Sunday, March 4, 2012

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!

Be a writer, I thought.  

You like to write, I thought.  

You're pretty good at writing, I thought.  

Maybe all that's true.  The jury is still out, it seems.  I wrote a small book and published it; that was a beginning.  Then I started the process of publicizing my book.  I had no idea what I was in for. 

It's so incredibly hard to get noticed as a writer.  Everybody  wants to be a writer...or a painter...or a photographer.   I'm artistic!  we all say.  If only people would notice me!  we all say - Then I would be a success! 

Well, kiddies, it's not like that in the real world.  The Internet makes self-publishing easy; so easy, in fact that everyone who ever had a wild hair about doing it is now doing it.  Like me, for instance!


So...how do I get noticed for my writing?  How do I make a living from my writing when it's such a crowded marketplace?  


I don't know.  That's why I wrote this blog.  I'm frustrated, I guess.


While I continue to write, and publicize my works, I still need to pay my bills - right now.  People have been encouraging me to write, write, write to reach my goal.  Indeed I try.  But frankly it's too much.  Working a job, maintaining my home, dealing with my cats, fixing my car, and doing all this stuff alone, while suffering from poor health - it's too much.  I haven't given up on my dream of being a writer.  I've realized, however, that the bottom line is, I need money - right now.


Money to fix my health problems.  Money to fix my home and my car and my cats (that is, their health problems - not their sex organs!).  This is not a "love of money" issue.  This is about having enough cash to cover the basics of day-to-day living.  


So, I've had to make a decision.  I'll continue to work on my writing, but, it has to take a temporary back seat to my other needs.  I dream that one of these days things will change, and I'll be able to focus only on writing.  Until that happens, I must become Mr. Business Man.  


I'm learning all about creating an online business.  At this point I'm doing it alone, without any outside help or guidance.  Not that I would object to some help!  If help comes my way I'll embrace it.  Every day is another thing to learn, and another hurdle to overcome.  It's a new world for me, as is the world of writing.  However, while the public is still deciding if my writing is any good, I know with absolute certainty that those same people will want to buy "things" and I have the capability of supplying those things and making a tidy profit.  


Soon I'll have a website; a central, online home for me to show all the different items that make up my e-presence.  At this point I have my book that I'll be putting on the website;  I also have a novelty clock for sale, for which I designed an original face.  Coming soon will be a collection of silly gag gifts, and also (one of my favorites) T-shirts with my own original, funny ideas silk-screened on them. 


I really don't know where this business will go.  As with any business, I'll have to try different things, drop the things that don't sell, and promote the ones that do.  It's an exciting time for me, because I don't know what tomorrow holds.  


But you can be sure I'll be writing about it! 

 

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Life After Death

A radio transmitter sends radio waves out into the universe.  The tower may exist for only a few decades, but the signal emitted from it goes on forever and ever. 

Why wouldn't it be true for human beings as well?  We are batteries, electrochemical cells, which generate a voltage.  As electricity moves around our body, it's sending out radio waves, and those waves are special, because they're modulated by consciousness.   


I certainly don't claim to have all the answers.  I do think, however, that there's a lot of reasons to expect some form of life after death.  This is just one more reason.

 

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Gimme, Gimme, Gimme

Whether or not alien beings are really "out there," the subject of their possible arrival on Earth speaks volumes about the nature of the human race.

What am I hearing from people?  I listen to Coast to Coast AM every night of the week.  People call in to the show from all over the world.  I've heard a voice from virtually every country and every continent, and they're all saying the same thing about the aliens.   Coast to Coast AM is the one place I know where we can consider such subjects.

When the aliens arrive, they'll bring us free energy.  When the aliens come, they'll give us life extension.  When aliens make themselves known, they will be able to save the environment.  When we can finally talk to the aliens face-to-face, we'll have time-travel technology.

Why?  Why would any of this happen?  What leads people to think any alien culture would wish to give us anything at all?  What make us think we're deserving of any alien technology?  And why does everybody think that this would be a good thing anyway?

This attitude of "give us this, give us that" would seem to support my theory that we are a planet of children, for all intents and purposes.  A child might really like a car - would you give a child a car, along with the keys?  A child might like the way a gun goes bang - would you give the child a gun, with no understanding of what it really is and what the consequences of its use would be?  Would you introduce sex to a child, when it's physically and mentally not equipped to understand it?  These things could injure the child, and could very easily end the child's life. 

Not only could advanced alien technology be dangerous and damaging to us, but I also have to ask the question, why on Earth should they give us anything in the first place?  Try to put yourself in the alien's shoes for a moment.  Imagine yourself traveling to another planet with a lower level of technology than your own, and when you show your presence to the local population, they say gimme, gimme, gimme.  Gimme your high-tech.  Gimme your long life.  Gimme all of your knowledge and all of your power.  


That would put a planet of dangerous children on the same technological level as you.  


Why would you put your civilization at risk like that?  Why would you hand a gun to someone that you thought might try to kill you?  Intentionally or by accident?  


You wouldn't do that.  You would keep your high-technology close to your vest.  You would do everything in your power to make sure the planet of dangerous children couldn't harm you, or your family, or your society.  


You would actually quarantine the dangerous children, for their sake and for yours. 


If we ever show signs of civilization as a planet, we might someday be mature enough to handle such technologies, and by then we might have discovered them on our own anyway.  If that happens, hopefully we will have the ethics appropriate to our level of technology.  


Maybe then we'll be ready to join the rest of the family as responsible adults.

About God

I've had a lot of time on my hands to think over the last several years, about a lot of things, including some pretty big questions about life, the universe, and everything (thank you Douglas Adams for putting it so succinctly).

I've had questions, like everybody does, about the nature of God.  Some people take the path of a particular religious God.  Others see God as nature itself.  There are people that conceive of God as a vast intellect or even a computer.  

I don't yet have answers for those things.  But I think I have discovered an important aspect of God.  


In my world view, all things should function as one, should fit together like a jigsaw puzzle.  That include things like science and spirituality, mind and matter and brain and consciousness.  In the end, everything should be reduced to a simplistic whole, a oneness, a singularity.  


Science tells us that in the beginning, all was one, just at the moment of the Big Bang.  What if God was born with the Big Bang?  Some would then say, God is forever, therefore God was before the Big Bang.  My answer to that is, before the Big Bang was the potential  for God.  When the Universe was born, God was kinetic, and no longer potential.  


In the beginning, we're told, all things were one.  All energy.  All matter.  All space.  And all time was one.  That means, the First and the Last moments were one.  Another way of saying this is, the moment God was born, he was infinitely old. As soon as God came into actuality, he had had every thought it's possible for him to have.  At his birth, he had "seen it all and done it all."  


Then, what is left for God to do?  I suggest to you, God is bored out of his mind to the point of insanity.  He immerses himself into matter, into our petty little lives, just to be entertained for awhile.  He created randomness so that he could be surprised.  This is why God loves the warrior, the hero, the selfless individual, as well as the timid, the greedy, and the murderous.  He created the potential for them all, so that he would have a movie to watch.  It's improv theater where the participants don't know they're players on a stage. Since we are all splinters of the hologram of God, we all contain a unique aspect of God, and we all contain the fuzzy image of the wholeness of God.  (If you're not familiar with this, early holograms were created on glass plates, and it was discovered that if the glass was shattered, each piece of glass would still show the whole picture, just not as clearly as the original.)


Now what does this mean?  God already knows that we are all one with him.  We are all so closely related, that we as a planet are practically identical, at least in God's eyes.  If God seeks to be entertained, then, he will watch the unique, the odd, the unusual, the unexpected.  In other words, God loves egos.  Right now you're probably having a knee-jerk reaction to the word, because we've been so conditioned to feel that ego is a bad thing.  Ego can be  a bad thing, but not all egos are automatically bad.  It's true that in spiritual tradition, ego gets in the way of one's higher self.  That's why they always call for the diminishing of the ego.  Ego is simply one's identity, one's sense of self.  Mother Theresa shrank her ego, and gave to the world, and all the world made her a famous figure.  One can choose to do good  with their ego, their focus of self. Mother Theresa, to use her example again, stood out.  She got noticed.  If she was looking for God, I would say she found him - or - he found her.  


God also noticed Hitler.


Saying God loves egos does not just mean he loves proud, arrogant, evil, or malicious people.  He does, of course, as he made them all.  My point is, we all have the choice to use our egos to make for ourselves any life we choose.  God will be happy with your choice no matter what it is.  Personally, I seek to make a better future for myself and those around me.  God may love me no matter what, but in order for human society as we know it to continue to improve, constant effort is required by all the members of that society to maintain it and upgrade it.  God created the potential for evil, but that does not mean that we have to choose it. 


Someone once said, if God  did not exist, we would have to invent him.  Whether he created us, or we created him, either way God exists in my mind.


I happen to believe a peculiar play on language, called the language of the birds.  As I understand its principles, the words God and good must be the same word.  I know that I have d'evil in me, and I have in me good as well.  So any way I see it, God exists.  


And now, I just want to entertain him.  Her.  It.  Whatever. 



Thursday, December 1, 2011

5 Short Cat Tales

I wrote a book called 5 Short Cat Tales.  It's a collection of short stories about two cats that came into my life, and how our lives have been together ever since.  I wrote the stories because I wanted to see if I could make a life as a writer.  The stories are presented for their entertainment value, but I also hope that the readers will find something useful for making their own cats happy.  Since I'm trying to make a living at this, I'm (cautiously) asking for feedback, as long as it's not some kind of hate-mail.  I am in the process of changing things, so it would be better not to use the email on the book cover, happycatpub@aol.com.  The email to use is erikincheyenne@hotmail.com, and a link to that is on my Profile page. 

Included in this collection are two more stories, that were contributed by my sister, Krista, and my sister-in-law, Mamie.  I edited/co-wrote the stories with them, which was surprisingly hard work, and equally gratifying.  The reason I called it 5 Short Cat Tales is that I already had the cover done and couldn't afford to change it (this is before I got a computer, and I had the local printer make a cover for me).  So you get seven stories for the price of five!  

I originally intended to publish the traditional way, but it didn't take me long to realize the incredible difficulty in doing that alone, and then attempting to advertise the efforts.  It was not be practical for me to do so with such a small book.  Thankfully I got a computer and started my life in the e-world.  I wrote more stories and found a company that could make the book available on all e-book readers, as well as on their own website.  It was a remarkable thing to find such a company, and I owe eBookIt a great debt of gratitude.  For a nominal fee, they did all the work that would have taken me, well, I'd still be doing it.  To have to learn all the intricacies of every e-book reader, and make sure the formatting is perfect for all of them - it's beyond my capability as a computer noob.  I hope to use their services again soon for my book, because they are able to convert my book to audio, using a computer-generated voice.  I've heard it, and it's pretty good.  Really good, in truth.  I can't decided between the American man, American woman, or British woman.  There's something appealing to me about the idea of a "cultured posh accent" reading my little cat stories, and I'm sure it's because I'm a big fan of British humor.  I just don't know how much my audience would like that compared to a familiar American voice.

Well, that's about all I can tell you without making you buy the book!  It's the history of my big black Stig, and my little baby girl, Jerri, and how I've tried to help my warring cats get along since the time they showed up at my house.  I still haven't fully succeeded, but they're doing better now than ever before.  Sometimes I get them huddled with me under a heat lamp, and for a couple of hours we're in radiant-heat heaven.  It's a small moment of peace and love, and for that brief time, I can get some writing done. 

One last thing, since I'm talking about my writing.  I have three blogs right now, including this one.  My first blog is toastandbacon.blogspot.com, and my second is mysteamengine.blogspot.com.  I'm also on Facebook, Twitter, and Google +, if you want to read a bit more, and on there you can find some pictures and some of my sense of humor as well.  Maybe I shouldn't have told you that part....

Shem-Su Noory

I'm no expert in ancient Egyptian, but if I'm correct, the name of this post means "follower of Noory."  By which of course I mean George Noory, host of the late-night radio show Coast to Coast AM.  The show was started by the legendary (I know he hates that term) Art Bell circa 1990.  George took-over the show beginning in 2003.  It has continued to snowball in growth, and in importance to all of us, whether we know it or not.

I first heard Coast to Coast AM in 1999.  I was working as an electrician, at night, in a satellite-uplink facility.  One of the guys I worked with was a fan of the show.  The first show I heard was about beings that were on this planet, that genetically altered the creatures on this planet, which became us over time.  I was quite struck with this notion, since I'd never heard anything like it before.  I listened to more and more shows, seeking additional information like what I'd already heard.

And then I was hooked.  Not only did I eventually hear more shows of the "Ancient Aliens"  type, but Coast gave me a whole library of topics to explore which were new to me.

Art Bell did his own variety of shows.  When George took the reins, he steered it in his direction.  At first some of the changes were difficult for me to adjust to.  That's just human nature - we hate change.  After some time of hearing George's version of Coast, I came to love it, and even regret the times I was forced to miss a show.

In fact, I was rather surprised at myself one night, when the show began, and I heard George's voice, the first thought that went through my head was, "Hey, Dad."  That was a little eerie.  Of course, George and I are both from Michigan, so if he ever had an affair with my mother when he was 13 years old, he just might be my father.  All things considered, probably not.

Art had his guests, and George has his.  Naturally George inherited Art's guests, but he also found many more on his own.  George's style is of a faster pace, too, which seems to be in keeping with the demands of society.  He covers a lot of topics in one night, let alone in a week's worth of shows.  Every minute is a roller coaster (haha, there's my subconscious making fun of me again!) of emotion, entertainment, and intellect.

Speaking of the subconscious mind, that brings me to the important part of the show, as I see it.  Many of the subjects discussed on Coast to Coast AM are fearful things.  For instance, the idea of mankind merging with its machinery in the near future.  Or, that the government is getting prepared to put the population into prison camps.  Or, that aliens are coming to our planet to eat us.  Outrageous?  Certainly.  Impossible?  Who knows?  I see great value, in any case, in bringing our fears to the surface, to be faced, no matter what the real potential for these things is.  Art Bell once said (and I'm paraphrasing him here) "We are awake in the night-time, when we do our most important work."  I interpret that in the psychological sense, as I've said here, of raising our fears to be observed and thereby dealt with.

George Noory continues to do the work today, or should I say, tonight.  I have heard shows talking about genetically-modified foods and what they might do to us;  shows about pharmaceutical companies poisoning the population;  show about ghosts attacking the living;  shows about how aliens control the planet, and more and more and more.  You really have to listen to the show for at least three months, I would say, in order to hear enough shows about enough topics to get a feel for what it's like.  I listen to every show, every night of the week, usually on my hand-radio.  When I'm home for awhile I bring-up a local radio station on my computer and listen there.  I catch a lot of the repeats of the show, too, when I can stay awake for them. 

That's why I call this blog, Shem-Su Noory.  I follow George Noory.  I follow him wherever he goes, night after night.  He has taken me to many places, some of them scary, some of them glorious and magnificent.  I'm not getting paid to plug Coast to Coast AM here.  I'm what they call a booster, I guess.  Why don't you come along for the ride with us tonight?  The Coast audience is growing by leaps and bounds, as people realize they can hear information that's way ahead of the conventional news sources, sometimes by weeks and sometimes by years.

Join the Shem-Su Noory.  It is your destiny!