New Year about to arrive

I cannot believe that it will be 2012, that 2011 is nearly gone...at this time of the month, I am always ready for the first to come round again since it gives me a little money and am always broke by the end of the month..dreadful cycle which I hate so am back again to working the lottery game planning to win this next Wednesday if I can make it happen.

I watched this crazy ABC show the other evening and could tell the immediate similarities between some of the plot, dialogue, and intent with respect to my Alexander novel. I have placed it to be read at a file at Alexander-Macedon at yahoo discussion groups so that anyone can read it but it had been written a long time ago so that it was also on a flash and in my computer files at various places. I heard distinct sounds that sounded like it and recognized the thin plot a bit.

So that same group was on again tonight with a Halloween episode and the pumpkins looked darn familiar. Aren't all pumpkins just alike? And I kid you not, I am getting the gist of this show anyway as I recognize the lady actress who is supposed to be from Cleveland, Ohio as I recall from a different show she starred in in past sitcoms.

So I realized again tonight something that Nightline had done years ago with a Chinese pow who mimicked me in a thing that I did in Century City, California near Harry's Bar. I am more than just gutsy to prove that I am under constant watch and study all the time so I did something that Ted Koppel did show a Chinese pow do also...whether this was contrived or what I cannot say but I saw it and realized what they were saying...that is all I will say for now. I don't tell on myself all the time.

But case is proved beyond any doubt to myself. shutting down now.

Day After Christmas

Wouldn't you know, all day and night yesterday I was thinking about my pe nding novel which I have begun. I opened it up for viewing by placing it in the files at Alexander-Macedon discussion group. I have been thinking about it and rereading it over and over ever since. It is only a first draft, actually second revision, and while I love parts of it, I dislike other parts of it which I know have to be restructured and rewritten. Once I got it going though, I began to stick with one frame of mind til the finish line, and put it on a kind of recess until I decide to take it up once again.

I also had to change my gmail password again. How many times I have done that is nearly ridiculous. So often I get tired of it.

Visitors from other states are now lodging in Scottsdale and neighboring cities for the bowl games. I guess it is Oklahoma and Iowa who are here at this writing but I saw sweatshirts today from other states as well. I made a serious mistake of going to the mall to get an idea of how busy day after Christmas would be...too busy for my tastes but I did learn that pets are on sale at Puppies In Love.

I am also working on the lottery game again and have devised another new system which I feel will help me to at last win this game this January. I wish I would have thought of this sooner as it is very helpful to me right now.

The horses all came in as I had thought that they would. Favorites won today at opening day at Santa Anita. Opening Day is not the day to scare prospective patrons away so the races went off 1.2.3 just as they should have.

I did not play. Not in the mood for horse racing right now.

The local news is on so I will close the computer down. Found I can use it a Starbucks with wifi. Will do that this coming week as I have used half my allowance already.

The importance of caring

This will be very short because my cat is pestering me to play with him and to get away from the computer. He wants attention now. So on that note, I will admit to playing around here with photos and attachments.

I had intended to explain that in order to get good government we must truly care and listen and demand that our own wishes and desires be met when these men and women decide to represent us in congress. I cannot in good conscience identify with very many of the current crop of pretenders to the highest office in the land.

I am not happy with the opposition party either but I am certainly dismayed at tyrannical, dictatorial, repressive policies such as these men and women are suggesting.

To care is to demand that we get the best leadership possible and so far, that is is as unlikely to happen as it is to see icebergs float at the equator.

Gay Life Style

I know that I have talked about this subject a lot.

Tonight I received a post from a friend I met through Tudor Talk. This man is a supporter of gay rights and gay marriage, and often I think that he spends too much time on just that subject. But nonetheless, he has his cause which is to bring about laws of fairness to those who live their lives as open gays.

I have always supported gay rights since childhood due to having come to know so many gay men early in my adolescence and early 20's. Many men are bisexual, use both men and women, and I believe that it is better than men and women be open and honest about it rather than lying about it. I nearly married a man who was bisexual but backed out of it, and this many years later, am happy that I had the wisdom when young not to tie the knot with a man who had sex easily and regularly with members of both sexes.

I had not really known the sexual practices of men who were gay in that time as it took many years for me to learn what it is that they do with one another. A book called faggot did really explain it all and I read that book only in the past ten years, but at least the guy was honest and direct about the way that gay men feel about men in geneal and women as well.

I had had a gay hairdresser when I first moved to California who was always trying to make me look like a hooker. That was considered a compliment in that time, believe it or not. He actually is the only man I know who wore mascara on his eyelashes. He was a nice young man, hip, as they say, and treated me very nicely and well thank you. He was probably one of the few hair stylists who actually work with my hair and make it look decent.

So I have never understood why it is that the Republican men are so afraid of the gay lifestyles since there are many gays who vote and think Republican.

Hypocrisy is something that should not be practiced in the halls of government but so far Americans do themselves dirt all the time when they vote for the group of men and women who are elected to congress by betraying their own interests when voting for someone who clearly does not represent their own best interests.

To pretend that you are superior to someone simply because you do as most normal people do, marry, raise a family, live either happily or unhappily, as notice the divorce rate in America now, is absolutely the most asinine thing in the world to do. I will be blunt now. Anybody, intelligent, stupid, pretty, ugly, deformed, normal or whatever can reproduce through the normal means of taking ONE (a euphemism for copulation). Any person can get fucked. It is that simple. Like it or not, it is an easy thing to do. Nobody has to be a rocket science to do it. But gays choose to do it either in someone's mouth or asshole. Straights do it in a woman's vagina. It is all the same thing...as ejaculation or getting one's rocks off is the end result.

Government should stay out of the bedroom, out of the business of contracts between men and women who choose to marry, whether a member of the opposite sex or the same sex except to issue the license and make out the contract that says that these two persons intend to stick life out together for a long period of time, maybe to death do them part, or divorce do them part.
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As I literally shudder, shake, and tremble all over at the thought of such a lifelong contract to some man (since I am woman, hear me roar) I finally believe that I am a resurrected one, come back from the grave, and frankly do not need to make that kind of commitment. I prefer to be like the angels in Heaven who do not marry, no need to after all, since procreation is the real purpose of Marriage or to escape loneliness, and to find someone to do your dirty laundry for you if you are male.

I am not being that lighthearted about this. Marriage should be a serious commitment, an honorable state of being, but it should be due to love of one another, not forced into it by some social status or false religious belief.

I like Ron Paul for his not signing the pledge that these weak minded Republicans signed. They are too stupid for me to appreciate. God save America from such foolish people.

Blogging with new computer

I am learning all the time what a difference a given make of a computer does make. Unfortunately, in this computer world everything is hit and miss and learn the hard way never knowing who it is that one can trust to help you when trying to buy a computer.

But one thing I know is that to do photography one needs a computer that has a way to have the pictures placed into the system. So far I have not yet discovered except for the camera where that can be done. So far I have a lot of photos of myself in a variety of positions.

And I am finding all the time that there are so many gremlins at work on it that it is giving me fits and starts. This is a netbook by Gateway which is really Acer now. I do not know yet every aspect of the features on this netbook but am learning slowly.

I will when I can do it which hopefully will be very soon get a new computer fully capable of doing everything that I will want to do for my simple tasks.

Teaching Children the truth of Christmas

Today a facebook friend posted an interesting letter which came originally from the Huffington Post. It was a letter from a mother questioning whether she was raising her son properly in not teaching him some religious beliefs about God and church. The woman went on to explain that while both she and her husband had been reared in a Christian tradition that neither are exercising or practicing a faith and thus, her small son is going without any kind of religious upbringing. She was questioning whether she was doing him right or wrong in this attitude.

In the protestant faith, the traditions with in the church are usual and almost always the same, a few hymns are sung, a sermon is preached, a prayer is said, and a collection box is passed, and everyone is satisfied at the end that everyone has done their Christian duty and dutifully leave the church satisfied that another week has ended or begun well in satisfying the requirement of showing up to hear a mighty and awesome sermon.

The church plate is usually what is most important to many as money is always an issue in the survival of any church body, whether to support the preacher and his family, or to pay the building fund.

In the Catholic church, one is sinning if one does not attend all the necessary obligations that the church demands from its flock and again as in the protestant faith, the ongoing ritual of prayer, communion, and greeting one another in peace is supposed to satisfy the requirement that all true Christians gather together to pray in unison and agreement, acknowledging Jesus as their saviour.

Then one goes home, casts off all the pretenses, and settles back into the family ritual whatever it may be of arguing, fighting, putting one another down, or in the case of a happy and loving family, simply doing one's own thing whatever it may be, chores, play, homework, games, whatever.

There are always two different kinds of households in America: those who love each other and enjoy being together, living together, and praying together, and those who are actually hating each other, envious of one another's friends, time, pleasures, or whatever, and sibling rivalry of that kind often makes for great enmities so why bother with the pretense when one knows that one really wishes to bop the other one off.

So was this woman wise to ask about whether she should try to instill a religious notion in her son or whether to just let him be, not bothering to take him to church where he would be taught the usual Sunday School stories about Jesus loving little children, and wanting them all to come to him, or to let him grow up to decide for himself that mommy and daddy had let him down by not taking him to church to learn those early lessons.

In the number of inmates incarcerated in jails today, how many had gone to church in their youth? Why did it not penetrate their minds not to break the laws of society? In the hospitals and nursing homes today, how many are also a product of a religious upbringing? Does a religious upbringing matter to a child? Does a child need to attend a Sunday School to learn the lessons taught there? Does that lesson affect that child's lifestyle for the remaining days of his life?

If there is a God, she says, and you are out there, I am passing on this...

Does she pass? God is supposed to see into our hearts...can one even understand what is in one's own heart?

Rereading my novel on Alexander

Writing a novel is a huge job. I took it upon myself to write about Alexander of Macedon's childhood and have sent a rudimentary copy of the finally supposedly finished version to three people in whom I have placed a bit of trust to read it. I know only of one who is actually reading it as I have received confirmation from her that she is reading it in her free time.

I am rereading it to see how it sounds to me as I reread it aloud and I am finding areas which need a lot of rewrites. I have to let it go cold so that I can get a better perspective on it when rereading it than when I was immersed into it when writing it. It takes a lot of preparation to simply go back into the time period to renew the feel and memories that I occasionally experience to write this out. I do undergo certain spontaneous memories at times and a few I include in the storytelling aspect. Most I keep to myself.

I did experience a flashback to the city of Corinth while writing this experience and I have never seen anything so lovely as the setting that I found myself in when back in that time period. I have this desire now to see Corinth today as I had had no idea what a beautiful spot this region in Greece is until I found myself back there staring down at the sea and looking at what were then temples. It was an amazing experience.

Naturally, I looked up Corinth in google images and will do so again after I post this now.

I Adore Alexander,my cat

I am trying to get a photo of my cat on my blog. this was taken when I first received my computer so this is the only photo I have of him to date that I can use here. The others are all on my cell phone...complications until I learn how to bring all this together.

Hawthorne's Jim Edgar Futurity Race

I mentioned the fact that many races are fixed so that a horse can win or cannot win. In a book about Man O War many old times methods of trying to fix a race are discussed and frankly are quite shocking. There is little doubt that many winning horses were in danger of losing their lives back in the 30's and 40's since there were unscrupulous characters who would try anything to prevent them from winning. Phar Lap appears to be a horse that fell victim to someone's efforts to keep him from becoming an American phenomena as he had been in Australia where even there many objected to his long winning streak.

So today there are two examples of horses that one must question whether it was fixed for them to win or to lose when one learns the results. One owner had three horses entered, and the least likely won while the heavily favored did not win. In this case, the owner did not get hurt at all, only the simple minded trusting bettor who truly believed that a "best" horse could win again against a minor leaguer...sorry but it turned out not to be true.

Everyone will come away from that race believing what they want about it, that money talked and won! It looks that way when one can only shake one's head in wonder.

That's all on this subject for now.

The favorite, a horse by the name of Twelve Hundred did not win but was trained and owned by the same owner as the horse that did win...so neither trainer or owner lost a thing...just the dumb stiff who bet on Twelve Hundred instead of Real Power.

Christmas Blues

There is a song called Blue Christmas. I believe Elvis sang it along with many others. It will be a blue Christmas without you.

Each year the celebration of Christmas becomes harder and harder to enjoy. As one ages, one realizes how life changes affect one's emotional and mental processes. Fundamentally, Christmas is supposed to be a recognition of the annual event which celebrates the birth of a young god, a child born to become the saviour of the Jewish community, and who expanded it to become the saviour of the gentiles and infidels as well so long as they would recognize his status as the person upon whom one could trust to lead one into a kingdom of love and fulfilment in the state of soul. The physical body is revealed to expose the status of the soul through its health records, meaning that the souls who need to be cured appear to have soul problems...Jesus was able to see into them, help to cure them through the forgiveness of the sin that prevented them from having good health.

Most Christians today do not fully recognize this as the stories of Jesus are dependent upon the interpretation that some priest, preacher, or divine soul can give to them. Most appear to be misinterpreted thus creating all kinds of problems for the many faithful who continue to believe in the truth of the good news of the great lord and master Jesus Christ.

The Holy Ghost is who is supposed to follow Jesus so that the true faithful will always continue to understand the mysteries of the faith.

So now we celebrate the birth of Christ with songs, prayers, and attendance in mass at a public acknowledgement and recognition of that faith. No matter that many do not attend church services regularly but that they do at Christmas. That is good. The fact that they want to celebrate the birth is good news as God sees the true intent and that is what counts.

Sending Christmas cards keeps friendships intact, families apprised of news within the family, and the post office at work. The internet now for many can do the same without all the added expense of postage stamps, and expensive Hallmark or American Greeting cards.

Happy Holidays, or Merry Christmas! It is all the same. Holy Day. Christ's Mass. It is an occasion of happiness, joy, and remembrance to honor the Christ child whose light has led the world into an understanding of healing and peace amongst men of God's will.

Merry Christmas to all!

Songs about Christmas

I just listened to two new standard Christmas songs which are not regularly played or known and wondered at why it is that artists and storytellers continue to feel the need to write a song, a poem, or a story about the time in which Jesus was brought into the world.

Years ago when I was writing for a correspondent course in Children's Literature the Detroit Newspapers had a contest for stories about Christmas. I wrote two stories but did not submit either. I did at one time share the birth of Christ story with a member of a discussion group. Then I wrote another about a child who had suffered the death of his mother and who was trying to adjust to a difficult time due to that untimely death.

Many people suffer more violently at holiday times than any other time since so much stress is placed on family, gift giving, and the need to be a part of a commercial affair rather than a spiritual remembrance.

Should Christmas mean a lot of Christmas presents under a tree? Who can get the most or the biggest or the best? That is how Christmas is basically taught but there is also a time spent going to a church where the preacher teaches about the star that led the Wise Men and the Shepherds to find the small babe who lay in a manger in the back of a busy hotel or inn that had not had a reservation made for this child who came into the world expectantly believe it or not. His birth was a known fact long before it happened.

So Jesus had to sleep on a straw bed and his mother, a young child herself, had to suffer the discomfort of a birth delivery in the rear of an inn while her husband attended to her. Miraculously the child was born and it followed that Mary and Joseph were not alone for long because soon they were visited by the wiseemen and the shepherds who came to see this strange spectacle of a child whose radiance was such that not only was there a star overhead but also a great light that shone round about him.

Playing the horses

I will share a few of my secrets here about horses and racing at the local tracks. One is that many people believe that races are fixed. It would be very difficult to prove that they are, as nobody will ever admit to it, but the word always gets out that some how or other a race is fixed. I think that owners would object to that idea since they are the ones bearing the costs and expenses most in this game, but one never knows if it is possible for jockeys and or trainers to really fix a race so that a horse will or won't win. It works that horses can be drugged to slow down as well as speed up in the world of those who believe that medicines are used for those purposes.

My secret in winning a race is to study the horses's behaviour. If a horse looks as though he is concentrating on the race by putting his head down even with his body, so that he looks straight, it usually means that he is somehow or other concentrating his energy on that race. If his tail swishes, it often means that he is a happy horse, that he is eager to race, and if he is sometimes acting up, trying to stand up, and appears to be moving about a lot, it indicates that he is full of run and energy so that he may be a contender. The horses that generally look straight ahead with head pointed forward come in first or second I have noticed. The horses themselves know what is up. I watched when horses seemed to concentrate on me, and then would win. I had no idea what it was that caused that but if I went to the stalls to watch them get dressed for the race, I would notice their way of looking at me. It made me take notice of them. I began then to study their body language and behaviour.

In truth and honesty, those are the best ways to win a race. You must see the horse for yourself and watch his behaviour and then you can find the horse who will be in the money.

I thought of writing a blog about winning horse races, and so I studied the patterns of jockeys and trainers for certain tracks. Some tracks use the same jockeys repeatedly which is the best way for the bettor to follow the pattern of a jockey. Knowing the streaks of wins and losses by a given jockey does help to make bets, especially exotic bets.

I will post this to facebook as I know there are people there who are interested in this topic. I have kept silent long enough and horses need care and attention.

Back Online

for the past few weeks I have been using my cellphone to check email and to do most computer projects, and as a result, have nearly forgotten what it is like to write on a regular netbook computer. I just did get my security updated so that I have spent some time online and will continue to do so now for awhile. It is amazing at how much we need a computer after we have started to use it and how little we need it for it is a bad habit as had been television.

In truth, it is sad to know that ordinary conversation is being replaced by noses peering into cellphones, ipads, and other mechanical devices. I am surprised that people know how to talk with one another any longer since so many appear to be always on their phones or computers.

But because I just had security put on to this netbook I will be using it more often than in the past few weeks. I nearly drained my cellphone battery by using it as a replacement I think. I did talk to them today about it.

I also talked to the vets about my plan which will expire in March so I must take my cat in to be neutered soon. I have dreaded that operation so much as I would have loved to have had a litter of kittens. So I may be still looking for that female cat to have a litter with Alexander as papa.

The holiday season is dreary for me right now. I am staying away from shopping centers as much as is possible. I sold some gold last month due to banking problems caused by my vet's screwing me up. I am thinking of selling a few rings now. Just thinking it through before I act upon it. The rings are so old and too small for me to wear now. If I get a decent price, I might sell them.

Christmas Time again

It is looking like it will be a white Christmas in many places as the weather has taken a nasty turn, dumping rain into the Valley and snow in the higher elevations as we in the West call it...

I like low elevations to be honest,and I had enough snow in my younger days in the Midwest and more recently in Colorado that thank you but no thank you I do not need snow and ice in my life even at Christmas time.

Today, I had to go to the local pawn shop where I had taken two old rings to get a loan of $25 to pay for a bank overdraft...they made $9 bucks for loaning me $25 when I needed it and recounting this week is a page out of well, never mind...this is how it went. My mpower beeper went off letting me know that I had only 3 days left on credit, so I have exactly $10 on me in cash and $11 in a winning voucher ticket from horse racing. I went to Basha's to put credit on my debit card, and left my keys on the cookie table. While on the bus, I went through my pocketbook dutifully checking that everything was there and could not find my keys...I said, oh no, to the driver, I have to get off the bus, I don't have my keys and frantically raced back to Walgreens to see if they were there, stopped at Chase to see if they were there ( in Basha's) and then down to the SRP kiosk to see if they were there and luckily for me, found them on the cookie counter as nobody had apparently gone near it.

At my age, I double and triple check everything for I am forget about all these little minor things, and chronic about not losing my keys. I was so devastated at that that I could not function well for hours.

Naturally, I had to tell my story, compulsive talker that I am, and everyone said how lucky I was...I was indeed...but on Friday I had to go back and again, I am just wondering what the heck is it with Bashas and that SRP kiosk now, as I made sure not to go in the same door, to do everything carefully, and just like that the case in which I carry allmy cards fell out of my hand onto the floor, and sprayed out all my cards on the floor. Was I ever mad at that! I picked up all the cards, doublechecked to make sure none were under the game machine that is next to kiosk and even got a man to bend down and look for me to make sure that I have everything...driving me crazy too, but that is old age and clumsiness and dropsy for you.

So today, after leaving the pawn shop where the men who were there were so nice to me, gentlemanly, and told me that I could come anytime I needed as they have me on record now, I walk out the door, and as two people are walking towards me, the ring falls out of my hand, and I am down on the ground, trying to retrieve it from under a rear end of a car...they asked me if I was all right...I could not believe this, mind you! Two days in a row.

That did it. I decided no to horses and went to Arizona Mills shopping where I found two sweatshirts at Penny's on sale and bought them, stopped at Panda Express, got some orange chicken and shrimp and then proceeded home, to find my phone's battery is dying on me as it needs recharging. It has not been used at all so why is it draining all of a sudden twice in one day!

I will leave it on the charger all night as when I woke up this morning the juice had drained out of it. It takes forever to recharge so that means a trip to the service shop on Monday and probably a new phone.

Agh! This will be one heck of a month. Did find a tower for my cat at Big Lots and want it...gotta find a way to get it home and to get the money for it...

Yeah, this saga never ends...relentlessly.