FIRST ATTEMPT AT Author-Writer BLOGGING (or) How in the world (or Alternate World) does one start doing this, anyway ???
Welcome to the Adventure— and author-writer James Hood’s website. This e-creation residing in-on the Infinite Multiverses-net, has been a long time in the dreamed-of, considered and “wanting.”
SCROLL DOWN FOR RECENT ENTRIES!
This website’s reality was an unexpected, delightful birthday gift from daughter Victoria and son-in-law Michael, what a unique, special, great gift!
Where to start? How about here?
Waning years of the 20th and first decades of the 21st century are in this opinion, the best and worst times to be a writer. Best, because the incredible proliferation of personal computers with sophisticated word-processing software make “writing” so easy and editing, nothing like the chore it was during all of history. Worst, because the amount of “competition for attention” is beyond measurable by any metric.
But what the heck, the James Hood author website (actually, “TheJamesHood”), because a former drummer from the band, The Pretenders, already owned the website name desired. Anyway, the site is real and live and here, so let’s go.
Hello, Come on in, make yourself comfortable, maybe fetch a beverage and / or snack. Some suggestions there for? Other viewers have enjoyed beer and Fudgesicles, lemon-infused tap water, Peanut M&Ms, Ding Dongs, popcorn, cream sherry, pepperoni, maybe a couple fingers of Scotch. Or Triscuits and sliced Muenster cheese. Or pretzel nuggets dipped in hummus with fresh broccoli and mini carrots on the side.
What brings you here? Just e-bouncing around in the e-neighbourhood, or was this site recommended by someone?
Whichever. You are reading the first entry in the blog of James Hood, creator and author of the Adventure— stories. (More available, so scroll on down.)
James Hood was a mere youth when Star Trek (now known as TOS, “the Original Series”) debuted on USA prime-time TV (actually, the metaphor “exploded” is more appropriate) unforgettably across the airwaves in 1966. Who would ever have thought a TV series would sire several-plus derivative series and gobs of feature films over the following 50+ year period?
This writer is one of those many folks caught up those eons ago not only in Star Trek, but also C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower series of books (also an inspiration for ST’ creator Gene Roddenberry).
For those of you not familiar with the immortal British author; Cecil Scott Forester wrote 13 books about a British sailor during the Napoleonic times, about 1793 to 1825. Great reads. Look him up.
Fast forward 7 years (from Star Trek, “The Original Series”’ debut) to February 1973. Young James tentatively took pen to paper (literally) and started a couple alternate-history World War II novellas. As it was, the plot premises did not work out. Subject too big; would-be author, not mature enough. However, the desire to write, to tell stories, persisted. Thinking continued. Some ideas were awful. Others…had no room for “big” development.
A winter morning, home alone, the idea dropped into this mind, all but fully-formed. What might a Star Trek-ish-oid concept; action-adventure-exploration-fixed cast of strong characters, be like if it did not take place either in the future or in the vastness of outer space…
…but rather, here and now?
Years before, television’s The Twilight Zone, One Step Beyond and The Outer Limits scared this watcher witless and thoroughly creeped James and millions of other viewers out. A goodly number of those sci-fi-adventure-horror stories took place in a one-step-aside or parallel reality, in the present time frame.
Alternate dimensions of reality were already a sci-fi and fantasy staple, but no known ones called out to become anything resembling a desirable setting-basis for the story concept formulating in this wannabe writer’s head.
With an odd rapidity, as if this writer’s mind was being “fed” thoughts, ideas steadily “arrived” and were organized, shuffled, changed, accepted, discarded. A mental jigsaw puzzle solving itself, assisted by a willing writer’s mind. Certainly not a new concept, but for sure, a new setting.
Mental and creative seeds germinated. Decades later, those first sprouts had matured into a metaphorical forest. Two Adventure— novels published and…quite a few…are in the works.
Stay tuned and please come back often.
Oh, and ‘hope you enjoy (but more importantly) and/or are stimulated to ponder, even briefly, on the thoughts below.
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2022 August 9 Tuesday
Eighty years ago, today…
…yes, history is real, as real as this moment, if one takes the time to imagine, to connect with days gone by…
…eighty years ago, today, was the most tragic defeat suffered by the US Navy. Incomprehensible suffering, sadness, anger, pain, anguish, shame, regret.
After (see the August 7 -8th entries) the successful American Marine-Navy landings on Guadalcanal (largely unopposed) and Tulagi (bitterly resisted) Islands (intended to stop Japanese expansion toward Australia), the Allied 75-ship armada frantically unloaded thousands of troops and tons of supplies on Guadalcanal and guarded those unloading.
Intent was urgent; make the airstrip operable by Allied warplanes as soon as humanly possible. Secure the island. Stop Japanese military expansion toward Australia.
Unintentionally, the Japanese Navy’s Korean laborers had almost completed the runway on Guadalcanal Island (nearly the size of Delaware) and built minimal supporting structures, “JUST” in time for the US Marines and Navy to capture it, THE day the runway was to be finished.
Two-dozen-plus Allied naval vessels stood fully alert, knowing Japanese naval and air forces would soon challenge the ships and landings, intending to destroy anything and everything and everyone, American and Australian.
US Navy heavy cruisers USS Quincy, USS Vincennes, USS Astoria and Royal Australian Navy cruiser HMAS Canberra patrolled the waters off small Savo Island, at action stations as darkness descended, swiftly as it does in the tropics. Four other Allied cruisers and 15 destroyers watched other areas, knowing the Japanese were coming.
Japanese naval and air forces trained for more than a decade for what they saw as a coming conflict with the West which would challenge their empire’s expansion. Their ships were modern, weapons superb, crews trained to razor-edge sharpness. Imperial Japanese Naval forces trained extensively in night fighting and long-range torpedo attacks against ships. Japanese long-range scouting aircraft told Admiral Gunichi Mikawa where the Allies were. He formulated an aggressive plan and steamed toward destroying Allied naval vessels and recapturing Guadalcanal.
Mikawa’s fast, deadly five heavy and two light cruisers approached from the north, under cover of darkness.
At this time, radar was primitive and unreliable; few ships had it. Human eyes and high-power binoculars were both sides’ first line of defense.
Mikawa’ had surprise on his side. Not long after midnight, the order went out to the Japanese cruisers, “All ships attack.”
You can read in hundreds of books and sites describing what happened next.
When dawn came to that stretch of ocean now called Ironbottom Sound, for the large number of Allied and Japanese ships which lay on the bottom…
Heavy cruisers USS Quincy, USS Vincennes, USS Astoria and HMAS Canberra were sunk or sinking. Heavy cruiser USS Chicago and destroyer USS Patterson suffered severe damage. 1,077 US and Australian sailors were dead, blown apart by explosions, scalded by steam from ruptured boilers, drowned. Hundreds more suffered agonizing, hideous wounds.
After their vicious attack, still under cover of darkness Mikawa’s ships turned north at full speed. Three of his cruisers suffered damage and 58 of his men were dead. The Imperial Japanese Navy drew first blood in the first sea battle around Guadalcanal.
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At this point, your writer will cease this entry and allow you, the reader, to transport yourself eighty years back in time, to do a bit of research. Actively seek the Zeitgeist of August 9, 1942, in the South Pacific.
Focus for a while, not on today; learn what a 1942-era heavy cruiser was, what they were their essences? More than a city block-long steel structure with a thousand men aboard, weighing 13,000 tons, able to move at 35 miles per hour. Imagine being one of a thousand-man crew of a fighting machine which could travel eight thousand miles and fire twenty, 260-pound shells per minute, ten miles, at enemies. Especially, on August 9, 1942.
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of images of WW II cruisers out there on the cosmicnet. Look at a few. Or more.
2022 August 8 Monday
Eighty years ago, yesterday…
…in the South Pacific, twice the distance from Washington to San Francisco (from the US west coast, 8 mmoths after Pearl Harbor was attacked…
…to their great surprise, when the US Marines (and some US Navy personnel) landed on 2,060 square mile Guadalcanal Island (about 90 miles long and 25 wide), the landing was largely unopposed.
As an “average” Pacific island, Guadalcanal was quite huge; not much smaller than the state of Delaware. Only about 10 percent of the (mostly jungle-covered) island was “important,” and scene of the historic events.
THE prize, THE reason for the Allied landing, the to-be-completed-on August 7th, Japanese airfield at Guadalcanal Island’s Lunga point was captured by the Marines, the day after their landing. The 2000+ Korean laborers who built the primitive airstrip, ran into the jungle and the relatively few Japanese troops who oversaw them were vastly outnumbered by the US Marine 1st Division troops.
The simultaneous landing on nearby .80 square mile Tulagi Island (only 8/10 of a sqaure mile) however, was fiercely contested by the Japanese. The Imperial Japanese Navy seaplane base there was defended by over 2,000 men. All but a few died in the next several days’ vicious fighting.
The Japanese were taken completely by surprise by the US-Australian landings and furious at the airfield’s being captured,
Eighty years ago, today, in the South Pacific, an event which world direct the course of history began. Unlike the Battle of Midway discussed in the June 4, 2022 entry and lasted about 12 hours, the Guadalcanal Campaign, as it became known…took a lot longer.
And was incomprehensively more vicious.
2022 August 7 Sunday
Eighty years ago, today…
…WAS A REALLY IMPORTANT DAY IN HISTORY! (Re-studied almost annually by this history-obsessed writer; new things are always learned there about.)
The world was vastly different. Too different for many 21st century minds to comprehend, without some serious imagination and mental workout. But let us give it a go.
Oh, and tossing away, even for a short time, the self-absorption so tragically prevalent in so many million modern minds. Become a citizen of all the world, past and present.
This is presented because the writer believes to the marrow of his soul; understanding and studying history IS important. Doing so allows us moderns to learn where we fit into it all. Please trust and read on.
Let your mind drift back eighty years, to that simple, more easily understood time. Especially and perhaps harder for many to believe, BEFORE (portable, handheld electronic) DEVICES.
BEFORE cell phones, “screens,” the internet, computers, electronic games, music players, earbuds…before ALL OF THAT.
Because life went on for folks who lived then, in what was (at the time) considered an ever-more-modern, complex world.
The global conflict called World War Two in historical writing (which now tragically seems so long ago and in so many 21st century minds, “no longer important”), was referred to as, “The Second World War” in 1942, however mostly in what was considered, “The West.”
After Imperial Japanese forces unleashed their long-planned military onslaught in the Pacific Ocean part of the world, beginning on December 7th or 8th, 1941 (depending on which side of the International Date Line one was when the horror began), [Western] reference was to “World War Two in the Pacific.”
Japan however, internally referred to what was to become almost four years of unending beyond mega-horror as, the “Greater East Asia War.”
However, back to this writer’s specific reminisces and ponderings on the period.
Eighty years ago, today was 1942, August 7…EXACTLY six months after Imperial Japanese air, land and naval forces attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii…and the Philippines, Singapore, Southeast Asia and the vast array of islands now known as The Philippines and Indonesia.
During those following six months, almost without exception, the Imperial Japanese had it all their own way, attacking and relentlessly destroying American, British, Dutch and Australian forces, conquering countless islands and bringing millions of square miles of Pacific Oceana under their control…establishing domination over tens of millions of indigenous and expatriate peoples.
Eighty years ago, today, things changed in the Pacific. US Navy and Marine forces, in a rapidly planned, daring move, landed on two islands in the distant Solomons Chain, 5,960 miles southwest of San Francisco. Think about that distance for a moment. From California to New York…and back.
A long, long way from home. But the location for the Allied landing was chosen with perfection, all but undisputed, even with benefit of 80 years’ hindsight.
it was a feat of military daring and logistics organization unparalleled in previous history.
(In the previous several months to August 7, 1942) Seventy-five US and Australian warships and transports secretly assembled, equipped, manned, loaded and steamed…with intent to challenge mighty Japan, on two distant, remote tropical islands, named Guadalcanal and Tulagi.
At 9 AM, 1942, August 8, Allied warships conducted brief bombardments and began landing troops on the Japanese-occupied islands of Guadalcanal and Tulagi in the Solomons chain.
Enough for today, Take some time to think on the vastness of the time and event, until tomorrow.
And stay safe. This Covid-19 pandemic isn’t at all over, yet.
2022 August 6 Saturday
Eighty years ago today, a vast armada of 75 US Navy war and cargo ships and several Australian ones, steamed toward two (during 1942) Japanese-invaded and-occupied islands in the South Pacific, not too far northeast of Australia.
Why? What was going on?
Come back tomorrow.
2022 August 5 Friday
Eighty years ago today, August 5, 1942, two events were happening which changed the course of part of our world’s history.
Eighty (80) years ago veritably none of us currently inhabiting this beautiful blue planet were inhabiting it as sentient beings. so, a quick catch-up:
Eighty years ago, in August, 1942, the world…much of it, at any rate, was at war, the largest, most expansive in human history.
Eighty years ago AND six months to this day, the States of America was not part of the massive conflict raging in China (since 1931), Europe, North Africa and the vast Atlantic Ocean (since September 1, 1939).
On December 7, 1941, Sunday morning just before 8 AM, the Japanese made a massive unannounced, surprise aerial and submarine attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (then a US Territory), changed all that. Thousands of Americans died. Ships and aircraft were sunk and damaged. The United Sates was at war with Japan.
Inexplicably, Nazi Germany declared war on the USA, while ships still burned in Hawaii.
But what does this have to do with today’s date?
Check in tomorrow for more.
2022 August 4 Thursday
Apologies for not having made entries regularly to this for the past…too long.
In keeping with current practice almost everywhere, this writer’s lack of blog updates is being primarily, personally blamed on:
- the still ongoing, terrible, seems to be resurging, Covid-19 world pandemic
- Urban crime
- Economic Inflation; the last 18 months of higher prices on veritably everything
- Climate Change
- Russia’s (February 2022) invasion of Ukraine
- and probably a dozen other (some admittedly whiny) excuses, all of which may combine and suffice to veil the true reasons for not writing in this blog..
- …ennui, indolence, depression-lite about events beyond this writer’s…beyond most all of our control. It’s colloquially known around here as, “Covid fatigue.”
- and now, the latest health-panic, Monkey Pox
2022 June 4 Saturday
Eighty years ago today and a German word.
Being obsessed with history since age 5, varied significant dates, often long ago, stimulate in this soul, the feeling of Zeitgeist, a German word loosely translated as, “The spirit, the essence, of a particular time and place.”
Here’s an internet definition:
zeit·geist
[ˈtsītˌɡīst, ˈzītˌɡīst]
NOUN
- the defining spirit or mood of a particular period of history as shown by the ideas and beliefs of the time:“the story captured the zeitgeist of the late 1960s”
June 4 is one of “those days” to this writer, because…
…eighty years ago, today, June 4, 1942, about a thousand miles west of the Hawaiian Islands, a World War Two battle was fought which stopped the Japanese Pacific rampage which began on December 7, 1941, with the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor and further east, simultaneous ones on British, Australian and Dutch territories.
The Battle of Midway, began before dawn of June 4, 1942, and was largely over not long after 5 PM that same day, caused changes in world history which reverberate to this day.
Almost every year about this time, a number of books on the battle are read and reread, usually in part.
Every year, transporting this soul into the Zeitgeist of that time and place brings intense soul-experiences. And often, a quiet, deeply sincere pity for people who do not “belong to the cosmic club of humankind,” who do not regularly, voluntarily…
…embrace the magnificent history, since its “recorded beginning,” about 13.7 billion years ago…
…with The Big Bang.
Go ahead, open up a few sites or books, and see if the grande’ story of all which has ever been, draws you in.
By the way, “Zeitgeist” is capitalized in this post because nouns in the German language are always capitalized. Experiencing Zeitgeist NEVER gets old, dull or ho-hum, in this soul. Each experience is “opening a cosmic present.” Some Zeitgeist experiences are exciting. Others are…tragic.
2022 June 1 Wednesday
Recommended reading, a trade paperback purchased used at a local bookstore…
Why Does the World Exist?
Author, Jim Holt, published 2012, Liveright Publishing, New York
Just in case you’ve personally ever idly wondered upon that super-ultra-deep question most concisely asked by German polymath (look it up), Gottfried Wilhem Leibnitz, back about 1715…
…“Why is there something rather than nothing?“…
…author Jim Holt interviews a number of cosmologists, physicists and philosophers, and gets a dozen takes on “the biggest question of them all.”
Admit it; most of us have pondered upon that mega-query, at least once in our lives.
No spoiler alert applicable, investigate the question on your own.
By the way, this book was a New York Times Bestseller…pretty unusual stuff for a cosmology-physics-philosophy tome.
PS The physics part is not to be feared, it’s pretty basic and well-delivered.
2022 May 17
Today, a number so horrific as to defy description has come out of numerous news organizations.
“The deaths of 1,000,000 [one MILLION] Americans have been attributed to the COVID-19 coronavirus.” (as of this date, May 17 2022)
That’s nearing 1 in every 300 people in this country.
2022 March 11 Friday
Recommended reading
By Force of Arms, James L. Nelson, published 1996
Historical fiction at its most meticulously-researched best.
‘Ever wondered what common people living in 1775 in the pre-Revolutionary, colonial era pre-USA thought, felt, endured?
Veteran author James L. Nelson not only studies, researches and writes about American Colonial-era sailors and lands-people…but himself sailed on wooden ships propelled by sails.
By Force of Arms and the (anticipated, ‘going to read all 4 sequels) takes you to another time, another place, a whole different world and life-outlook. Highly recommended reading while under covid-quarantine.
2020 May 11 Monday
C-Day +61, World War C
In these days of incredibly depressing , omnipresent-from-every-source, coronavirus news, a daily form of solace is taking the canine for a walk in the park. Cellphone off and in pocket; never, ever, headphones.
Free from those auditory assaults, one may alternately revel in strolling on perfect days, shivering in cold and cringing (as yesterday afternoon) in pelting hail and driving sleet-rain.
But at least one’s mind is free to drift, ponder, speculate, reminisce (and occasionally stoop to pick up a just-excreted canine turd), without being barraged by Covid-19 worldwide pandemic news.
Until one encounters a fellow walker and the dreary subject all-too-often, arises….
2020 May 09 Saturday
C-Day +59, World War C
77,489 American deaths attributed to the Covid-19 Coronavirus, far more than the Korean or Vietnam Wars. America and many other countries have suffered enormous human and economic disaster. Response by federal, state and local governments has been huge and swift, veritably all in urgent, well-intended earnest..
Potential vaccines and disease-management techniques, huge production of PPE, support supplies, tens of millions of people worldwide, stepping up to help in thousands of ways. Much is working, to great benefit.
The metaphorical elephant is indeed being taught to dance.
So why so much criticism…especially by so many who have never managed a project involving large numbers of people and resources, themselves?
(Let alone millions, tens of millions or hundreds of millions…)
Especially since so many of those, are doing naught but criticizing, pointing fingers, whining, accusing…
…an old sage comes to mind.
“Lead, follow, or GET OUT OF THE WAY!”
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2020 April 20 Wednesday
C-Day +49, World War C
Pouring rain, tens of thousands of species of local chlorophyll-producing vegetation drink in life-giving water, producing myriad hues of vivid green, beneath a dreary blanket of clouds.
In Oxford, England, UK, a group of virologists believe they may have a vaccine against the Covid-19 coronavirus.
May their discovery and work be as bright and abundant, as the spring colours!
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2020 April 28 Tuesday
C-Day +48, World War C
Birds are singing, the honeysuckles’ and azaleas’ buds are becoming leaves. Squirrels and rabbits chase one another, flowers are beginning to bloom, dandelions dot lawns with bright yellow.
A group of billionaires and scientist are forming a “Manhattan Project” alliance with the vision and goals of controlling imminently…and soonest feasible…defeating the Covid-19 coronavirus enemy.
For the rest of us, we must do our parts; the safe, right, honest things. Do them where we are with what we have and maintain faith and hope. Oh, look; the old sages, Faith, Hope and Charity…applicable again.
2020’s history will show, the urgent measures taken in March and April to contain the spread of the pandemic were done in frantic earnest with noblest of intents. Sandbagging a breached levee, all day and night, during several months of continuous storm, might be a fair analogy.
Critics thereof and metaphorical Monday morning quarterbacks will point out the many “errors” made by those who fought the desperate fight, in the pandemic’s raging early “flood stage and rising!” days.
Metaphorical, “…waaah, waaah, they used too many sandbags, they didn’t fill them all full, they didn’t stack them neatly, they put workers at risk from lightning, the dumptrucks ran over small animals’ nests….”
How many statues and monuments are out there in the world, to critics, whiners and crybabies?
Versus how many, to achievers?
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2020 April 27 Monday
C-Day +47, World War C
The War’s opening campaigns against the Covid-19 coronavirus…the enemy of all humankind..are being fought simultaneously in more than 180 countries.
Casualties are far over two hundred thousand dead and millions infected.
Everywhere on Earth, people have risen; courageous fighters are doing whatever they can and feel they must, to contain and ultimately defeat this invisible horror, forever.
During early World War Two, 1940, when Great Britain was faced with a potential Nazi German invasion, Prime Minister Winston Churchill said…
“We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender….”
In 2020, World War C, millions of people in veritably every nation on Earth are fighting to win this war.
They are fighting for ultimate, certain victory…in the laboratories, hospitals, delivery trucks, churches, temples, packaging plants and banks. They are fighting in the warehouses, supermarkets, ambulances, police cars, janitorial staffs, morgues, cemeteries and offices of government. They are fighting in the testing facilities, factories, ships, train yards and cargo airplanes.
They will never surrender.
Be grateful for them. Do what you can to help and support them. And if all you are “meant” to do, stay home.
Because during World War Two, there was another slogan which applies, now.
“They also serve, who sit and wait.”
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2020 April 25 Saturday
C-Day +45
“World War C.”
Watching, reading, hearing the continuing story of the continuing worldwide Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic and news of medical, political, military, civilian…people…across the globe, fighting the horror, coping with the costs and losses…gritting their teeth and “keeping on keeping on.”
More than 180 countries, infected. More than 200,000 killed by the coronavirus. Two hundred thousand people dead….
All the world’s peoples are, for the first time in history, united against one monstrous, microscopic, merciless, common enemy.
We, the people of Earth, are fighting, each in our own ways…
…fighting…
…“World War C.”
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2020 April 24 Friday
C-Day +44
Walking the canine in a local park with a neighbour and her larger puppy, she being a psychologist, was asked about something which has been more and more common during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic…
…”gallows,” or “dark” humour, on the subject.
Possibly seven or eight years ago, Psychology Today magazine featured an article on several (controversial) subjects which were declared not signs of mental illness. Among them was “gallows / dark humour.” The magazine said this is not considered a mental disorder (and if memory serves), but oft, a coping mechanism for dealing with especially tough times.
No hesitation by the educated / trained lady with the large, hairy puppy; she wholeheartedly agreed with the magazine and we came to a perhaps wry conclusion.
Making dark jokes and reading others’ quite-prevalent, Coronavirus dark humour, while not indicative of mental illness…
…certainly can be accused of being in bad taste.
While e-penning this, one of the oldest examples of gallows humour came to mind. Thermopylae, Greece, 480 BC.
A massive Persian army invaded Greece. King Leonidas I of Sparta and the advance guard of the defending Greek Army faced a force ten (sources vary, up to 50 or more) times their size. When the Persian commander allegedly declared, his force’s arrows, when launched, would blot out the sun.
Leonidas is recorded as saying, “Then we can fight in the shade.”
Dark humour? For sure.
King Leonidas and his companions all perished…but the “300 Spartans” live on in eternal legend.
Oh, and to complete the story; the Greek Army did ultimately defeat the invading Persians at the Battle of Marathon. The fastest Greek runner was sent to deliver the news to the populace, that Greece was saved.
He ran 26.2 miles, gasped out the news of the Greek army’s victory, and dropped dead of exhaustion.
The “Marathon” foot race is named in honour of that event in 480 BC.
26.2 miles.
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2020 April 22 Wednesday
C-Day +42
‘Could not bear to look at the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic news this morning…and since that horror dominates veritably all news, no news was turned on.
Continuing awe of their courage and and thanks for their service to the doctors, nurses, medical techs, hospitals staff, researchers, laboratory techs, testers…
…police, fire, first-responder people, active military, National Guard, ambulance…
…truck drivers, food store workers, clergy, janitors, delivery people, shelves-stockers, postal staff, warehouse workers, automotive, aviation, ship and all other service technicians, bank tellers, plumbers, carpenters, electricians, HVAC people, trash / recycling pickup folks, government and municipal workers…and so many others sill at work amidst the “Shelter in place” orders.
‘Been almost a month since addressing THE REAL HEROES.
Thank you, again and still. You are in many millions’ prayers and feelings of gratitude. You are the ones who make the world continue to operate during this “quiet horror.”
To the children of America, of the world…these are the people you want to admire, emulate, someday, BE. Honour and admire the people who really matter. Become them.
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2020 April 21 Tuesday
C-Day +41
41 days ago, the World Health Organization announced the Coronavirus Covid-19 Pandemic. At least 175,621 people are dead, worldwide as of today, with likely thousands more not yet in the count. There are some signs of the spread slowing and many people either recovering or not showing symptoms.
There is a certain irony in that tomorrow, 22 April, is the 50th Anniversary of the first Earth Day, which was intended to inform and rally people everywhere in the world, to, “Save the Planet!”
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2020 April 19 Sunday
C-Day +39
Many Americans have been “sheltering in place” for five weeks, about 40 days.
Anne Frank, the young girl who kept the diary ( The Diary of a Young Girl ) which ranks among the most important of World War Two literature, sheltered in an attic with her family for about 760 days, before a betrayer turned them over to the Nazis. Of the eight, only Anne’s father survived the hell-on-earth, concentration-execution camps.
Sheltering in place isn’t so bad.
“Just keeping it real,” as goes a hip-modern qualifier of some statements.
Please be safe and do what you can to help folks get through this pandemic and keep others safe. Donate as you are able, whether that be money, goods, food, time, blood…and prayers.
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2020 April 17 Friday
“C-Day +37”
The Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic has taken 60% as many American lives in two months…
…as the horrific Vietnam War took…
…in more than ten years.
On January 14, 2020, the World Health Organization said…
...“Preliminary investigations conducted by the Chinese authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel #coronavirus (2019-nCoV) identified in #Wuhan, #China,” the organization had said.
Please be safe.
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2020 April 16 Thursday
“C-day +36”
Walking our canine in the local park, yesterday afternoon, in three inches of fresh, wet snow, we happened upon one of his furry pals and that critter’s person. Maintaining 10+ feet social distance in the cold west wind, she said something which was (perhaps sadly) the high point of this writer’s day.
“I was at the supermarket this morning about 9 and they had some toilet paper, facial tissue and disinfectant wipes. Not a lot and only one package of each per customer, but they had those products. Isn’t that great?”
First time in more than a month. A tiny bit of good news, a first indication, things may slowly be returning to…
…certainly not the “normal” we were used to, only five weeks ago…
…but hopefully the beginning of things improving. The United States of America’s President, Donald Trump, announced the three-phase return-to-normal parameters plan and handed it to the fifty states’ governors to implement as best benefits their state.
A long ago, Civics class lesson which never seemed relevant, until now….
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2020 April 15 Wednesday
“C-day +35”
The COVID-19 coronavirus changed the world forever and led to one particular ultra-strange situation for most Americans. Today is April 15, the deadline day for filing 2019 Income Tax. However, this year, for the first time, that date has been moved to July 15.
2020 will be remembered in the future as the strangest in their lives, by many Americans. For many, many thousands, it will be remembered as tragic, the year they lost a loved one to the pandemic.
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2020 April 13 Monday
“C-day +33”
Since March 11, when the World Heath Organization announced the COVID-19 Pandemic and March 12, when President Trump announced a State of Emergency, things have changed forever, not only in the USA, but in the world.
Since March 11…
Two of the most real but perhaps unforeseen realities of this changed USA…
….Who would have ever thought there would be a black market in toilet paper…
…and keeping liquor stores open is deemed essential to the national health?
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2020 March 31 Tuesday
C+20
“Sheltering in place,” it’s the new normal for non-work hours.
Almost all retail including restaurants, bars, department stores…are closed under the National Emergency Act. Terrifying; people all around the world are dying daily from this evil, merciless virus.
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2020 March 24 Tuesday
C-Day +13
Lockdown in the United Kingdom. The “herd immunity” experiment has been unsuccessful, no, it has been tragic.
For the USA, it’s “Shelter in place,” for all non-essential people other than “essential workers,” to slow the spread of human-human transmission of the horrific Covid-19 coronavirus.
Who are the “essential” workers?
In addition to medical, police, fire, first responders, active military, pharmacists, ambulance, medical research personnel?
The people who do the real work, the important stuff to keep the country moving until some return towards normal.
ESSENTIAL !!!! Truck drivers, grocery store workers, food service people, janitors, delivery people, warehouse workers, plumbers, heating/cooling techs, electricians, carpenters, automotive techs, postal workers, aviation personnel transporting the really important cargo, factory workers and those others, producing, packaging, distributing, administering protective and testing materials, trash and recycling pickup folks.
These are THE real heroes.
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2020 March 12 Thursday
C-Day +1
United States of America’s President Donald J. Trump declares a Federal State of Emergency in the United States of America because of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Life for many of us living aboard this beautiful blue planet flying through space, may never be the same, again.
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2020 March 11 Wednesday
“C-day”
Today, an unprecedented act in history; the World Health Organization declared the Covid-19 coronavirus, a world-wide pandemic.
Modern communication will insure an enormous flow of information. Modern transportation has and can transport human carriers of the virus to many, if not most, parts of the globe.
Modern medicine will strive to find ways to treat and seek cures and vaccines to prevent the virus which has already killed thousands.
What does this have to do with actors, entertainers, professional athletes, artists, composers and writers working on stories?
Hopefully, allow them to see the new reality, the real priorities. That they are, for the predictable future…
…irrelevant.
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2020 January 16
What does this Lexus ad excerpt have to say about the current incongruent value systems of some politicians and celebrities?
Seen as a sidebar in a Lexus advertisement on the net, back in April 2019: Face of an attractive woman wearing glasses, holding a magnifying glass.
“Nothing is hotter than cold rationale.”
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2020 January 14
Did Seth McFarlane read Adventure — Into the Neverland before coming up with his own Star Trek Spinoff, The Orville?
As not much of a TV (or screens for recreation) person, when Seth McFarlane’s excellent 2017 sci-fi Star Trek “spinoff” comedy-drama, The Orville, aired and was first viewed by James Hood in mid- 2019, well into the series’ Season 2, a thought hit immediately.
The Orville uses as “home,” a starship described as a “mid-level exploration vessel.” This ship is crewed by (The Orville’s interesting, entertaining cast) people more laid back and “less stuffy” than Star Trek’s rigidly Starfleet Academy “naval-type” military roster. This Orville crew “culture” struck author James Hood as inherently right, as might be normal / acceptable aboard a not-dedicated (star-)warship.
Since Adventure — Into the Neverland was published in 2002 and featured characters “more human” / less military – staid than Star Trek‘s oft-“stuffy” Federation Starfleet officers, it was arguably possible, The Orville’s creator may also be an Adventure— reader….
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JAMES HOOD 