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He would, seemingly, never tire of playing with me. From the very first time I played ‘Pong’ at my father’s ‘Bachelor Pad’ I knew that computer based gaming would be my future for gaming. My very first paying job as a writer was for ‘All Out Gamers’ where I was the Lead Writer and Editor for the PC Gaming section of the web site. The series ‘MMORPGs And YOU!’ just felt like the culmination of decades of gaming, and my love of writing. I just hope that everyone enjoyed reading the articles (and watching the ingame videos and checking out the screenshots) as much as I enjoyed bringing them to you.
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From that beginning this week of writing took quite a big turn, left. As the week progressed, I opened myself more and more to you, My Dear Readers. The week ended with my single most revealing and humanist article in the history of this blog. If you haven’t had the time, or the inclination, to read any/all of this week’s work? Now is the time for you to take it all in, and get to know the primary writer for this blog and editor in charge, yours truly, Danny.
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So, without further adieu I bring you this week’s ‘A Week In Review’. Here’s hoping that you check out everything I have worked to bring you in just seven short days, and that you find my work; entertaining, enlightening, and edifying.
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- MMORPGs And YOU! – Conclusion : “If you would like to see some (or all) of the in game videos you need only follow the link (at the beginning of each synopsis) and visit the respective web page. FYI I made over thirty-six (three dozen) in game videos through the life of this series. Never before, and not since, have I spent as much time and effort on the production and publication of articles. I am very proud of this, my largest, body of work.” My Dear Readers, I do not think anyone can possibly accurately imagine the amount of work that this series of articles represents. Some of the ingame videos took three and four hours to upload. Each and every ingame video that made it into an article was the best of four or five possible videos taken and recorded. Screenshots had to have their format changed and many had to have the image ‘cleaned’ and gamma, brightness and contrast adjusted prior to uploading and use in any given article. Once all the media was recorded, refined and uploaded, the process of writing the textual content began. Honestly, each of the nine articles took eight to ten hours to complete, over a period of three to four days. It was a labor of love… my love of PC Gaming and my genuine love of MMORPGs. I hope that sometime soon… I have the financial resources to go back and play some of these games. I REALLY miss playing my MMORPGs. Finally I really do hope that you, My Dear Readers, enjoyed these article and I hope that I conveyed the joy these games have brought to my life.
- What a Wonderful World : “When I was a boy, this song was popular in my home. As a boy of six and seven I used to sing this song, to my Mom, doing by best to mimic Louis Armstrong. Even at that young age, I prided myself on being able to mimic the voices and tonal qualities of famous people. I did a mean John Kennedy, until 1963… when I stopped doing his voice.(At the bottom of this post is a link to this song… being sung by Louis Armstrong, himself)”I woke up in the morning, the day I wrote this article, with this tune playing in my head.It just seemed, to me, logical to write an homage to this Louis Armstrong hit. Further, My Dear Readers, I know that all too often my articles reflect the pain and suffering that IS every waking day of my life… now. I just wanted everyone, that reads my blog, to know that there is still light in my mind, heart and soul. I still have faith in the goodness of my fellow man.. and especially you, My Dear Readers. I have the conviction of my beliefs, and I believe that mankind can and will make our nation and our world into a “Wonderful World”. I hope that you enjoyed the ‘Trip down memory lane’ that playing this song invokes. ENJOY!
- The 50th Anniversary of the W.o.P. : “Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. So, what does ‘W.o.P.’ stand for? Two clues. First; our President was Lyndon Baines Johnson when the W.o.P. was started. Second; the ‘W’ stands for War. So, with those two clues can we figure out ‘what’ war was started fifty years ago today? Could it be a ‘War On Politicians’? Not likely, they are still around and messing things up royally. One would hope we would win that war. War on pot? Wrong. However, if that had been the case we would be loosing that war, too. War on the Philippines? Nope. War on Prejudice? Wrong, but that is a war that I would happily fight and give my life for.” I was six years old when President Lydon Baines Johnson stood before all the members of the Senate and the House of Representative on January 8th, 1964 and said these words; “This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. I urge this Congress and all Americans to join with me in that effort. It will not be a short or easy struggle, no single weapon or strategy will suffice, but we shall not rest until that war is won. The richest nation on earth can afford to win it. We cannot afford to lose it.” I am pretty darn sure that I heard President Johnson’s words, sitting beside my father, while listening to NPR on my father’s short-wave radio. My father was born to, and raised, in a poor household. He knew, all too well, the sting of embarrassment that came with poverty and the pains of hunger at bedtime. Like when we heard President Kennedy announce “we shall land in the moon, by the end of this decade… not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” My father’s eyes welled up with tears of pride. We were very proud of our TEXAN President, and moved by his declaration of a ‘War on Poverty’. Every time we Scouts were called up to collect canned goods, we were there to help. Every time we Scouts were called up to deliver ‘Toys for Tots’ (at Christmas) to children in South East Houston and Pearland, we were there to help. Until the day that my father left the family, we worked as often as we could to help in the ‘War on Poverty’.
- War on Poverty – Part Two : “Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. In yesterday’s article I did not manage to elaborate, on the war on poverty, as much as I wanted. I wanted to convey the current level of poverty, in our great nation, and that progress has been impaired. The war on poverty was started, by (TEXAN) President L.B.J. on January 8th, 1964 with a mandate laid out in his State of the Union speech. Today, I want to share more of the climate in which these programs (making up the War On Poverty) were created, and how these programs have been undermined and gutted.” The first article I published, on the 50th Anniversary of the ‘War on Poverty’, outlined what laws were passed to wage the ‘War on Poverty’. I shared charts and graphs to show how little progress has been made in the past fifty years. I even showed just how many children in America suffer with homelessness and hunger. In this follow-up article I shared more of the exact wording of the speech that launched the war. I explain how the war started out with Bi-Partisan support, but after just six short years the war lost funding and some programs were gutted completely. I show stark parallels between the Congress of 1963& 1964 to 2012 &2013. Finally, I revealed the proposed ‘answers’ to our current state of poverty to the light of day and show them to just be more lies and diversionist tactics.
- The Forces That Bind Us… ALL! : “Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. Hey. It’s me, Daniel. I am writing this article, today, with the help of my program. Seems I have ‘zombie fingers’ today… Well, most days. So, please excuse any typos I do not catch, like as soon as I post. OK? Those and any grammatical errors I might miss, OK, James? Today I am finally writing a piece that I have wanted to write… for years. This article is about the forces that bind us all.” Honestly, this article is still a little scattered. The through line is dropped, off and on, several times. I know that I need to spend more time with the article, to work out the kinks and make the delivery of the ideas as smooth and gripping as possible. This article… comes from the heart. It marks the beginning of a change in direction and objective for my blog .A couple of hours, after I posted this article, I read it out loud for Allen. Once I had the timing correct… this article moved Allen to tears. He heard, from deep inside me, my true self and my deep desire to be a good and successful humanist writer. To use my position, as a humanist writer, to improve the lives of all mankind, with my work and my words. I promise that I will come back and work on the delivery of this article more and more. I know that I can bring life and heart to this piece, and in doing I can touch others. Thank you for your understanding and support.
- The Forces That Bind Us ALL! Video : “Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. I wanted more for the article of the same name published yesterday. Late today, I read the article aloud for Allen. I was awestruck at how great it sounded when I read it out loud. I do enjoy how I read… how I place inflections… how I can breath life into written words. Allen told me that he enjoyed my spoken version better than the written version.”I find it rather revealing that a fourteen page article, in Word, can (by me) be turned into a half-hour video. My Dear Readers. I REALLY did my best to bring what I WANTED this article to BE… to this video. However, if the rewrite of the article is majorly different than it is, today. I WILL redo the video, as well. I am doing my best to set the tone for the blog, this year. I genuinely want more humanity in my work. I do not ‘shy away’ from the hard work I know it will require to bring humanity to my humanist works. I believe in YOU, My Dear Readers, and I DO believe that IF I can put my vision into words and videos… we stand a good chance to leading… leading ourselves and our nation to a better… brighter and more humane future for ourselves and our posterity.
- The Bill of Human Rights : “It is my humble opinion that all humans have a God given right to; adequate and healthy food, safe and comfortable housing that is affordable, good and caring health care that provides a healthy quality of life, and a general sense of happiness and fulfillment by feeling appreciated and needed in the community that we live. No longer should humans settle for a subsistence wage or worse ‘starvation wages’. All humans have a God given right to a ‘Living Wage’.” It was President Franklin D. Roosevelt that first proclaimed that there should be a NEW& Second ‘Bill of Rights[1] during his ‘State of the Union’ Januray 11th, 1944. (Funny, that, FDR declared his desire for an ‘Economic Bill of Rights’ during a’ State of the Union’and Twenty years late Presient Johnson declared his ‘War on Poverty’… BOTH WERE DEMOCRAT Presidents!) Now, I am being completely truthful here… I DID NOT look at this ‘Second Bill of Rights’ for the past two or three years. I am looking at it, right now, and I am seeing a good many similarities between my ‘Bill of Human Rights’ and President F.D.R.’s ‘Second Economic Bill of Rights’. I am SURE that I vaguely remembered what F.D.R. put forth, but HONESTLY I did not just steal his work and call it my own. Honestly, President Roosevelt’s is MUCH better than mine. However, there are elements of MY ‘Bill of Human Rights’ that FIT better for the 21st century. I think , that going forward, ANY who would work (with me… or with ANYONE) to further a ‘Bill of Human Rights’… well, we should incorporate BOTH to make the final work. Here, let me share some of what is written about President Roosevelt’s ‘Second Bill of Economic Rights’ (for Americans):
The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation;
The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;
The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;
The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;
The right of every family to a decent home;
The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;
The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;
The right to a good education.
All of these rights spell security. And after this war is won we must be prepared to move forward, in the implementation of these rights, to new goals of human happiness and well-being.
America's own rightful place in the world depends in large part upon how fully these and similar rights have been carried into practice for all our citizens.
For unless there is security here at home there cannot be lasting peace in the world.
I ESPECIALLY like and agree with the LAST one there; “For unless there is security at home, there cannot be lasting peace in the world.” I TOTALLY agree with that, and I would go one step forward with; ‘Unless there is a LIVING Wage at HOME… there cannot be peace… at home!
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My Dear Readers, I hope that you have enjoyed this week here at The Other Shoe. I hope that I have, in some small way, given you all some ‘Food for Thought’. I have written, here at this blog for three years. It is only now that I am finally reaching into myself and sharing my humanist self and sharing it with you. Now that I have this started… and with much work ahead to hone these three pieces into finer art. I want to assure you that it is my intention to keep writing all the regular works you have come to enjoy.
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I do NOT want you, My Dear Readers, to think that this signals some fundamental change in the format of my blog. Think of it as more of… an addition and refinement of my work. I promise to work hard to keep providing; ‘The Mars Report’ (I am working to hopefully have my first NEW Mars Report for you in the next two weeks), ‘Sunday Funnies’ (which I hope to have one TOMORROW), and (THIS) ‘A Week In Review’.
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I genuinely hope to have a new cooking/baking article within a month or so. I just want you to rest assured that I have NO intention of going all manifesto on you all. I want to provide fun, entertaining and light hearted work, again. However, I want to tell you that now that I have ‘let this genie out of the bottle’… I doubt that I can put it back in, to stay. I want to make The Other Shoeto be a home for social change… while keeping everything that made this blog the place you have come to enjoy.
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AS always… I am deeply honored that you come here to read my work.
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Thank YOU!
[caption id="attachment_1812" align="aligncenter" width="630"]
Just a shot of a VERY thankful Danny in His Power Chair[/caption]
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