Writing Tools

   Any writer needs to know the basic tools of writing. I find If I Were a Carpenter  by Roy Peter Clark very helpful. When I'm in "serious author mode" I re-read his short lists at least once a week. If you're not a professional writer but have any written work to do, using Mr. Clark's lists will improve your work. You can find it at http://swopnet.com/misc/writing/writing_tools.html .

Send a Gift Certificate to a Service Member    09/15/07

   This is a great way to show your support to our soldiers. Even if you can only afford to send them a $5 gift card, it means more than you know! The gift certificates are sent to individual servicemembers (designated by the purchaser) or distributed to "any servicemember." The fee to send a certificate is just $4.95 and the servicemember can use it at any PX in the world (including Iraq and Afghanistan). Here's how to do it: just click on this URL and follow the prompts http://www.certifichecks.com/cgi-local/SoftCart.exe/cgi-bin/web06/affil_template.pl?U+affil+mlfd6105ffe7cee7+aafes_152598+aafes_152598+mlfd6105ffe7cee7+http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aafes.org%2F+welcome> You'll have to register the first time you do this, but it's easy enough.

09/03/09 Some of you know that I have a grandson serving in Iraq. He's now on his second tour of duty there. Pray for him. He has my two little great grandchildren to come home to. He'll be there about a year. 

12/10/10 My grandson has returned safely from Iraq. He has now been reassigned to Fort Bliss Texas. Before he left Iraq, he asked some of his buddies what Ft. Bliss was like. The said to look around him at the flat nothing all around them for miles with a few mountains on the horizon. That, they said, was what he would see at Bliss. They also told him, the only difference between Iraq and Texas would be that in Iraq he was being shot at my muslems but at Bliss he would be shot at by Mexican drug-runners.

Fantasy Sports 10/2010  Here we go again. But I do enjoy it. I even started a fantasy basketball league of my own this year. I made it as hard to win as I could. Does any of this seem rational?

Fantasy Sports 3/25/2011 The answer is "no." I've lost in all four basketball leagues. In fairness, I took over three of those teams when they had losing records in "keeper leagues." I hope to improve them next season. That challege is what makes it the most fun. Of course, there may be no pro football or basketball leagues next year: greed, just unbounded greed. But if that happens, it will be interesting to see what fantasy players all over the world will find to amuse ourselves.