Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, December 5, 2005 at about 11pm CST - Segment 12
Master CraftsMon - Aired Monday, December 5, 2005 at about 11pm CST -
Segment 12
When I wrote my book, The Dark Prince, I saw it as a TV show. Or rather I imagined all the scenes in the book as images. The problem I always had with Buffy the Vampire Slayer was that Buffy wanted to be a bubblehead. She was conscripted to be a hero. She was given no chance to volunteer. It made her a victim and Buffy was a tragic figure. The show was always a downer to me, because she was always whining about how awful it was to be the Slayer.
The main character in my book, John Jones (J.J.), is conscripted... kind of. The genetic condition that allows him to be a mystic warrior means that he can take the treatment and become a mystic warrior-in-training or alternatively go insane or die or both. At the last instant before the treatment he Chooses to become a mystic warrior, he commits himself to his destiny wholeheartedly. It makes a difference. Our warriors fighting in Iraq volunteered to be there. Because they have volunteered, they can use creativity. Their officers can afford to accept them as creative individuals and implement plans based on input from the lowest private. I know, it shouldn't make a difference, but it does. An officer can trust a volunteer more readily than a conscript.
In the first part of the book, J.J. perceives that he lives in a house that is haunted by two ghosts. One was a bubbleheaded dancer. The other was a Marine Major who was part of the New Guinea campaign in World War II. Toward the end of the book, it turns out that it was a computer doing the ghost projects all along. I put that in there to show people about paradigm shift.
About 1600, our civilization did a paradigm shift concerning... many things, including ghosts. I wanted to get that feel. One instant, the accepted truth is one thing and the next instant there is a different accepted truth. If you read the book, the change is very wrenching. The entire series of books changes with that one change. Almost all of J.J.'s plans for the future change. I wanted to show that aspect of life... One minute everything is pretty much set in stone and the next, everything changes.
I don't know whether I did a good job of the transition. If you can think of a better one, please make a comment on one of the open threads dealing with The Dark Prince and I might change it. After all, the book is on-line. I do not have to recall ten thousand copies. Go out to my blog and it has a link to the book.
Oh, you know, I tried too hard with my book. It's almost like the Universe is testing J.J. to destruction. I'm sure if you have heard of that concept. A prototype is supposed to be the first of its kind. Sometimes, manufacturers test a prototype until it fails to see how the production model can be improved. I kept coming up with really weird things that could happen to a person to see how I thought J.J. would handle them. I kept trying to imagine all the bad things that could happen to a child in the care of the State of Texas. Each time I came up with a horror scenario in my mind and decide that I had made an absolutely impossible event occur. Then some person dealing with children would come give a talk at my Kiwanis club and they would say that the scenario I proposed was likely, not impossible. That upset me... a LOT.
J.J. is a square peg and people have been trying to pound him into a round hole all his life. Suddenly he is a steel peg being pounded into a wooden round hole. In that scenario, the round hole starts deforming to allow the steel peg to enter. Get that image in your mind, some idiot decides to pound a square steel peg into a wooden round hole. I think it's kind of a fun concept.
What I'm getting at is that our schools have too many Liberals as teachers. The problem for students is that they have to say the right things to get a good grade, because they have no power. J.J. does. He has the power of life and death. A teacher that gives him a hard time soon finds himself with problems. The next book in the series, How I Spent My Summer Vacation... No... Really... That's What Happened, explores that aspect of his character. I haven't put that one on-line yet.
The third book in the series, The Deprived, covers in depth the problems the kid has with his teachers. I need to start on it this week.
I invite you to log onto your computer and go out and look at the book and make comments, ask questions and suggest changes. Come on... Help me whitewash this fence... It'll be fun... maybe.
Finally I ask you to donate to KEOS to keep me on the air. I do not consider it honorable for someone to listen to my program without donating. I mean, I put a large amount of effort into doing this project. KEOS does not exist, if you the listener do not donate. Ah, but what is the suggested retail price for this program? I say that it is $5... per week... But you may disagree. I care not. If you perceive that this program is worth MORE than $5/week, donate MORE than $5/week. It will give me an idea of how good a given program is by how much shows up as donations that week. Just go out to our website at www.keos.org and donate. But what if you perceive that the program is worth less than $5. Well, by my standards it cannot be worth nothing. That is silly. Why would you waste your time with something that was worthless, particularly having just now spent over two hours of your time listening to me? I perceive that, if you are honorable, you will donate SOMETHING to KEOS, even if it is one
penny, the lowest coin of the realm. I'm serious, for you to be honorable, by my standards, you MUST donate at least a penny to the station. Each week. Come on by 207 E. Carson in Bryan and drop that penny into our donation jar. CHINK. Or drop in a $1000. I care not. It can't be nothing if I am to consider you honorable. Why that would bother you, I do not know, but it should. Honor is internal. Look on this as another test of honor. We shall see whether you have any, shall we not? And here is the kicker, only you will know whether you have donated, for I surely cannot. Now CAN I? You would be surprised by the answer to that question.
Segment 12
When I wrote my book, The Dark Prince, I saw it as a TV show. Or rather I imagined all the scenes in the book as images. The problem I always had with Buffy the Vampire Slayer was that Buffy wanted to be a bubblehead. She was conscripted to be a hero. She was given no chance to volunteer. It made her a victim and Buffy was a tragic figure. The show was always a downer to me, because she was always whining about how awful it was to be the Slayer.
The main character in my book, John Jones (J.J.), is conscripted... kind of. The genetic condition that allows him to be a mystic warrior means that he can take the treatment and become a mystic warrior-in-training or alternatively go insane or die or both. At the last instant before the treatment he Chooses to become a mystic warrior, he commits himself to his destiny wholeheartedly. It makes a difference. Our warriors fighting in Iraq volunteered to be there. Because they have volunteered, they can use creativity. Their officers can afford to accept them as creative individuals and implement plans based on input from the lowest private. I know, it shouldn't make a difference, but it does. An officer can trust a volunteer more readily than a conscript.
In the first part of the book, J.J. perceives that he lives in a house that is haunted by two ghosts. One was a bubbleheaded dancer. The other was a Marine Major who was part of the New Guinea campaign in World War II. Toward the end of the book, it turns out that it was a computer doing the ghost projects all along. I put that in there to show people about paradigm shift.
About 1600, our civilization did a paradigm shift concerning... many things, including ghosts. I wanted to get that feel. One instant, the accepted truth is one thing and the next instant there is a different accepted truth. If you read the book, the change is very wrenching. The entire series of books changes with that one change. Almost all of J.J.'s plans for the future change. I wanted to show that aspect of life... One minute everything is pretty much set in stone and the next, everything changes.
I don't know whether I did a good job of the transition. If you can think of a better one, please make a comment on one of the open threads dealing with The Dark Prince and I might change it. After all, the book is on-line. I do not have to recall ten thousand copies. Go out to my blog and it has a link to the book.
Oh, you know, I tried too hard with my book. It's almost like the Universe is testing J.J. to destruction. I'm sure if you have heard of that concept. A prototype is supposed to be the first of its kind. Sometimes, manufacturers test a prototype until it fails to see how the production model can be improved. I kept coming up with really weird things that could happen to a person to see how I thought J.J. would handle them. I kept trying to imagine all the bad things that could happen to a child in the care of the State of Texas. Each time I came up with a horror scenario in my mind and decide that I had made an absolutely impossible event occur. Then some person dealing with children would come give a talk at my Kiwanis club and they would say that the scenario I proposed was likely, not impossible. That upset me... a LOT.
J.J. is a square peg and people have been trying to pound him into a round hole all his life. Suddenly he is a steel peg being pounded into a wooden round hole. In that scenario, the round hole starts deforming to allow the steel peg to enter. Get that image in your mind, some idiot decides to pound a square steel peg into a wooden round hole. I think it's kind of a fun concept.
What I'm getting at is that our schools have too many Liberals as teachers. The problem for students is that they have to say the right things to get a good grade, because they have no power. J.J. does. He has the power of life and death. A teacher that gives him a hard time soon finds himself with problems. The next book in the series, How I Spent My Summer Vacation... No... Really... That's What Happened, explores that aspect of his character. I haven't put that one on-line yet.
The third book in the series, The Deprived, covers in depth the problems the kid has with his teachers. I need to start on it this week.
I invite you to log onto your computer and go out and look at the book and make comments, ask questions and suggest changes. Come on... Help me whitewash this fence... It'll be fun... maybe.
Finally I ask you to donate to KEOS to keep me on the air. I do not consider it honorable for someone to listen to my program without donating. I mean, I put a large amount of effort into doing this project. KEOS does not exist, if you the listener do not donate. Ah, but what is the suggested retail price for this program? I say that it is $5... per week... But you may disagree. I care not. If you perceive that this program is worth MORE than $5/week, donate MORE than $5/week. It will give me an idea of how good a given program is by how much shows up as donations that week. Just go out to our website at www.keos.org and donate. But what if you perceive that the program is worth less than $5. Well, by my standards it cannot be worth nothing. That is silly. Why would you waste your time with something that was worthless, particularly having just now spent over two hours of your time listening to me? I perceive that, if you are honorable, you will donate SOMETHING to KEOS, even if it is one
penny, the lowest coin of the realm. I'm serious, for you to be honorable, by my standards, you MUST donate at least a penny to the station. Each week. Come on by 207 E. Carson in Bryan and drop that penny into our donation jar. CHINK. Or drop in a $1000. I care not. It can't be nothing if I am to consider you honorable. Why that would bother you, I do not know, but it should. Honor is internal. Look on this as another test of honor. We shall see whether you have any, shall we not? And here is the kicker, only you will know whether you have donated, for I surely cannot. Now CAN I? You would be surprised by the answer to that question.
posted by aRandomTexan at
5:53 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home