A Solution to the Debate over Marriage in the US

I live in the blue dot in the middle of Texas, so the legal issue over what "marriage" means is hotly debated in bumper stickers. There's the "marriage = one man and one woman" camp and the "gay rights" camp.

I have an answer to this whole debate. It seems to me that the whole issue around this debate stems from marriage being a religious union. Since the U.S. government is supposed to have a separation between church and state, I propose that marriage be removed from the law.

So, if you want to be married, by all means go ahead. It's your decision. But the law shouldn't have any special language about it.

However, there should be special accommodations for families. What makes it so special when two unrelated people want to live together, as opposed to, say, two brothers? Yeah, the two unrelated people generally have children, but there's all kinds of circumstances where children are raised by people other than their natural parents.

Blogging A Novel

I've been turning a fantasy world in my head for many months, now. Recently, I've been making notes on the world, and otherwise trying to assemble it into a coherent form. Then, the inevitable happened.

I added a story.

I created a general outline for a story, added a few rough characters, and now I've got the itch (again). This time I might make it happen.

I'm starting now with exploring the world's people and parts of its history through legends and myths. I'll merge this, soon, with a character study, of which some may enter the main story, others may move into historical characters, and others may be thrown out. I'll also work on the story sketches.

My point of this post reflects a desire to start putting up some of the fleshed out stories that come out of these initial sketches. I'll see where it goes.

Looking Back At My Old Works

I've recently gone back to look over a screenplay I wrote back in about 2001. It's a slow moving thriller (okay - a yawner) about a set of conspiracy groups all fighting it out over a hidden religious secret which turns out to be the direct descendants of Jesus.

After realizing that I could have cashed this in for millions, I started to rewrite it based around the Key of Solomon. Then I found that Dan Brown wants to turn this into a novel, too. Further investigations show that what I'm really looking to focus on is that .'. (3 dot triangle) symbol used in occult order names, which symbolizes both a mystical secret and that the order knows the Lost Word of Masonry.

I'll see where this next revision takes me.

Iraq War Was For Oil?

I've been wondering something lately. I've been hearing more and more talk of late that the U.S. went into Iraq for oil. However, I wonder how much oil the U.S. has sent to Iraq for the war. I mean, Iraq doesn't have oil refineries in any kind of capacity to supply itself. That means the U.S. planners had to burn oil to send out the troops and equipment, they had to send oil to power all the vehicles and generators that keep the troops working in their long shifts on patrol, and they had to burn oil to send the oil to the troops and equipment.

So, just how much oil was the U.S. supposed to "win", and how much have the U.S. planners had to burn to get that oil? I don't have the resources to find out personally, but I think it's still an interesting question.

Deeper Look Into Past Presidents

So, I was curious as to the other previous presidents and their career before becoming president.

• Dwight Eisenhower: Supreme Commander of NATO right before becoming President.
• Harry Truman: Senator, then VP to FDR.
• FDR: Senator, then Governor of New York, then President.
• Herbert Hoover: Secretary of Commerce, then President.
• Calvin Coolidge: Governor of Massachusetts, VP, then President.
• Warren Harding: the first sitting Senator to become President.
• Woodrow Wilson: Governor of New Jersey, then President.
• Williant Taft: Secretary of War, then President.
• Teddy Roosevelt: Governor of New York, VP, then President.

And so on.

My First Run With A Mod Tracker

As I mentioned earlier, I've been playing around with Mod Trackers for authoring and remixing music. As I've discovered, it all depends upon getting really high quality samples. A few days ago I finished my first attempt at one of these. The mixing needs some work, but overall I'm fairly happy with the outcome.

Now I just need to find some way to get that file onto this site...

Senators Should Stop Running For President

Has anyone else noticed that current U.S. senators just aren't elected president? You have to go all the way back to JFK before you find a President who wasn't in the Executive Branch before becoming President. Here's a quick rundown of the list:

• George W. Bush: Govenor of Texas
• Bill Clinton: Govenor of Arkansas
• George H. W. Bush: Senator, yes, but also was Director of The CIA under Ford, and was Vice President before being elected President.
  
• Ronald Reagan: Govenor of California
  
• Jimmy Carter: Govenor of Georga
• Gerald Ford: Congressman, then VP, then President.
• Richard Nixon: Congressman & Senator, then VP, then President.
• LBJ: Senator, then VP, then President.
• JFK: Senator then President.

All the recent Senator candidates should just quit, and the party conventions should stop voting them in.

A Meta-Blog

I've started a category for this blog called "meta-blog," and retroactively adjusted some category names. Just as "meta-data" is data about data, a "meta-blog," then, would be a blog about blogs. Although, like this post, I mix terms and blog about blogging. That makes me wonder, what would the verb be for blogging about blogging? I'd probably just end up "verbing" the word nad say "meta-blogging."

("Verbing" is my term for turning a noun into a verb, such as "benchmarking" or "blogging.")

This just makes me wonder just how much meta-blogging people do. Chalk me up on that list.

The Craft of Clapping

Years ago, I worked as a stage hand for the José Greco Dance Company, back when José Sr. was still in the show (now, Pépé, his son, leads it). I learned there two forms of clapping - what they called the Flaminco style and the Arabic style. I found the different sounds they produced fascinating then, and I still practice and experiment with different clapping sounds.

The Arabic style was the easiest to learn. You shape your hands into a tiger-claw shape, and bring them together so that the fingers interlock. The sound is produced from the two cups of the palms coming together.

The Flaminco style, however, is much more difficult. In it, you bring the fingers from one hand over the cup of the second hand, and the second hand's heel hits the first hand's cup. The sound is very distinct, and appears in all kinds of Spanish music. I've been practicing it off and on for years, and I still have trouble finding the "sweet spot" that makes this sound.

Today, I happened to be wearing a cheap pair of latex gloves, and I found that wearing those while clapping added a nice "snap" to the sound.

Unfortunate Predictions

Soon after the original movie Mission: Impossible came out, after I realized why Peter Graves wouldn't be caught dead in it, I started making jokes about what shows they'll turn into movies:

• The Dukes of Hazzard
• Starsky and Hutch
• Miami Vice
• Lost in Space
• Shaft
• The Mod Squad
  

Several more on my list I thought would be impervious to being brought to film. I found myself yesterday proven wrong for these (they're listed as in production):

• Get Smart
• CHiPs
• The Prisoner
• The A-Team
  

There's some that have been or are in planning for a new TV series that, with a little luck, will see a movie deal like Firefly did:

• Battle Star Galactica
• V
  

Here, I mean luck in that it'd be nice to see my list fill out. The few that are left on my list that I haven't heard about a movie deal are:

• Space: 1999
  
• Buck Rodgers
• The Greatest American Hero
• 21 Jump Street
• Cop Rock
  

I seriously doubt Space: 1999 will become a movie, but you never know. That's one of the reasons why I put it on my list.

I should have put on the bad cartoons I used to watch, because then I would have picked up Duddly Do-Right, Rocky & Bulwinkle, and Scooby Doo.

Here's to watching The Greatest American Hero movie in 2010!