that is the last thing I remember. The next thing I remember is waking up and somehow magically a room that only had myself another coworker in… it was full of people including the store manager. I remember feeling extremely hot. I remember I was in terrific pain. I remember that I couldn’t feel are hardly move my right arm or leg.  I remember I had difficulty speaking. The rest is history. I was immediately taken to Centinela hospital in Los Angeles, where I spent two months. Then I was transferred to an Institute for head injured adults in Long Beach.

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Just two weeks ago, while shopping ironically in a Target store here in West minister, I found out that that day… This, single worst day in my entire life... that… that day and my injury had been turned into a training video by Target for its employees. My Dear Readers it pains me to tell you that not once was I ever contacted by Target prior to them making this video. Target did not notify me that they were going to make a video about the worst in my life. Target did not ask for my input or permission to take any event in my life that is left me in a wheelchair and turn it into a video. And worst of all My Dear Readers Target has not offered me one red cent for capitalizing on this tragic accident.

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That is why I am asking you… All of you to please consider, this holiday season, boycotting Target. I strongly feel that Target stores should be boycotted because they have taken the most terrible day in my entire life and turned it into a training video… Turn it into a way for them to make money. I apologize, I know that this is asking a lot, but I am asking you from the very depths of my soul to please boycott Target.   

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Boycott Target; until they contact me and offer me recompense for turning the worst day of my life into a training video. Boycott Target; for callously disregarding how it might make the victim of their negligence feel for them to turn the worst day of my life into a way to protect themselves from workman compensation claims. Boycott Target; because any company who would take a life-altering event and turn it into some flipping training video is not a company that deserves your money.

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Quite honestly, My Dear Readers, I firmly believe that Target should have first contacted me about making a video of the worst day in my life. Quite honestly I think that Target should’ve asked my permission before making about a video about the worst day in my life. And finally, I think Target should be paying me for all the years they have used the single most painful and life-changing day in my life to protect themselves from other lawsuits.

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My Dear Readers below is a video of me asking for everyone’s support. I would like to ask you to; share this video, share this article, share it through YouTube, share it through email, share it to family, share it to friends, share it to coworkers, share it to everybody that you can. Please help me get this article, this video, and my plight out to every person we possibly can because Target does not deserve all the holiday business. Please, help me and

Boycott Target!

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/dd2X5sdt3Ds]

MMORPGs And YOU! Final Fantasy XIV (2)

[caption id="attachment_1939" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Daniel/Enzo Matrix in Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn[/caption]

               

        

                Welcome back My Dear Readers toThe Other Shoe. It is my pleasure to announce the resurrection of one of your most favorite article series here atThe Other Shoe. That series is, of course, MMORPGs And YOU!. This was an extremely popular series of articles earlier this year, and this is the SEVENTH in the series. I had mentioned, earlier this week, that I was going to bring back this series to reveal to you the very first MMORPG I ever playedWorld of Warcraft. However, events transpired such that instead today I will bring you a review of the most revered RPG series in the history of gaming. Today I bring you a review, screenshots and video of Final Fantasy XIV (2) ‘A Realm Reborn’.

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Now, My Dear Readers, I have been playing this storied franchise since the original Nintendo gaming system. I’m not talking about the Super Nintendo or the N64 I am talking about the original eight bit Nintendo gaming system. I’ve been playing this franchise for the better part of 25 years. Not only that, but I had the opportunity to be a Beta tester for Final Fantasy XI and XIV. I also played, extensively, this game before its redesign and “rebirth”. This gives me a unique perspective on this Realm Reborn version of this massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/-CmSZC31HNM]

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First, there were a lot of very good reasons why this game had to be reborn. Not the least of which were the bugs that came with the game on the PC version. Unfortunately, I’m here to tell you that a good deal of these bugs remain in this a Reborn realm. Now, for us PC gamers, we were very used to a certain type of user interface in our massively multiplayer online role-playing games. When the original came out they had departed from this standardized user interface, in favor of an interface that worked better with the PlayStation console gaming system. To say that that did not go well with PC gamers, is a gross understatement.

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I am very happy to announce to you, My Dear Readers, that this Reborn realm does have a user interface all massively multiplayer online role-playing gamers have come accustomed to. You can now use your MMORPG mouse with this game. However, there remains a big problem with being able to see your mouse cursor on screen in the PC version. That segways nicely into the biggest thing I need to tell you about this game. If you do not have a gamepad for your PC, and you plan on trying this game, you simply must purchase a gamepad for your PC.

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[caption id="attachment_1930" align="aligncenter" width="630"] In the Bar - Enzo in Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn[/caption]

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Unfortunately this game does not play well with the mouse and keyboard. However, it does play a very well with a gamepad. Be it a Logitech dual shock or any other standard gamepad for PC computers, they are the best way to play this game. I will be completely honest with you My Dear Readers I have never been one for playing my games on my personal computer with a gamepad. My first games on the PC were FPS games and those are very rapid fire quick action games which are only played best with a keyboard and the best mouse you can afford.

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/KEGoSPMDy94]

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So, again, if you’re going to check out this game, and I suggest if you like this genre of games do get this game and check it out, get a gamepad first. Now about buying this game. Right now at Gamestop.com this game is on sale for $14.99. I traded in some of My Coke Rewards points for some GameStop bucks and, last night about midnight, I ended up getting this game for absolutely free. That is why you, My Dear Readers are getting; a review, screenshots and videos from this game today. I assure you whenever I have the opportunity to review a game that I got for free it’s going to happen. That does not mean that every game I reviewed I have obtained free. Actually, the opposite is true… this is the only game, out of all the games I’ve reviewed for you here atThe Other Shoe, that I didn’t pay full price.

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[caption id="attachment_1936" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Nice Picture of Enzo in Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn[/caption]

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More about the game. In the original version of this storied franchise the option to adjust your video, for your particular personal computer, was ‘lacking’…  to say the least. You were not able to adjust many of the characteristics of today’s modern video cards. If you’re not really familiar with the gaming industry there’s really two types of games that come out on a personal computer. One type, the preferred type, is a game that is designed from the ground up just for personal computers. These games generally have the best graphics the most options for adjusting graphics and the best control and gameplay for a keyboard and mouse combination. This second type, and the type less desirable, are games that were originally written and coded for today’s gaming consoles and then ported to a form used on personal computers. These games are called ‘Ports’. In general games and that originally designed for gaming consoles and then ported to personal computers have inferior graphics, inferior control, and less options to customize your gaming experience.

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Just a side note, if your parent or grandparent thinking of buying a young person one of the new gaming consoles coming out this year. Consider this: if you’re going to buy an Xbox One or a PlayStation 4 you are in essence purchasing a Home Theater Personal Computer (HTPC). Having said, if the young person your purchasing this console floor is open to it there are great many HTPC’s available that have more capabilities and better uses for educational purposes than the gaming consoles being sold today. Myself, I haven’t been a console gamer in more than 20 years. I have looked at the specs for both of this year’s gaming consoles and two things are crystal-clear. First, Microsoft’s Xbox One… Well, there’s a reason it’s more expensive. Microsoft has packaged a personal computer into a form that a 12-year-old can look at and think of as a gaming system. On the other hand, second, Sony is selling an inferior product and did not make the crossover to HTPC. The reason for this is Sony wants to keep a steel grip on its media rights and that had a negative effect on the design of the next generation console by Sony.

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/_ddK8O2IuiU]

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Final Fantasy XIV (2) is, by all measures, a far superior game than what was released to me in March 2010. I’m going to tell you right now the beta of the first version of this game stank up my computer. Quite honestly, I was involved in the beta of Final FantasyXI, the very first MMORPG of this franchise and it ran better in beta than XIV. I think I’ve mentioned to everyone here before, that I am running everything you see on an HP Firebird 803 VooDoo DNA Gaming computer. This is HP’s commercial follow-up to the quite expensive‘Blackbird’. The ‘Blackbird’ was an incredible gaming computer that had a starting price of just over $6000. This meant those that could afford the Blackbird, had a gaming computer that would last them the next decade, but for the rest of us it was just something we looked at in PC gaming magazines.

 

So, My Dear Readers, all the screenshots and videos you see here are being done on a machine that is about four years old. I am not complaining, this machine still runs these games very well and I am not in a financial position to afford a new gaming computer anytime soon. On with the game.

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[caption id="attachment_1937" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Enzo Wide Shot In Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn[/caption]

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Due to the improvements in the video options of the game menu, you’re now able to customize the video and tje engine produces far more accurately match the capabilities of you were personal computer. This results in a much clearer, sharper, and more vivid gaming experience for this reboot of this wonderful game. Previously, my rig had a lot of difficulty running this game at the screen resolution I had. At the time the first release of this game my screen resolution was 1440x900, and I still couldn’t sustain a frame rate anywhere near 30 FPS. My current screen resolution is 1920x1080 and as you can see in the videos I am running a solid 30 FPS even while recording gameplay. To say that this is a great relief is a gross understatement.

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[caption id="attachment_1941" align="aligncenter" width="630"] A Nighttime Shot of Enzo in Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn[/caption]

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From what I can see, the quest dynamics of changed and improved, along with the interface. As I mentioned earlier in this article if you have played any other MMORPG you will find the new user interface to be very familiar. This is a great relief to me as with the previous user interface was horrible for personal computers and obviously designed for gaming consoles. You now have the action bars along the bottom to contain your spells attacks defenses or healing spells. And there are action bars along the side along with the quest log where it belongs, too. As well, they changed the intro video and how the game starts and I have to say the whole beginning video and getting started the game moves more smoothly and is better designed to be run on a personal computer.

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/J7dxtccpnI4]

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Bottom line, if you play this type of game and you’ve hesitated on trying this particular game I would suggest going out and buying it today. As I mentioned above right now at game stop it’s on sale for $14.99. You can’t beat a game of this caliber at that price by any measure. There are still problems with the game. I have yet to play it enough to isolate all the bugs. However, the bugs that remain are not playing prohibitive. Meaning, I’m able to play the game easily and well I finished my first couple of quests in a matter of minutes and my machine is not frozen once and there are no BSODs at all.

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[caption id="attachment_1934" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Registration in Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn[/caption]

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I’m happy to say that I now fully recommend this game for anybody would be interested in playing it and I hope you enjoy all the videos and screenshots of the polluted in today’s article. I am still working diligently to bring you a review containing videos and screenshots of my final game of theWorld of Warcraft.

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As always I am deeply honored that you come here and read my work.

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Thank you!

The Process

 Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. Today I am conducting a bit of an experiment, as I am writing to you. As the name of this article indicates, The Process, today I’m showing you behind the curtain and a little bit of the process that takes place when I write an article. With the help of this software Dragon ‘Naturally Speaking’[1] speech to text software… I am right now dictating an article as I am making a video of the dictation. Later today… Much later tonight I will be posting this completed article along with this video.

My Dear Readers you are so very important to me. Today being Thanksgiving I wanted to give you something back for all the support all the kindness all the kind comments and everything that I get from you as My Dear Readers. The gift I have for you today is a little look behind the curtain at the magic that is me writing an article for you.

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I have never done this, before. I am not sure how well it will work out! However, I am sitting here watching and it is keeping up although a little bit behind, with everything that I have said. The process, for me, My Dear Readers is … well… I always have ideas. I had a friend of mine, the other day… share with me…

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“What do you do, when you don’t have any ideas?”

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And I commented back

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“Well that is never a problem with me… I just always seem to have a lot of ideas about what to write.”

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Take ‘The Adventures of Princess Nadia”. I already have two notebooks full of; plot ideas, plot twists, cliffhangers, character evolution, character dynamics, relationships. All that will, at one point or another, in time become a part of my five book series ‘The Adventures of Princess Nadia’.

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For people that have not heard me talk about this before, and anyone that may be new to my blog? ‘The Adventures of Princess Nadia’ is a tale of a group of genetically engineered rats called “D and A rats” . Most people will see it and hear it as DNA… but actually it is “D and A”. Darrell and Alice. (Yes, named after my brother Darrell)

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The daughter of the original D&A rat, King Nakita, has a daughter named Princess Nadia. All of the rats, both D&A and Rattus Superiorous all live in a city called ‘Rattopia’. The rats are going to help mankind ‘catch-up’ in the evolutionary process. It is a very good series of novels. Which will start, being written, for very young adults… children, and will advance for middle school and then high school aged children. Right now I am going to stop the video and continue with writing ‘The Process’ the article. ]

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But, I’d like to thank you again, everybody, for dropping in and taking a look. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and I look forward to seeing you, again, soon.

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Now that I have turned off the video I’m going to continue writing the article ‘The Process’. Now, I don’t really think that I have any different or patented way of writing. I would think that the only major difference between me, and any other author of the day, is that I dictate all my articles, first. This is because I have limited use of my left hand, due to the progression of my spinal stenosis. If anything I am just adding one more step to the process of writing and then publishing an article. Whereas most authors will just type out an article then publish. I use a dictation software which takes my spoken words and turns it into a typewritten document. Then I can, change the document; update the document, and then copy and paste document and my publication software all using the Dragon naturally speaking software.

I have to tell you, My Dear Readers that getting this software was truly a godsend. I have needed this software for more than a year. I have wanted this software for the past 8 to 10 months. It was only in August of this year that I was able to get the software. I, alone, was not able to afford the software. However, Allen contributed most of the money so that I could have this software I so desperately needed. I can’t even begin to tell you My Dear Readers just how much of a significant difference this software has made. And my ability to write for you. I have made leaps and bounds in writing ‘The Adventures of Princess Nadia’ since I have the software.

I am, however, really wanting to get the upgraded Dragon speech software ‘Premium’. The upgraded version will allow me to not only write articles but to completely control my computer without any use of my hands. With the progression of my disease… that my doctors are telling me. The need for a software to control all of my computer functions is going to go beyond a desire and into a necessity… in the coming years. The really great part is? I can use this software and an older computer, connect it to my power chair and be able to control my power chairs movement and functions all with my voice. Now, My Dear Readers, this is not going to happen anytime soon. However, it is going to be something I need to do. It’s good that I’m getting to know this software so that in time I can use it the way I’m going to need to.

Now, back to the process. Unlike a lot of millennial’s, most likely, I still use notebooks, index cards, an index card box to make notes of; plot outlines, character development, and all things of that nature. Right now, today, I can tell you I have two composition notebooks, two index card collections, and a couple of packages of index cards all with all sorts of notes on; dialogue, locations, environments, and plot items. In time I will take all of these note cards and composition books and put them into my novel software.

Now that’s the other part of my process that might be a little bit different from everyone else’s. I use novel writing software called ‘Storybook’. So far, I have found this software to be in invaluable for a novice novel writer like myself. This software keeps track of; character locations, plot lines, through lines, locations of important items, and everything that we novice writers tend to trip up on. Now let me be honest… Completely honest with you, My Dear Readers. I have never completed a novel in my life. I have written, to date, over 310 articles for The Other Shoe. Prior to my blogs I have written short stories in high school, one act plays for college, and have written all sorts of political articles here and there all my life. Oh, and I forgot, for two years I wrote, edited, and published the newsletter for the apartment complex I managed here in Stanton California. While writing the newsletter I also wrote edited and maintained the website for the same apartment complex. I’m thinking of putting up a few scanned pages from the newsletter from Plazawoods apartments right here at The Other Shoe. I really am very proud of the newsletter I created for this apartment complex. I really haven’t mentioned it before… Haven’t talked about it much, because of one reason. After two years of; writing, copying, publishing, editing, and posting on every door of the building I managed for two years? I was never paid one cent, for all my work, by the owner of the building.

My Dear Readers I cannot even begin to put into words how much it hurt… How unappreciated I felt… How jaded it made me for that man to never pay me one cent for all the newsletters I wrote. Honestly, I think it’s why I stopped writing for many years. I cannot tell you how many of the residents complemented me on the newsletter that I wrote. In fact, I had one long-term resident who said they put the newsletter every month on the refrigerator in their apartment and that there are two very young kindergartens and elementary school age children would use my newsletter is practice reading out loud and for spelling. My Dear Readers as an author that’s the kind of thing I live for… I live to hear and know. Yes I used the newsletter as a device to let the tenants know it was the first of the month and the rent was due… without mentioning the rent or browbeating them that it was due. I used it as a tool to develop good habits and the part of my tenants to pay the rent on time. Because the owner of the building wanted to me to charge $75 a month if the rent was late. Like you, My Dear Readers, the residents of the building I managed were important to me. They are human beings with lives, with families, with loved ones, with dreams with, with aspirations and I wanted to provide them with a safe clean positive place to live in.

I hadn’t talked about that in forever. Now that I have… it feels good… It was good to talk about how this man hurt me and hobbled my writing. I don’t think a lot of people… Noncreative people, understand the close personal relationship artists have with their art. Like plagiarism. I don’t think any non-author… Even some soulless leech parasitic authors can understand how deeply you can harm an author by stealing his work. To steal someone’s work like my novel is not just legally wrong… It’s a moral affront and it’s a spiritual death. Now… Now that I think about it I really am I am going to scan… I found several of them the other day. And I sat and looked at them, and read them and it made me smile. I’m going to scan a few copies of the old newsletter, in the next week, I’m going to post them here at The Other Shoe. Now, My Dear Readers, do not be expecting anything grand or even the quality of what I write today. They were written in the late 90s. And they were written by much younger author than I am today. However, I think you will see even in these that when I did something? I poured myself into it. I gave it my all and I wanted to deliver the best product I possibly could.

I that’s what I wanted to share with you in this article ‘The Process’. For me the process is a spiritual process. It starts in my heart. It works out through my hands and through me speaking. It ends up on the screen of the computer, it gets edited, and then it is published to the Internet for all of you to read. But what I think I wanted you to understand in this process My Dear Readers is that when you read is something I put here on this blog you are reading a part of me! For everyone that well, those who read ‘The Adventures of Princess Nadia’ will be seeing into my mind and hearing my spirit. That is the process. From my heart to my mind to my hands, and my voice, to the Internet and then to you. Even if it’s just a short four paragraph article. They are all important to me. You are all important to me.

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HERE is the VIDEO I made while dictating this article.

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 [youtube=http://youtu.be/DOInja-jLHw]

Daniel’s November Video Update

            Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. Today (November 26^th, 2013) has been a very busy day, for me. I already wrote, and published ‘I’ll Be Seeing You, Again, Soon’, recorded and uploaded this video and started a very nice article about Pope Francis. If it is not already published, when you are reading this article, keep the faith. I am certain that I am working, diligently, to get it finished and published for your entertainment and enlightenment. I am not Catholic. My mother switched from Southern Baptist to Catholic late in life… in her 70’s. It made her happy. Something about how the church had been treating her since her divorce… that happened back in the early 70’s. Why they would hold a grudge for decades is beyond me… However, a great many things the Southern Baptists do leaves me vexed.

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Tongues will wag, that is what they do. The number one reason for the video? “Thank you!” I had more birthday wishes on Facebook than every before, and I just wanted to be sure that I showed my appreciation to all my well-wishers. Second reason. I want to keep everyone informed of my health, and my well-being. I know that you cannot tell much from a video. Yet, you can see that I am in ‘good spirits’ still living in the same place and not all altered. I spend my days and night in terrible pain, not high or drunk.

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I am happy that I have a roof over my head, and a doctor that helps to keep me… mostly out of pain. I am extremely happy that I have dozens of people that wish me well for my birthday. Mostly, I am happy for all of you… My Dearest Readers.  I am happy that, sometimes, I bring a little entertainment and happiness to people from all over this great world… one article at a time. Each time I see an article ‘Shared’, I am moved. Each time I see someone has taken the time to comment on an article I write… I am moved. Every time I see my work, my words, quoted… I am moved. Thank you.

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Now, without further adieu ‘Daniel’s November Video Update’

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/ekk_IfI6XG8]

Pope Francis Strikes Again!

Pope Francis Strikes AGAIN!

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Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. Today (November 26^th, 2013) Pope Francis, again, went out of his way to denounce and decry an “idolatry of money” that will result in “a new tyranny.”[1] Now, I have known from the earliest days of his Papacy, that this Pope would likely change the Catholic Church. I understood the choice of a Pope hailing from a less developed country on the South American continent would shift the focus of the Vatican back to the “needs of the many”. However, I am happy to provide proof of my statement. Here is Pope Francis, in his own words:

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“The great danger in today’s world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience.”[2] Quoted from Evangelii-Gaudium Pope Francis 11/24/13

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Long before this man became Pope, but within the life of this blog, I wrote;

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“I believe that President Reagan sold the soul of our great nation by saying these words… Greed is good”

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See, as a boy of Southern Baptist upbringing I was taught that greed is a sin. I was taught that it was sinful (and socially aberrant) for one to discuss (in public) “how much you make” or “how much I paid in taxes”. One just did not do these things in polite company. One would certainly not discuss their wealth in mixed company nor would they divide friends or congregation by wealth. Truly, I was raised with the deeply held belief that “one is judged by his actions, not his bank account”.

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My how America and Americans have strayed in just one generation. How we have not only left behind the belief systems that made our parents great. Not only have we discarded the accurate measure of a man’s worth. We have not just turned our backs, to these ideals; we have literally embraced that which we were warned against. If you do not believe me? Read how Pope Francis communicates this same ideal.

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“Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor. God’s voice is no longer heard, the quiet joy of his love is no longer felt, and the desire to do good fades.”[3]

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I cannot count the time, in just the past three years and 300+ articles, I have sought to express these same ideals. Where I have failed, this Pope succeeds. My Dear Readers, if you have been with me for awhile. If you have read many of my articles, then you will truly know that I have genuinely sought to bring these ideals to you My Dear Readers.

It is my firm and solid belief, that when President Reagan spoke these words “Greed is good!” he set our nation on the wrong path. I believe that he knew not what he did. How could he? He did not understand that his words would be turned into a type of religion. That wealthy families would use his words to shield themselves from the duty of charity. He could not have foreseen that the old John Birch Society would take up with the multigenerational millionaires and billionaires and divide our great nation along financial lines. Finally, that his words would lead to the greatest financial inequality since Marie Antoinette (allegedly) said

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“"Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" “Let them eat cake.”[4]

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Yes, in America today our financial inequality is greater than anytime in the past 150 years. In fact, financial inequality in America is the worst ever with the bottom 20% of our population controlling about 0.3% (three tenths of one percent) of our nation’s wealth. That means that sixty-two million Americans have the use of less than 0.3% of our nation’s economic power.[5] That is the lowest… the least amount of financial control any demographic has ever had in our nation’s history… outside of slavery. Right now, today, tens of millions of working Aemericans live with less than any “free men” have in our nation’s entire history.

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“"Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."

The words of Jesus Christ - Matthew 19:24

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Our nation is in a period of economic recovery. That is only true for some Americans. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans were left out of our recent economic recovery.

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“This month, Berkeley economics professor Emmanuel Saez put out an update to his estimates of income inequality, and the headline figure has everybody outraged: 95% of income gains since 2009 have accrued to the top 1%.”[6] .

On the other hand, that means that 99% shared only 5% of the gains from our economic recovery since 2009. This is exactly what Pope Francis is speaking against. This is exactly what I have been working to write and warn you My Dear Readers. This is the horrific financial inequality that is the newest Black Plague of the modern American society. It is my responsibility to share this stark and disturbing truth.

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It would appear that Pope Francis and I bear the same cross. Here is, yet another, excerpt from the Pope’s most recent writings about financial inequality:

“Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world,” [7] Pope Francis November 24^th, 2013

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Now, it is time for everyone to see this situation for what it is. Now, it is time for all Americans to stand up for financial equality. Realize, that if there is sweeping change in America? It will not be the ‘redistribution of wealth’ from the Middle Class to the poor. It will, quite likely, be… manifest itself as a redistribution of wealth from the Uber-Wealthy to the poor.

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Hang on, I just realized that I spoke the three words that scares the crap out of most Republicans. Redistribution of Wealth. I am not talking about taking money from someone that inherited their father’s business and has spent their adult life keeping said company afloat. I am not talking about the struggling business owner, that takes out loans to pay his payroll. I am not talking about anyone that is reading this blog. (I sincerely doubt that any millionaires or billionaires read my blog. However, if you are and you do? “THANK YOU!”)

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For the entirety of my adult life, I have never held with the idea of the redistribution of wealth. Not until recently. Not until the financial inequality in our nation has grown into the realm of fiction. Not until it has become factually evident that 85% of America’s wealth is controlled by less than 20% of the population.[8] Only when it became clearly evident that those who control America’s wealth will spend anything to keep the status quo.

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The ‘American Dream’ that we were all raised with, is dead. It is time we all dealt with its passing, and took action to protect ‘the least among us’.

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As always I am deeply honored that you come here and read my work.

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Thank you!

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[1]http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/pope-francis-denounces-trickle-down-economic-theories-in-critique-of-inequality/2013/11/26/e17ffe4e-56b6-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html?hpid=z1

[2]http://www.scribd.com/doc/187329248/Pope-Francis-s-Nov-24-2013-Evangelii-Gaudium

[3]http://www.scribd.com/doc/187329248/Pope-Francis-s-Nov-24-2013-Evangelii-Gaudium

[4]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let_them_eat_cake

[5]http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

[6] http://www.businessinsider.com/95-of-income-gains-since-2009-went-to-the-top-1-heres-what-that-really-means-2013-9#ixzz2loPnMNIO

[7]http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/pope-francis-denounces-trickle-down-economic-theories-in-critique-of-inequality/2013/11/26/e17ffe4e-56b6-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html?hpid=z1

[8]http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

I’ll Be Seeing You, Again, Soon

I’ll Be Seeing You, Again, Soon…

           Welcome back My Dearest Readers to The Other Shoe. I have been away for six days, not without good reason. On July 11 of this year I started a campaign to raise money to help me move. A very successful campaign, I might add. However, since I started that campaign I have not taken time away for myself. In the past six months I; was forced to move from a place I called home for a decade, watched a man I dearly love work to undermine his best efforts and destroy his life in slow motion, did everything I could to raise enough money to move alone if need be, packed the majority of my home by myself (which, in my condition, was; terrifying, painful, and humiliating), moved, lost, and worked the very fiber of my being to regain myself and what little status I had in the community I choose to express myself.

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Life deciding, that not being enough, all along I was in a quiet battle with my own pain. Since right before Allen left my pain has been on a steady path increase in severity and how long it visits me. Going hand in hand with this debilitating pain are frequent fevers, severe headaches, and intense burning sensation in my neck… Like someone pouring lava down the back of my head. Through all that, My Dear Readers, I have done my best to do two things. First, never stop writing. As a boy I thought choir was my voice, as a young man I thought the stage would be my voice, as a middle-aged man you hear my voice right here. Second, ‘show no pain’… Thanks Dad.

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I hope I have succeeded, My Dear Readers. For of all that which I wished to share with you my pain-and-suffering are not numbered among them. All along in the background I been searching for my voice. Who am I? Am I a humorist? Doubtful I don’t find what going on America amusing in the slightest nor do I find any humor in the life I’ve been left to lead. Am I a humanist? Definitely I look at today and I can compare it to the other time I know best in my life. The 60s.

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When the 60s began I was three years old. By the time it was all over; three great Americans had been struck down in the ;rime of thier lives, America had put men on the moon, African-Americans were full citizens with the right to vote, and I was a teenager. America faces similarly difficult times right now today. Am I a humanist? Damn right I am!

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But that’s not enough, My Dear Readers, everybody’s got have a hook. In three years I have written 308 articles. Literally tens of thousands of; Americans, Asians, Mediterranean’s, people from all over this good Earth have visited my blog and read my words. Not shabby.

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But I owe you more. And more is what you will get. My battle with my disability and pain will continue unabated, until I draw my last breath. But something else will continue as well, My Dear Readers, this blog, my writing, and ‘The Adventures of Princess Nadia’. Because you see all along I’m working on my tail. You want to know what irony is? To speech program wrote T A I L not T A L E That’s ironic.

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My Dear Readers, I wish I could be here several times every day. If I had a staff, if I had an editor, if I had anyone on God’s green earth any kind of help with these two blogs I’d be writing to you several times a day and publishing. I love you all so much. You are the reason I get up in the morning, you’re the reason I endure the pain, you’re the reason I breathe today. If I’m not here on these pages it’s not because I don’t want to be. If I’m not here, more times than not, it’s because I cannot be. And for that, I apologize.

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Hopefully, starting later today I’m going to be writing with more of a direction. Right now I’m fixing to go… to go, to the biweekly… triweekly? Every two days. Process of removing a pain patch and putting on a new one. A simple process, eh? If they made these darn things worth a damn it would be. However, we live in reality and the damn things are made for profit so it takes me a good two hours to get one to stick.

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As soon as that is done, My Dear Readers, I will return here and talk with you more. Oh how I love talking to you... you are the future... you do realize that, right? All of us. Young, old, teen, 20 something, African American, Caucasian, Hispanic, Latino, we are the future.

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A humanist is a man or woman who looks at the world around them and says to themselves “we can do better”. I know we can, I’ve seen it with my own two eyes. Hopefully, My Dear Readers, over the next days, weeks, months, years I will share with you how we can all do it better. I’ll share with you how even though the 60s were an era of assassinations, we did the human part right. And how, today we are really screwing up the human part. Oh Lord we know how to make money Lordy yes! But in the pursuit of avarice mankind has traded humanity… Humility… The art of being a human is being traded it for the art of being wealthy at someone else’s expense.

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You see, no one ever tells you that. Prior to meeting Allen, and after I left Pearland Texas. A little city krpt drawing me back to its borders. No matter where I looked for a job, no matter where I chose to live this little city kept calling me back to its borders. That little city? That little city was… Beverly Hills. You can’t really work, live, eat, play in the city of Beverly Hills without getting to know wealthy people, wealth, money and the God of it all avarice.

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I simply must get in the shower… I met a screenwriter. This old screenwriter used to write for Colombo and McMillan and wife. He said the strangest thing to me. He said “Daniel there’s only a finite amount of wealth in the world. Humanity is not about hoarding that money. Being human… Being human is making sure that everybody has enough to live.”

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I’ll leave you with that.

Daniel's Splendiferous Chocolate/Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

[caption id="attachment_1894" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Daniel’s Splendiferous Chocolate/Chocolate Chip Cupcakes[/caption]

Daniel’s Splendiferous Chocolate/Chocolate Chip Cupcakes

 

           Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. Today I’m going to be sharing with you a very special cupcake recipe that I have created specifically for my 56^th birthday. I am a big experimenter in the kitchen, I always have been every since I started working at Schlotzsky’s and clear Lake City Texas. I do not often experiment with a 20 pound very expensive Thanksgiving day Turkey. However I’ve very much enjoy experimenting with Desserts. Today’s article is the recipe for a Splendiferous Cupcake that I reserve for my birthdays. It has taken me many many years to perfect this recipe.

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First, I would like to impart a few warnings… Or advice. If you are diabetic you will definitely not want to eat these, or if you do have your insulin handy. Second, if you’re borderline diabetic or you have problems related to blood sugar you will not want to eat more than a couple of these in one setting article stop feeling your feet. You see, My Dear Readers, the recipe I am about to impart is so extremely rich… So completely decadent… That is been known to give out to older people with only one serving.

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Below is a list of the ingredients you will need to make Daniel’s Splendiferous Chocolate/Chocolate Chip Cupcakes. Please do your best to find the items I am listing with the brands listed and make as few substitutions as is possible. Any substitutions made can and will change the quality texture and flavor of these decadent treats.

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• Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix


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  [caption id="attachment_1896" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Betty Crocker’s Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix[/caption]


• Package of Jell-O Brand Chocolate Pudding Mix (Use ONE HALF of package in batter)


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  [caption id="attachment_1898" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Package of Jell-O Brand Chocolate Pudding Mix[/caption]


• Package of Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Morsel (Use ONE HALF of package in batter)


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  [caption id="attachment_1899" align="aligncenter" width="465"] Package of Nestle Toll House Semi-Sweet Morsel[/caption]


• 
  
  [caption id="attachment_1897" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Betty Crocker Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Premium Frosting, 16 oz[/caption]




• 3-4 tablespoons Vital Wheat Gluten (FYI the gluten is essential for this recipe as we are mixing pudding mix with a heavy cake mix. The gluten will keep this receipe from forming… wet hockey pucks.)


• 3 Large -> Jumbo Eggs


• 1 ¼ Cups water (Bottled not carbonated)


• ½ Vegetable Oil (Wesson or Crisco)


• Cupcake pan


• Cupcake Liners

 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees (as with all my baked goods a Convection Oven works best and will give you the best most uniform results). I use a Oster Convection Wave Toaster Oven  that I got @ Wal-Mart for about $100.00. Now, I prefer to use the metal cupcake liners. However, if you do not like the liners or do not have any (I really suggest them with these cupcakes… they will get all over your hands otherwise) you can just use the Pam spray or like product.

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Get all your ingredients together, prior to starting. Your best results will happen if there is little to no delay in the preparation/mixing process to pouring into the cupcake pan. I also suggest to have a One Cup and one Two Cup measuring cups handy. Get a large mixing bowl and a flour sifter (three or four cup sifter, if you have one). Now, place ALL of the dry ingredients (Cake mix, Jell-O mix, and Vital Wheat Gluten) into you flour sifter. Sift all the dry ingredients together into the large mixing bowl. I run the dry ingredients through the sifter twice, but once will do fine. Now, place all the wet ingredients (vegetable oil, water, eggs) into the bowl with the dry ingredients. With your hand mixer combine all the ingredients together until they are completely combined. Set your hand mixer to medium  and mix for 2 ½ to 3 minutes. You will have a fluffy batter that is very smooth on the surface and has risen slightly. Now, take One-Half of the package of chocolate chips and hand-mix these into the batter. Making sure that all the chips are covered with batter.

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Now, fill your two or three cup measuring cup with the batter and fill each cupcake liner about ½ to 2/3 full. Do not fill to the top, leave a good amount of room for the cupcakes to rise and not get all over your nice cupcake pan. Place in your preheated oven and cook for about 21-23 minutes. Either use a toothpick to check they are done, or you can press lightly on the top of the cupcakes. If they do not leave batter on your finger, and bounce back nicely, they are done. Since we have some pudding in this batter, a little longer is better, just make sure the tops do not burn.

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This recipe should make you about three dozen cupcakes. Stand and let cool, then frost with the awesome Betty Crocker Hershey's Special Dark Chocolate Premium Frosting. If you want to be special or it is a special occasion you can put a chocolate chip on the peak of the frosting. If it is really special, use a Hershey’s Kiss to top the cupcake frosting.

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As I stated above, eat these… only a couple at a time. Eating too many of these puppies at once… and you’ll begin loosing feeling in your feet. J

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ENJOY!

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[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Daniel's Splendiferous Chocolate/Chocolate Chip Cupcakes[/caption]

Happy, Happy Birthday to Me!

Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. Today’s posting will be short, and sweet. Today is my BIRTHDAY. Therefore, I am NOT going to spend it sitting behind a keyboard. I am writing this Tuesday night, and setting it for automatic posting tomorrow. I will be 56 years young, tomorrow. I as six when President Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas, Texas. I remember it all too well.

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Having just moved, at the first of last month, my celebration will be limited to baking cupcakes. Money is still extremely tight, and I am not the kind of guy to go into debt just to celebrate his birthday. I hope that everyone has enjoyed the articles I have published, so far, this week. I will be back behind the keyboard, tomorrow.

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To everyone that wishes me a “Happy Birthday” on Facebook. I say “Thank you!” I just might not even start a computer tomorrow. Hope everyone has a wonderful Wesdnesday (hump day).

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Oh, FYI I AM a ‘Wednesday’s Child’. I was born on a Wednesday. What is the saying? That we Wednesday’s children are full of woe? They couldn’t have hit the target better, if they had met me, first.

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AS always I am honored that you come here and read my work.

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Thank you!

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Two Generations of Lies

           Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. Today is Tuesday, November 19, 2013. Tomorrow is my 56^th birthday, and two days after that will be the 50^th anniversary of the assassination of Pres. John Kennedy. Since my sixth birthday, Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, my birthday has been overshadowed by the ghost of Kennedy’s assassination. This year will not only be no different. This year this topic could, will likely, overshadowed even Thanksgiving.

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First, let me speak to the social impact of the Kennedy assassination. Quite honestly, I do not know a single American that buys the results of ’The Warren Report’ lock stock and barrel. For most Americans the single hardest piece of the Warren report to chew is ‘The Single Bullet Theory’. Do you know who actually came up with this physics defying, logic infuriating, nonscientific theory? Then Warren Commission stafffer, later to be Senator, Arlen Specter.

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At the time Arlen Specter had absolutely no formal education in; physics, medicine, human anatomy, or their aerodynamic our physical properties of a bullet. He had no training or education in ballistics nor in any field of medicine. Yet, our nation for the last two generations has been divided into two camps because of this staffer’s theory. One camp, let’s call them ‘Camp A’, believes the Warren commission report and the ‘Single bullet theory’. The other camp, let’s call them ‘Camp B’, do not believe either the Warren commission report in its entirety or the single bullet theory itself. I number myself among Camp B.

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Now, if you number yourself as a member of Camp A’, then you might be very much surprised that myself and the rest of ‘Camp B’ are anywhere from 81% to 61% of the population of the United States of America. Regardless of the poll results from 1991 or the poll taken as recently as 2012, the vast majority of Americans fall into ‘Camp B’. However, this article today is not going to debate the facts of Kennedy’s assassination as much as attempt to characterize the sociological impact of the event and the following Warren Report.

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Now My Dear Readers, it does not matter if you are one of my readers from America or if you’re one of my readers from; England, Canada, Cyprus, China or Hong Kong. I am sure at some point in your life you have engaged in a heated conversation with friends or family members over the facts of the Kennedy assassination. What that means to me, as a watcher of mankind, is that this assassination and the following report have created a schism in our international community for the past two generations. Like the abolitionists, and anti-abolitionists, of the late 19^th century our world, and all its peoples, can easily be separated into these two camps.

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Friendships have been put under terrible strain over this very topic. Son against father, father against mother, brother against sister, and brother against brother the poison of this day has spread throughout our society. I strongly feel that the ‘Warren Commission Report’ is:

• a disservice to the United States of America and every thinking citizen there was a live in 1963 and born after 1963


• quite literally a poison flowing through the veins of every thinking person, that is heard of the Kennedy assassination, on the face of the planet earth


• A disingenuous attempt by men completely intellectually unprepared for the task they were assigned. To attempt to create a plausible ‘cover story’ for the greatest governmental cluster fuck in American history.


• The single greatest failure of the United States government against its citizens.

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For me at least, My Dear Readers, our government’s attempt to explain the assassination of Pres. John F Kennedy is equal only to lie America allowed to be perpetrated that cigarette smoking did not cause lung cancer. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans do not believe the Warren Commission Report. Eight in 10 Americans believe their government has lied to them and is covering up the real reason for the assassination of the single most loved and charismatic president of modern American history. You cannot sit there and read this article and believe for a single moment that that is not a poison flowing through the veins of our nation. You cannot sit there and honestly believe that this lie is not a cancer on the body politic of America. You cannot, in good conscience, sit there and not feel the same desire I do for the truth!

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My Dear Readers I wish, today, right here right now I had that truth for you. Oh, not only because it would make me as wealthy as my dreams of avarice could possibly make me. But, regardless of that if I could bring the truth to you all I would be bringing a cure for the sociological disease that is plagued our nation and every thinking person on this planet for two generations. You see, My Dear Readers, we were promised the truth.

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Shortly after the release of the report… The lie the United States Congress promised to open all records they had on the Kennedy assassination as soon as “every living adult that might be responsible at the time was dead”. That day has come and gone. We were promised that Gov. Connally’s body would be exhumed, it wasn’t. Did you know My Dear Readers that fragments of the magic bullet still reside in Gov. Connally’s body?

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As recently as June 1993 the FBI and Atty. Gen. Janet Reno tried to get Gov. Connally’s body exhumed.[1] much to my chagrin, and in an injustice to history and all Americans, that Connally family balked and the governor’s body was not exhumed. In the ground in the great state of Texas lies evidence. Evidence crucial to finding out the real truth of what happened on November 22, 1963 on the streets of Dallas Texas. What kind of people would, in good conscience, stand between evidence and the pursuit of truth? My answer to you My Dear Readers? People that have something to hide.

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You see My Dear Readers there are still too many people, in Texas for one, that have everything to lose and nothing to gain by Americans and the world finding out the real truth about the assassination of United States Pres. John F Kennedy. My Dear Readers until that body is exhumed, until we have the real truth and not the lie that is the Warren commission report. Poison will flow through the veins of our people, a cancer will grow in our body politic, and our people will be divided. It is also the humble opinion of this author, that until we have the real truth we will not be able to judge the societal negative impact this lie has had on two generations of Americans and thinking human beings. This is, in my humble opinion, a grave injustice just waiting for someone courageous enough to bring us all the real truth.

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In closing, on a more personal note I would like for this assassination to be completely solved and the real truth to be obtain so that it will stop overshadowing my birthday. Every single year my birthday rolls around I know my birthday is coming because everybody starts talking about Pres. John F. Kennedy’s assassination. I would happily have my birthday co-opted by… let’s say… Thanksgiving! But I grow weary of my birthday being overshadowed by this lie.

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As always I am deeply honored that you come here and read my work.

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Thank you!

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[1]http://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/18/us/fbi-backs-plan-to-remove-connally-bullet-fragments.html

Three Hundred Articles at The Other Shoe

           Welcome back My Dear Readers, to The Other Shoe . Today is November 18^th, 2013 and it is 10:05PN Pacific time. I have just been made aware that my primary blog location (www.theothershoe.blog.com) is WORKING for the first time in more than a week. I must tell you, My Dear readers, that I am very happy to have my blog back up and running just in time for my birthday… and another meaningful celebration.

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This article marks Three Hundred Articles (actually 308) in my life as; writer, editor and publisher here at The Other Shoe. I am quite proud of my accomplishment. I will be crowing about this milestone on; Facebook, Twitter, and both my blog locations. I simply cannot put into words (believe that or not) how proud I am of my work, and of reaching this milestone in publication in just over two years!

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Now, in the past (when I reached 100 articles, and when I reached 200 articles) I am going to work on posting excerpts from my most popular and favorite articles out of the three hundred. I am hoping to have the links and excerpts ready, for publication, tonight… when I publish this article. However, with my ever increasing pain… and escalating fever I am not too sure that it will play out properly. I will do my best to make sure that this piece is up to my high standards. But, I just might let myself slip, ever so slightly, and get the article up and add the favored pieces, excerpts and links as this week flies by. Now that I think on this matter, I am pretty sure that is how this is going to play out.

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I have always been a fan of serial works. I cannot tell you the thrill I experienced when Stephen King published ‘The Green Mile’ as Six smallish novels…. Over six months. “Brilliant” It was nothing short of brilliant to break down an extremely suspenseful novel over six months and six books. I completely enjoyed the whole process, and have often thought I would very much like (one day) to do the same with one of my novels. The last (5^th) novel of the series ‘The Adventures of Princess Nadia’ would be the work I would very much like to spread out over six months. What better way to end a five part series of young adult science fiction, than with the last book to take six months to complete. Start it at the beginning of the school year, and end it just weeks before graduation.

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Having said, right now I am going to talk about the pure joy I have experienced over the past two years bringing you, My Dear Readers, the three hundred articles that (so far) make up The Other Shoe. When I started this blog, March 2010, I had no idea that I would reach as many readers as I do today. Nor did I imagine that words from my blog (and political writings) would appear on; ‘Face the Nation’ TWICE. Once, when Bob Schieffer questioned Senate Minority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell in July of 2011 with my words… I had submitted the question via the Face the Nation Facebook page, earlier in the week. I had simply written;

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“Why are Republicans ALLOWING ‘Freshman’ Congressmen CONTROL this debate? They are the LEAST experienced members of Congress and know the LEAST about real governance. It is like letting teenagers control the family budget.”[1]

In the weeks, leading up to this broadcast, I had been needling Republicans on Facebook with many different variations of this very question. See, when I learned about our Congress (The House of Representatives and Senior body the Senate) I was taught that Freshmen representatives carried little clout. That a Representative, or Senator, had to work to gain respect and garner support across the isle. That the lawmakers in the Senate were even referred to as; The Junior Senator and the Senior Senator from ____. (Yes, back then they were LAWMAKERS and suffered with no delusions that their job was just to “repeal laws” and not to make laws).

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Well, I can clearly see that I have picked and shared the very first article to be remembered in this review of my first Three Hundred Articles @ The Other Shoe.

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Be sure to come back during the week, to watch as I continue this wonderful review of the best of the first three hundred articles at The Other Shoe.

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[1]http://theothershoe.blog.com/2011/07/danny-hanning-quoted-on-face-the-nation/

Pope Francis Schools Palin and Buchanan

                    Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe! It appears as though I HAVE MY BLOG BACK WORKING! I just now noticed @ 9:15PM Monday November 18th, 2013. I am going to start writing and posting as much as I can, starting tomorrow. However, I just HAD to share something I read about Pope Francis. This new Pope is one I can really get behind. He is a Pope of the People! If I were Catholic, I would be very proud to call him Pope. Now, to the point of this posting.

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Yesterday, on the Blog for His Holiness, Pope Francis gave Sarah Palin and Pat Buchanan a Holy Bitch-Slap! He took on these wanna-be 'Conservative Poosers' and took them to Sunday School. Here is what he said about Pat Buchanan:

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"This is a man who has dabbled in Holocaust denial and has a documented history of anti-Semitism,” Francis wrote. “Of course he doesn’t want the Church to become more inclusive. He’d probably like it if we segregated mass services from now on.”

“Opening up the Church to all of God’s children is the just and moral thing to do,” Francis continued, “and I won’t be persuaded otherwise, especially by a man who couldn’t even beat Bob Dole in the ’96 Republican primaries."¹

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After soundly taking Pat to the wood shed, he then turned his brilliance and holy wrath on Sarah (I cannot even complete ONE term of an elected office) Palin:

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"The Holy See also had harsh words for former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, another of his American conservative critics. Palin—who, unlike Buchanan, is not a Catholic—said Thursday that she is “taken aback” by some of Francis’s decisions and is dismayed by his “liberal” comments.

“What does Palin know about leadership?” Francis wondered. “This is a woman who couldn’t even make it through one term as governor of Alaska before resigning, and who, let’s be honest, was probably the worst vice presidential nominee in American history.”

Francis also questioned Palin’s grasp of religious tenets. “I’m not convinced she knows the first thing about the Bible,” Francis wrote. “In fact, I’m not even confident that she knows how to read.”²

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Oy Vey!

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“In fact, I’m not even confident that she knows how to read.” (Sarah Palin by Pope Francis)

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Well, my birthday is not until Wednesday... but the Pope just gave me my BEST Brithday present two days EARLY!!

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I am thrilled to see that the Pope has the courage to take on these purveyors of hatred and ignorant rhetoric. Perhaps, now, many more American writers and journalists can take cover (with the Pope's words) and come out and lambast these ignorant rehtoric parrots. It is about time that this ilk were soundly put in their place. So very happy that I lived to see this wonder of God.

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As I mentioned above, it appears that my primary blog is back up and running properly. Now, I will start work on publishing more content on a more regular basis. My health is slowly improving, and I apologize for allowing my pain and fevers to keep me away from you, My Dear Readers. Thank you for your understanding and support. See you, more, soon.

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As always, I am deeply honored that you come here and read my work.

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Thank you!

 

EDIT: This article is satire. The 'news' source is a pseudo new site, meant for laughs. I apologize to all that may have not known of this web site, or that this article was satire.

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1. - http://www.newslo.com/pope/#sthash.vuNkAlPN.dpuf

2. http://www.newslo.com/pope/#sthash.vuNkAlPN.dpuf

Missing Texas

                        Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. I hope that everyone enjoyed my article of earlier today, ‘My Problem With President Obama’. That article was difficult for me to bring to paper. Difficult for me to share, and difficult for me to allow my passion to show. It is not that I have difficulty pointing out the shortcomings of Democrats, be they Congressmen or Senators of even Presidents. It is difficult for me to criticize a sitting President. On more than one occasion I have chastised; friends, Facebook posters, and followers of The Other Shoe for being too openly critical of a sitting President. I, often, point out that when you openly grind on a sitting President you run the risk of openly disrespecting  the office of President of the United States.

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Little can be, genuinely, gained in so doing. As well, I feel that when people (writers, bloggers, TV personalities and radio talking heads) grind too much, and too often, on a sitting President we weaken our President in the international community. We weaken his ability to hold the leaders of other nations to task. We weaken our ability to build coalitions to fight oppressors and tyrants and weaken our hand in international trade agreements. This harms our nation, as a whole, and harms our standing in the international community.

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There, I got that off my chest. Now, on to the real reason for this late-in-the-day posting. It is 8:45PM, here in California. So, it is nearly 11PM in Texas. Therefore, most of the people that this article is meant for… will not read it until tomorrow… at the earliest. That’s fine, there really is no rush. The feeling that I will do my best to communicate, in this article, is that I miss Texas. This has been building, now, for several… months… yeah, months… I’ll stick with that… right. I may have tipped-off some of my more astute readers, earlier this week, when I wrote that I was denied attendance to my own mother’s funeral.

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I mean, I had never heard of something like that… before. An elder brother, telling his younger sibling that they were not welcome at the funeral of their mother… or father. I mean, I have read a lot in my lifetime and never before had I read of anyone being denied access to a parents funeral. If I had to come up with a Funk and Wagnall’s human definition of the word harsh? I would submit “refusing the younger brother from attending the mother (or father’s) funeral”. That, and I just have to say, IMHO that seems lot like an abusive action… by the elder brother.

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Me writing that, putting that into an article here @ The Other Shoe surely could have been a tip-off that I was missing home. Now, there are some of My Dear Readers that will giggle or laugh… at me referring to Texas as Home. I have been, here in one part of California or another, off and on for the past thirty-four years. That means that I have spent more, of my adult life, within the borders of California than I spent in Texas. All the same, I still do consider myself a Texan.

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If I ever win any kind of award, and I am at the award ceremony and give an acceptance speech I will mention “being a boy from a small town in Texas…”. If ever asked in an interview, I will always tell that I was born and raised in Southeast Texas. I am proud to be a Texan. It does not matter if Texas is, outside of Texas, popular or not at the time. I am a Texan and not a ‘fair-weather Texan’. I have been missing you guys a lot, of late. I read your words, on Facebook. See your posts and sometimes recent pictures of you. It is just not the same. I have to really strain to remember; how you speak, how you walked, how you laughed and how you felt when shaking my hand… or giving me a hug. I think, most of all, I miss that.

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Another reason, I think, that this may be coming up? Next week is my 56^th birthday. Just a stone’s throw from Sixty… and all that that entails. Yes, I am pretty sure that the upcoming 56^th birthday could have a lot to do with these feelings of… home sick. Just now, when I was running through what I was going to type next, I thought of the word home sick and (of course) the very first time I did feel home sick. It was Church camp… some place called “Peach Creek’. I think it was Peach Creek. If anyone, reading here today, went to South Park Baptist Church in Houston, and you went to Church Camp while attending SPBC? You would remember… if that was the name. If I got it wrong, don’t be shy. Either here at my blog, or on Facebook, please correct me, K? Tell me that I remembered wrong, and do me a solid and remind of the name of the Church Camp. K?

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Anyway, that was the very first time in my life that I ever felt home sick, was the first year I went away for Church Camp. So, I am pretty sure… that is what I am feeling, now. I know that it is not just the birthday. It is also the growing pain, in spite of the increased pain medications. It is the swollen lump at the base of my spine… on the left side. The increased white cell count, for the past six months. Yes, it is all of those things… combined. So, I just wanted to say… to all of you… in Pearland, and Houston.

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            “I miss you.”

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As always I am deeply honored that you come here and read my work.

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Thank you!