Changes

Plenty has happened since I've neglected this space for the past few months.

I changed jobs. Well, ok, I was asked to change jobs, and had two very scary, stress inducing months without a paycheck before landing a new job for slightly better pay at a company with an atmosphere more to my taste, but there you go.

My son is finishing his last summer as a free man. Next week, he enters the belly of the beast and starts Kindergarten.  I could make some Pink Floyd references, if I were truly pessimistic, but I'll keep it light and think of the Indigo Girls. He can spend the next few years prostrate to the higher mind, get his paper and be free.

My book is out. Go buy it. It's brilliant. It's available as an ebook this second. Paperback books coming soon. The proofs are done, off to the printers, not sure how long until you can buy one, but soon.

It's a paranormal thriller set against the background of a private EMS company in a tough, economically depressed town. Fun for the whole family. If you ever wondered what the bastard offspring of Robert B Parker and Roger Zelanzy would look like, but lack the background in necromancy and  genetics to make that happen, this book is for you.

I'll try to be better about this blog. 

Fun, differing definitions of

Going over the copyedit for "Out of Nowhere."

Imagine the combined fun of an employee review, a note from your ex telling you why she left, and your mom giving you advice on your lifestyle.

It's not quite that much fun.

On Aspirations, Realistc

Starting work at a new ambulance company next week. My goal is to hit the four year mark at a company.

  A dream I've had unfulfilled for twelve years.

I reckon you'd get your ass kicked for something like that.

A medic friend of mine had his toothpaste stolen at work. From his toiletry bag which was in the base bathroom. He became incensed at this, and had some choice words for the perpetrator. I think those words were "pathological lying scumbag thieving shit bag coworkers."


People told him to calm down, toothpaste costs a buck, keep his perspective.


Fuck that.


Stealing a squeeze of toothpaste from a tube left out on the sink, sure. going through another guy's bag and taking the tube is another.

It stuns me because I've always found people to be ready to lend stuff if asked. I've lent toothpaste, soap, shampoo, uniform parts, stethoscopes, ibuprofen, allergy medicine, money, food, and a few times my car to co-workers. People I only knew from working the truck. And I've borrowed most of those things when I needed them. All without thinking. I've come in early and stayed late for people. Taken somebody else's call because they needed a shower in the middle of a double shift.

In this business, we should look out for one another, and expect our co-workers to do the same for us. Having one another's back used to be the expected standard.


If I can't trust you with my $1.29 tube of Colgate, how can I trust you when you say you checked the cardiac monitor batteries? Or the expiration dates on the drugs? Or that you'll speak up when I'm headed down the wrong path on a complex medical call on no sleep at 3 in the morning?

Yeah, toothpaste is minor, but the disrespect is a betrayal. You don't steal from your partners, and you watch their backs, because EMTs and Medics are the only people who will look out for other EMTs and Medics.

If we can't count on one another, what does that leave us?

New Plan for the Publishing Industry...

They're going to stop rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic and start colluding against icebergs.

There has been a lot of moaning by publishers and big bookstore chains about how e-books and Amazon are threatening to put them out of business. E-books are outselling hardcopy books, Amazon is undercutting  prices, e-books sell for less, so the profit to the publisher--oh, yeah, and some other guy...Oh! Right, the author-- is lower.

Doom and despondency all around.

What I'm not hearing at all is whether total book sales, e-books included, are up or down. Paperbacks are down, yes. And despite the handwringing, that doesn't mean a damn thing. CD sales are down as well, but people still buy new music. Eight track sales may never recover.

If the publishing industry as a whole is selling more books, whether through Amazon, Apple, brick and mortar or whatever, that is a net boon to writers. The potential audience is growing. People who live out in the sticks, people in countries where their native tongue isn't the standard, all can now get any book any time, via online e-book sales. This is a Good Thing.

And Amazon isn't piracy. People pay for the e-books. So the author gets something, and with the longer reach, the author should get a piece of greater overall potential sales.

E-books should not cost the same as print. Yes, the author worked just as hard on it. So did the editor. But there are savings in production, shipping, storage and returns. This is truth. And an e-book is less valuable to the consumer, since it's harder to lend, you can't sell it at a yard sale or donate it to the local library when you finish it.  If an e-book is $10 I will stick to print. And I will buy half as many books as if I can get a $4.99 e-book.

Maybe the publishing industry should try to sell more books, encourage more reading among the next generation (say what you like but the Harry Potter and Hunger Games series have done all writers a great service by introducing recreational reading to more young people) than trying to ensure they get the same cut they always have.

They need to stop rhapsodizing the longbow and crying when the enemy bring a machine gun to the field.
Amazon sells a boatload of books. Let's encourage the selling of a boatload of books.

The Doomsayers Who Cry "Wolf"

A friend of mine recently wondered why nobody takes "preppers" seriously.  I thought about it. I know I don't take most of them seriously.  My friend is an exception. He lives out in the woods, off a dirt road in an area that has a low population and lot of seasonal residents. So it's last on the priority list for the utility crews and the snowplows. It's not uncommon for him to lose the electrical grid for days on end, or to be cut off from the main roads. So he made sure he has some electricity from a solar panel array, and ha woodstove that can heat the house or cook a meal, and he always has some dry food stored. He considers himself a prepper, but I say he's just embraced the reality of his situation.

We don't make fun of the guy with a generator or a few gallons of bottled water. If your road floods twice a year, maybe you want to own a boat.

The guys we laugh at are the ones who have a bomb shelter. They guys who stockpiled 9 mm ammo after Obama won the election so that you couldn't get it in stores. The guys who bury a box of gold in the backyard.

Why do we laugh at the "Doomsday Preppers?" Why don't we take people seriously when they warn of the coming apocalypse?

Because we've gotten used to them.

There is always somebody screaming that the world will end. And it never does.

The millennium, the plague, the Mongol invasion, the rise of Fascism, of communism, the Cold War, the UN, going off the Gold Standard, Electing a Catholic president, missiles in Cuba, the energy crisis (pick one), the Y2K crisis,  weapons of Mass Destruction, electing a black president, the mortgage bubble, global warming.

We've grown numb to the cries. Everything else has proven survivable, so this next thing will be too.

Yes, there are dangers on the horizon. Many of the things I mentioned above had real potential to cause havoc, bring down the established order. Not many did. Sure, people suffered, but some people will always be getting it in the neck somewhere, and if it's not you or anyone you know, it's hard to get worked up. Sometimes, maybe we should worry, but they've become like a car alarm. Nobody looks up or calls the police when they hear a car alarm. they complain about the noise.

The average person worries about working to keep the family fed and sheltered, and wants to enjoy their few precious free moments, not spend them fretting about an apocalypse that has never returned a phone call. 

So, being busy, being jaded at the consistent ability of doomsayers to be dead wrong. That's understandable. But we do sometimes get worked up about a waning. If the weather guy on channel 4 says it will snow, everyone in the state has to run to the store for milk and bread. Why does he warrant a listen, make us look up from or lives of quiet desperation, but not the guy who warns of an impending fiat currency collapse? Both of them are probably overstating it for the ratings.

Well, it comes down to perceived legitimacy. If the President says terrorists have weapons of mass destruction, we think, since he has advisors and an intelligence agency and a foreign service and all, maybe he knows something. Turns out that's really not a good call, but it makes sense.

If you own no clothing that isn't camouflaged and have a beard like an Old Testament prophet, nobody's going to listen. If your friends are still in debt from all the Ramen Noodles and peanut butter you convinced them to buy for Y2K, they've stopped listening. I'm pretty sure Noah's neighbors saw him working on the Ark and pretended not to be home when he knocked on the door asking if he could borrow a male and a female scorpion.

And if your preps involve a defensible island fortress to hold off the UN invasion when the come for your handguns, just realize that when you have your heart attack brought on by a steady diet of MREs and stress about black helicopters, the Mooseknuckle Notch Volunteer Ambulance takes a long time to get there. And they've seen two heart attacks this year. It's been busy.

So, yeah, that's funny.

Maybe they'll be laughing at me when I am clawing at the shelter door begging for  some radiation sickness pills. But my money's on the guy who lives in the city, surrounded by leftists and minorities and world class hospitals.

The scariest power of all.

So the kiddo is really into Transformers right now. This afternoon, the wife pointed out a minivan to him that had a Decepticon sticker on it. For those of you who neither grew up in the 80s or have young children, the Decepticons are the evil Transformers, robots who can disguise themselves as everyday vehicles.

Kiddo: Is he a Decepticon?
Mom: Looks like.
Kiddo: What's his name?
Mom: I'm not sure. I think he's in disguise, waiting to transform.
Kiddo: What does he do?
Dad: His name is Suburbo. He steals your dreams.