Bear’s Book Blog

When I was a kid, books tended to be my comfort food for some reason. Summer was not just a time to be free from the drudgery of the demands of folks who for the most part wound up as teachers because they wanted three months vacation every year and had the imaginations on par with a creek rock; it was a time when you could get lost in the library without time pressures and spend whole days under a fan mentally projecting yourself into all kinds of other worlds.

One of my favorites was Freckles. Simply put I saw myself as Freckles the protagonist and spent hours mooning over the Limberlost Angel, who in my mind bore a striking resemblance to a classmate named…

Freckles was at once the forlorn lowest point of any triangle socially but also possessed the character of a hero and, despite all his scars and, in his mind, unattractiveness, had some quality that his Limberlost Angel could not live without. It is not an overstatement to say that had a door opened into that world with me stepping into Freckles, you would not be reading this post and I would be looking back at you from the pages of a book and moving on to whatever future fictional characters must by definition move on to in our universe driven by probability and quantum mechanics.

Freckles is on my radar to read again and soon, for what number of times I could not tell you because I simply read and reread the book from somewhere around the 7th grade all the way through high school.

I find such stories comforting because it proves that even if humanity is not always divine, it is at least striving to attain divinity.

Alas. According to dictionary.com, ‘alas’ is an interjection used as an exclamation to express sorrow, grief, pity, concern, or apprehension of evil.

This was my reaction when Stephen King, my erstwhile favorite author, whose moniker Constant Reader was seen by me as a badge of honor, quoted Mao’s Little Red Book somewhere in the first 50 pages or so as if The Little Red Book were simply another part of American literature and not the writings of one of the most murderous, most salacious, most morally and physically filthy pieces of insectile intelligence to ever stand upright and pretend to possess humanity.

I struggled the better part of the day on what to do because ‘Under The Dome’ was my Christmas treat to myself. I wanted to read the book and badly. The question on the floor was was I willing to pay for the privilege of hearing another celebrity sitting on many tens of millions of dollars procured through the wonders of capitalism tell me I should willingly surrender more of my check for the greater good.

No, I am not.

Mr. King, I am sincerely tired of your shit when it comes to politics. You sit up there in Maine, in your own words a Maine Yankee liberal, and you pontificate on the beauties of liberalism. Up until this last tome, which I am sure is as fine a read as all those before (except Eyes of the Dragon) you have pretty much kept your politics out of your books which was fine by me. I paid to be entertained and you are good at that. I will not pay to have some Communist insect quoted to me. I am done with you.

One more time, I thought, when I bought Under The Dome, one more time I will indulge in my favorite fantasy world created by the Talented and Ever Popular Mr. King. I have been laid off for ten weeks this year, leaving a hole in my finances that, though I was not entirely unprepared for, was no fun at all. I have given up watching the news, even the programs I agree with, because I cannot spend all my time worrying about what that bastard president we have now decides needs to be destroyed today.

Now, I cannot even read a damn fiction book without Communist bullshit being quoted at me.

As I struggled all day with what to do, mainly because I was trying to convince myself that the rational thing to do was to read the thing and report on it. It was paid for after all and I probably could not return it for a refund. Two hours of wrestling with that thought and I was on the road to Books-A-Million to ask for a refund. Even though I did not have my receipt, they were good enough to look it up on my discount card and refund it to my card. Some will say I should have finished the book before returning it, but that would have been tantamount to stealing. I returned Under The Dome for the same reason I sent Mr. King my dollar when I downloaded that electronic book whose name I cannot recall.

I encourage you to do the same and remind Mr. King that while 50% and higher tax rates and healthcare rationing may not impact HIS lifestyle with the rate at which money flows into his account, it does affect Constant Reader’s finances and badly.

Okay…I have looked at EVERYTHING under the sun that promises to give one the ability to really make your Wordpress blog look just any old way you want it to look. Flexibility they promise. Customization that will AMAZE you, they claim.

I am tired of looking and, either their demos are crippled or their promised functionality is far removed from reality. I am not parting with my hard earned money until I can find something that lets me stretch and reshape boxes or pick something that does not look like 9 million other supposedly custom themes.

So, you changed a few colors. So? Big deal. I know some have some really cool customized Wordpress blogs that are awesome. I do not believe they came from some cookie cutter change a few buttons or the edges of boxes ’solution’ that costs several hours of my salary up to as much as I would care to part with.

I really am on enough learning curves without climbing on the PHP, CSS, and MySQL curves as well.

Anyone knows something that REALLY works and is REASONABLY priced, please, let me know.

-Tim

Just worked my way through Season 2 of Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles on DVD. It was just as outstanding this time around as it was the first. TSCC remains one of the finest series I have ever bothered to follow.

FOX still sucks for cancelling this show. I am still on a boycott of the rest of their shows because of it. FOX probably did me a favor, though, because I now watch less than three hours of TV a week, preferring to read, and actually participate in LIFE rather than leave ever deepening impressions in my LazyBoy.

“The Millennium Problems” by Keith Devlin is not a book for everyone. I have a bent for mathematics and related books because the issue fascinates me. I solved an unsolved geometry problem proving that for any two circles A and B, all circles drawn in any tangential relationship to A and C lay on a conic section as a sophomore in 1980. One category had been demonstrated, but the others had not. I proved it for the parabolic, hyperbolic, and for all the degenerate cases as well. I also did some work on extrapolating the issue into spheres and higher dimension spheres, though I admit I am not as confident of that work because I was having to invent things on the fly. As a high school student I had not been exposed to many of higher mathematics tools. Sadly, due to bad choices in life, I am still not in possession of those tools. It makes a great way to while away the wee hours of the night when I am insomniac, though.

Anyways, in “The Millennium Problems” there is the case of P versus NP, a case that the author believes can be solved by a layman. P versus NP stands for polynomial versus non-deterministic polynomial time as it relates to the likelihood of complex problems being able to be solved for the most correct solution, as in if a traveling salesman has three cities to visit, he has a number of possible choices. How do you solve for the best choice and can the best choice be calculated? Applications in manufacturing are clear in that if you can prove that complex systems have a best solution then you can save billions by making processes more efficient.

Reading this book, along with Games Theory and Economic Behavior, makes me look at books like “The True Story of The Bilderberg Group” and wonder if someone has perhaps solved the problem of N versus NP.

Yeah, I know. Crap like this is probably why I am not married again, LOL.

The five books I have read in the past four weeks or so, to summarize, are “I am Legend,” “The True Story of the Bilderberg Group,” “Becoming a Millionaire God’s Way,” “The Millenium Problems,” and “Games Theory and Economic Behavior.” The last book is a hardcore math read, by the way. I am having to read other books in order to read the notation in it, so I am not going to worry too much about linking to it.

-Tim

This book was a gift to me from my good friend and brother in Christ, Keith Boyd. He is particularly well read on the issues of conspiracies and the new world order that many believe is coming.

Is there a conspiracy? Isn’t there always? Is change coming? Isn’t it always? What, oh what do we do?

Well, if you ain’t able to pay your power bill or feed your kids I think it is a moot point, is it not? As for why people shake their heads and call you crazy for believing that the super rich oligarchs who control the banking systems and the relative value of currencies would try to consolidate ever more power in their hands, I have no good answer. If you see my short side rant when writing about the work of fiction “I Am Legend” you will see that I no longer care.

Besides, I am no longer certain that either of us can get out of the way of this thing anyway. The American middle class has become a herd of stone stupid cattle being run towards the cliff because they have served their purpose. It is now time to cull the herd and collect what wealth the middle class has built. Why do you think the banks as a whole decided to not remain true to the frugal ad prudent underwriting standards of the past? Think about it. Mortgages and student loans. First they made it impossible to bankrupt against student loans even when most people do not use their degrees and then they changed the bankruptcy laws further to prevent you from exercising your right to depend on the banking industry to do their due diligence in underwriting. Yes, yes, I agree that YOU should have known better, too, but the bankers get paid the big bucks to look out for the shareholders’ interest.

The one battle I CAN win is one child at a time through organizations like Children’s International.  We knew these things  and times were coming 2,000 years ago. We need to stick to our knitting and attend to our own houses, in my opinion. This means being as productive as possible in our own businesses and as frugal as possible in our own expenditures. As swiftly as possible relieve your home of all debts to others, make sure your taxes are in order, learn to do on less and to build capital in your own home so that others do not have a hold on you. Be the BEST employee your boss has so that he or she sees you as indespensible. Helping your employer’s business helps them be able to help you. No, I am not completely certain of all that needs to be done to achieve this, but I do know that credit is why our economy is in a ruin and families are breaking due to the stress of credit driven enslavement.

“The True Story of the Bilderberg Group” is written as the story of a man who has followed the Bilderbergers from their inception. He narrates facts, research, and conversations with people inside and outside of the group. Apparently there are those inside who do not completely condone the ultimate aims of the group.

It is a story worth reading.

Well, the author’s intentions were good, I think. Sadly, there was nothing here that was too terribly inspiring for me. The only reason I bought the book was Robert Kiyosaki’s willingness to do a foreword.

The author speaks in the very generalities that Kiyosaki rails against in his books, so I can only guess that he wrote a foreword on a fee schedule. It is okay, I ain’t mad at him. It is what authors do; they write.

As I say, I think the author’s intentions were totally jake and above board. I do not think it was a particularly inspiring book. In my opinion, you would do better going to the bible in your own home and reading the entire book of Proverbs and analyzing what Solomon has to say on the subject. If you do not have a Bible in you home, you can find Proverbs on line here.  Also, if you prefer, it is also available in audio for download. (Both Old and New Testaments in their entirety online and in audio format, King James versions are here, along with the rest of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints scriptures and references such as the Book of Mormon.

If you want a free Bible, email me, post here, or call my toll free number and I will see if I can get one to you. My Church used to have a program where you could order a free Bible and I believe they still have the program running.

If you still want to get others’ opinions, you can read them here. Perhaps it will inspire you.

Well, Stephen King got me in this one. He had me mad as hell concerning some of his characters positions on a few things. When Lisey unloaded the gun as they waited on the king of the Incucks I got so aggravated at this irrational fear of a device designed to save and defend life (or feed it in a hunting role) that I had to put the book down and walk away for a while. I have to congratulate him because this is his genius, being able to gradually suck you into that area of suspended disbelief in your mind where you are actually in the story, relating emotionally to the characters.

I also find myself wondering to what degree this story opens a window into his mind. I have made no secret about my admiration for the writer and the man and my understanding as to why he holds certain public positions, but I find myself continuing to pony up the money for his fiction and works when others on his side of the political aisle receive no business from me. Why?

Because the man’s story’s are worth it. The idea of alternate ‘wheres,’ no matter what monsters may ride there is a fantasy, a wish, an idea that gets me through the days and makes my evenings more bearable. As this planet increasingly is covered and oppressed by a layer of regulation, control, and oppression by governments and multinationals, the idea that someone can WISH or BELIEVE themselves into somewhere else…Booya Moon, or the Territories, or a great desert where wizards flee the righteous wrath of Peacemaker packing paladins is of great comfort.

Any night now, perhaps I will go to sleep and wake up in Booya Moon.

I mean, it could happen. I myself as a kid remember on many occasions waking up from a place where I had a sweetheart and spiders roamed the hills sometimes cutting off highways and trees only grew near streams or large bodies of water because they always were full of jokes and well, laughter on wooden vocal cords can be problematic in arid areas…  You have to understand that those dreams were so powerful that even today I wonder if she is real somewhere and it is just bad luck we never hooked up. These dreams are incorporated into my own work, “My Heart, My Fate.”

“Lisey’s Story” is a good read and I recommend it highly.