- Just once, I’d like to hear the family of someone who commits a heinous act come out and say “He was a bad kid. Really, we struggled for years to help him and get him on the right path, but it never worked, usually because of him consistently and maliciously making bad choices. There will be no funeral or memorial for him, and we plan on burying his ashes in an unmarked landfill and denying his existence to future generations. We are all ashamed of what has happened, and will live with that for the rest of our lives. Our only hope going forward is that those who have been hurt and their families will find it in their hearts to forgive our family for the evil that we unleashed upon the world.”
- I don’t know what happens to young men (OK, teenage boys, but I’m trying to give them some credit), but they seem to lose their everloving minds when left to their own devices. I had to tell a bunch of them that the mass of belongings they took camping was a fire hazard when they spread it in a thin layer across the cabin. I’m not even going to talk about how massive amounts of sugar and caffeine impacts their behavior and volume.
- Remember the scenes in “Gremlins” where the young Mogwai were all cute and fuzzy, but were growling and wrestling all the time? Yeah, I helped chaperone about 40 similar creatures over the weekend.
- Girlie Bear and I have a ritual that we’ve been doing since she was little. We call it “bonking,” in which we clonk the upper parts of our foreheads together. Sometimes it’s rather hard. Doing this in front of her JROTC instructors and friends this weekend drew a lot of winces. Apparently, this is an uncommon form of affection among the soft-skulled variety of Americans.
- It took a while when she was younger to teach her to only ‘bonk’ me, because she almost gave Irish Woman a concussion when she tried it.
- I’ve heard three adults threaten to either commit suicide or emigrate if their candidate of choice doesn’t win in 2016. Am I wrong in thinking that I would be willing to chip in for a passport or a couple gallons of kerosene and a book of matches in the event that this becomes necessary?
All posts for the month October, 2015
Musings
Posted by daddybear71 on October 6, 2015
https://daddybearsden.com/2015/10/06/musings-168/
Signed Hard Copies of Via Serica and a Snippet
The Big Brown Truck of Happiness dropped off a rather heavy box at my door last night, and it contained a shipment of the paperback edition of Via Serica.
For those of you who alpha and beta read for me, your copies will be on the way this week.
For anyone else who wants a copy, hit the email link above or write to me at daddybear@daddybearsden.com and we’ll arrange payment and delivery.
Copies are $15 apiece, the same price as Amazon, and I’ll even pay for shipping.
Thanks to everyone who has read the e-book version, especially if you’ve left a review. All I have for marketing is the blog and word of mouth, so I really appreciate your efforts.
Just because I’m in a good mood, here’s a snippet from Book 2 (Or maybe 3. I’m not sure where, both geographically and story-wise, this sequence is going to go):
Appius Claudius looked across the heat-shimmered. packed clay of the plain before him. In the distance, he could see the strange banners of the enemy. Their drums, beating a tattoo that he felt more than he heard, kept a rhythm that was slightly faster than the rhythm of their approaching horse.
He turned to Lucius Gratianus, military tribune and his second in command on this expedition. The younger man’s face, which had seemed so pale and smooth when they had met in Alexandria, was weathered and tan from the sun that never seemed to darken in this land so far from Rome.
“Outnumbered,” he said in a low tone.
The Tribune nodded, then spit into the dust. “Any word from Cotus and the third file?”
Appius shook his head. “No, not yet,” he replied, “We’ll have to make do with what we have. Take the first file and swing wide around those trees over there. I’ll hold here with the second. Have your men leave their javelins here. Once they’ve passed you and are occupied trying to cut us up, hit them from behind as hard as you can.”
The younger officer considered that for a moment, then nodded and turned toward his horse. His men saw his approach and mounted their horses.
Appius took one last look at the approaching dust cloud. He could just make out the thunder of hooves on the clay flood plain. Whistling between his teeth, he turned and walked into the hedgehog of carts where he could would make his final stand.
Posted by daddybear71 on October 6, 2015
https://daddybearsden.com/2015/10/06/signed-hard-copies-of-via-serica-and-a-snippet/
Quote of the Day
I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzoote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say, “Yes” or “No.” He who led the young men [Ollokot] is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are — perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever. — Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, Chief Joseph, October 5, 1877
Posted by daddybear71 on October 5, 2015
https://daddybearsden.com/2015/10/05/quote-of-the-day-149/
Four Questions
During the 2014 election, I posted a series of long-winded, wordy, boring, and pointless questionnaires that I wish politicians would have answered so that we could have put the “Informed” into “Informed Voter.”
Yeah, not some of my best writing, but it was a good mental exercise. Remember, this blog is here to get those thoughts from swirling around in my head so long they cause my ears to bleed and to keep me out of bars after dark.
Anyway, this time around, at least until the primaries are over, I have only four questions for the gang of idiots who want to spend over a billion dollars to get a job that only pays a few hundred thousand dollars a year, but comes with some pretty sweet government housing.
- Do you believe that federal gun laws that deal with anything beyond the way that firearms are imported into the country and move across state lines are constitutional?
- If not, do you plan to not only veto any new federal gun laws, but also work to repeal those on the books?
- Do you believe that federal drug laws that deal with anything beyond the way that chemical intoxicants are imported into the country and move across state lines are constitutional?
- If not, do you plan to not only veto any new federal drug laws, but also work to repeal those on the books?
Posted by daddybear71 on October 1, 2015
https://daddybearsden.com/2015/10/01/four-questions/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 