Episode #284: Constitutionally Catatonic Conundrum of Chuckling

Every American's new number one favorite document to hotly debate about, is a home grown creation that promises more chills, spills and mega thrills than any measly book written by the same English author that gave us a dystopian novel about an animal farm.

This week's blog post came to me much like the bulk of my previous posts: during a bout of self-inflicted stupidity, in which I actually decided to open the pictured book and actually browse the pages.

Among the various sections that I had skimmed, one really stood out to me: Amendments Proposed But Never Ratified.

Did you know that since the inception of this wonderful country, more than 10,000 amendments have been proposed, and that the Constitution has been changed a grand total of 27 times, giving us a grand total of 27 Amendments, with the 27th being approved 203 years after it was proposed (1992 changes to congressional salaries). If you're wondering about the 26th, that was approved in 1971, and it lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.

Any ways, I thought I would share with everyone a short list of proposed amendments that got seriously rejected by Congress, along with some enlightening commentary by yours truly. 

1. (1876) Abolishment of the US Senate: can you imagine the chaos if the Senate was abolished? Laws would actually be passed and a whole category of elderly people would actually have to become gainfully employed and have no real power.
2. (1876) The forbidding of religious leaders from holding a government office or receiving federal dollars: All NGO's would have to be secular. Even worse, they would have to perform continuous fundraising, and just about the only fundraising that the American public likes to participate in, is the purchasing of Girl Scout cookies.
3. (1878) An Executive Council of Three to replace the office of the President: a great way to legitimize bribery and corruption in the Executive branch. 
4. (1893) Renaming this nation to "The United States of the Earth": precursor to The Gulf of America.
5. (1893) Abolishing the US Army and Navy: no more of those pesky football games and definitely no more being the world's policemen. But hey, we can be protected by those stunningly brave social justice warriors, right?
6. (1894) The Constitution needs to recognize that the almighty Father and his Holy Son are the absolute authorities to human affairs: who needs separation of church and state when the church is the state and the state is the church.
7. (1912) Making marriages between races illegal: reality check, the unwritten/written law was declared illegal in 1967 with Loving v Virginia, which was affirmed by SCOTUS on appeal.
8. (1914) Finding divorce to be illegal: another reality check, spouses, usually female, aren't chattel that can be used and abused. They are living, breathing individuals who demand and deserve respect.
9. (1916) All acts of war should be put to a national vote. anyone voting yes is automatically drafted into the army: we could theoretically wind up with the largest perpetual peacetime army in the world. Of course, no one will respect us in the morning...or afternoon...or evening.
10. (1933) Limiting personal wealth to $1,000,000: adjusted for inflation, in today's dollars it would be $24.7 million. Can you imagine the outrage within the US Senate and House of Representatives that their personal wealth will be capped at $24.7 million? They wouldn't be able to...enrich themselves with all of those highly questionable (for us) financial maneuvers. I think I need to clutch my pearls tighter.
11. (1936) A variation of #9, with the difference being a majority rule affirming/denying that we should go to war: To be honest, while I'm neither a dove nor a hawk (realist perhaps?), this sounds like a happy compromise that neither side would like.
12. (1938) The forbidding of drunkenness in the US and all of its territories: this one is so far out of touch with reality that it should be written into an episode of the Twilight Zone or Night Gallery. Oh wait, this was written as an episode of the Twilight Zone, except that it dealt with the banning of being pretty/pleasant to look at and people got sent to a modern day reeducation camp.
13. (1947)  The income tax maximum for any individual should not exceed 25%: the earliest proposal for a flat tax, which of course would send one party into an absolute meltdown, because this means that they would actually have to stick to a budget. What a novel concept, sticking to a budget. I think I can actually hear the loud thump of jaws dropping to the ground.
14. (1948) The right of citizens to segregate from others: back then we as a nation were trying to desegregate ourselves and we eventually succeeded. Fast forward nearly 75 years, and we've sadly come full circle, as college/university campuses have now self-segregated themselves to the point where at some campuses, there are separate graduation ceremonies for each ethnicity attending.
15. (1971) American citizens should have the alienable right to live in a pollution free environment: yes. we do. Will it happen? not in mine or my children's lifetime...unless both sides find a realistic compromise that each side can live with.

So as you can see, some of those proposed amendments were so far fetched that they got seriously torpedoed by whichever legislative body they were introduced in. While others, even though they make minimal sense now, were just too radical to be passed by hypocrites on both sides of the aisle.

I know the above list seems to be a genuine exercise in obtuseness, but those were the people we voted for back then, because unlike today, the reps were a microcosm of their constituents. Which meant they proposed bills/amendments that accurately reflected the viewpoint of the people who elected them.

Reality is always conceptual when it comes to politics these days, because more often than not, the people we elect often present a facade of what they think will get them elected. Once elected, the facade drops and we're left with someone who doesn't truly represent us because they have an agenda that, more often than not, does not coincide with their constituents agenda. Once entrenched, they're almost impossible to get rid of.

Happy whatever day of the week you happen to be reading this post. I sincerely hope that this post gives you the briefest of chuckles to brighten your day, and makes you think about the people who represent you on whatever level, and ask yourself, do they align with your values, and if not, what are you going to do about it?

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #270: Censorship 2.025

This pic, while holiday themed, accurately describes my state of being right now. The implied caption will, we hope, become apparent by the end of this blog post.

Today's socialized media makes it very tough to be a centrist kind of person, as being a centrist often makes people assume that your personal beliefs are toxic. This viewpoint is often badly magnified when the cyberspace that you dabble in often espouses beliefs that you have serious issues with.

As the majority of you undoubtedly know, I keep my personal views tightly concealed from those that I do not know. Because of this, I often have to censor what I say in certain public forums, like socialized media. That's a fact of my life.

Digital self-censorship is often a triple edged sword for me. I've been blogging for over 16 years, and at first, I had no problem voicing my opinion on numerous hot button topics and I was of the mindset of, "no one is forcing you to read me, so you can leave if you want to."

But now, in 2025, I don't have the readership that I used to {blogging really isn't the be all to end all anymore}, and since I post my blog links on one of the other two socialized media platforms I partake in with regularity, I now have to be very careful on what I opine on in my blog because someone could take hysterical hostile offense on my viewpoint, which would be detrimental to my digital well being.

That doesn't mean that I will not opine on issues that I care about, but I keep those opinions strictly to commercial oriented forums {e.g. news, pop culture and sports} where I can get into (mostly) sane debates about topics. It also doesn't mean that I will simply ignore what other people might have an overly strong opinion about. I have, very recently, culled/lessened my interaction with certain individuals because their opinions about certain things have...drifted, for lack of a better word.

As I stated previously, nobody is forcing me to read/listen to anything that anyone else says that I disagree with. I simply ignore and continue with my day. Especially at my age {60} where I have more than average understanding of the world around me.

Now I'm pretty sure at this point, you're wondering why I'm talking about self-censorship yet again. In order for you, dear reader, to have a better understanding of this post and the picture up above, a short info dump is required. I live in one of six deep turquoise blue states that make up New England. In fact, my home state of Connecticut is battling with Massachusetts on who should become California 2.0.

With all what you know about Blue States, your educated guess about what topic I might want to opine about would be true. If I was to write about a certain topic, one definite outcome and two probable outcomes are likely.

1} I would not be able to post the blog link to my local writer's group, as I'm the direct cause of a rule change instituted in 2021. Thus, those random eyes would not be able to easily visit my blog post.

2} I'm trying to build some interactions with my author's page on FB. Posting it there might generate some unwarranted backlash because, to be fair, those who write tend to lean 180 degrees left on social issues, and aren't that open minded about opposing viewpoints. At all.

3} My own personal page, while centrist by nature, tends to stay in my very narrow bicycle lane and only ramble on topics that slices of life and/or topics I have personal working knowledge of {e.g. public sector employment/unions}. If I were to post a link to a hot-button blog post, I could very well get some unwanted static, and I really don't need that in my life anymore.

Ultimately, this is why you're getting a post about self-censorship instead of the topic I most dearly want to write about. Like I stated in an earlier post, sometimes we have to do things that we personally do not like, in order to keep and incrementally build on what we currently have.

And with that being said, please enjoy this best of SpongeBob's "I'm Ready!" manifesto.

{c} 2025 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #238: If You've Seen A Publisher's Advert In CyberSpace, Just Lock Your Wallet

...Is the object that all writers want to be over with when their creations comes to fruition.

This post is more of a warning about those "publishing ads" that you see pop up {mostly} on Facebook either in your front page feed or your normal page feed(s), that promise you everything and only deliver a bold red negative to your bank account with nothing else to show for it.

So what we're going to do today is dissect one of those typical 'publishing ads" that have made their quarterly appearance in my feed, and hopefully by the end of this post, you'll be a more fully informed and just shade more cynical when it comes to the business side of writing.

First a brief writing update: I just finished transcribing chapters 96-98 of my four volume series with the working title of Hot Mess. This brings the total word count to about 479k+/-

Issue #1: they promise that your book can be on all kinds of national best sellers lists if you use their service. No, just no. Anyone who says that to you is outright lying. In order to get on a national best seller list (e.g. NYT, USA, Amazon or B&N), you actually have to work at your craft, build an audience and have people purchase your book, either day of or as a pre-order.

Issue #2: paying to get your book published. Again, just no. Most of these companies are offering packages that start @ $399 (the ad that I'm referencing has packages that start @ $4999, and a lot of what is included are superficial at best and rip-offs at worse. The concrete rule that you should always be aware of is that you do not pay a "publisher" to publish your book. You can actually publish your book for free on reputable publishing platforms (I'll elaborate further in a moment).

Issue #3: when the ad says they have years of experience, chances are excellent that they're lying. This is how you can tell: clicking on their FB page brings up an equal amount of likes and follows (usually starts at 4k for both types); clicking on the "about" tab brings up their page transparency info, which for this particular page that I'm using has a born on date of January 23, 2024, and that their page manager is located in Pakistan (Pakistan seems to be the new Philippines); and their business location is either in California or New York.

Issue #4: they answer your posted questions via a DM to your in box. It's usually a link to their generic website that has all kinds of expensive useless goodies that only help their bottom line and not yours. Let's look at their website, shall we?

Issue #5: their website is quite generic, the pictures look like stock images and the reviews are often five stars and months out of date. If you try searching the various links, you get lots of descriptions that are deliberately vague on details like cost. Which you have to contact them in order to find out the particulars. 

Issue #6: their company name is a borderline ripoff of actual reputable companies. You will find an ungodly amount of these "publishers" who use variations of B&N, KDP/Amazon or even the variations of the Big Five publishing houses as part of their company's names. Another concrete rule to remember is that no traditional/self-publishing platform will actually solicit for your business like that. It's more like you go to them.

Issue #7: is not really an issue but a reality check on how you should spend your hard earned money if you choose to go the self-publishing route {remember later? this is later}. Talk to any reputable writer that you know that happens to be either a true indie or a genuine hybrid (that is, publishes their work both trad and indie) and ask them for tips on what you need to do in order to successfully self-publish.

Most, if not all, will state that you need to spend your money wisely on a good/reputable graphic designer for your book covers (as in print and e-book) and other assorted essentials (e.g. actual usable marketing materials); a good formatter, (print, ebook & Kindle) if you don't fancy doing it yourself; and most importantly, a good quality editor, who specializes in most editing practices. A quality editor is well worth the price you pay for their services (most start around $450).

In general, these three major items should cost you roughly $1300+/- out of pocket. For reference, the company that I used for covers has base packages at $100, $200 and $400 (plus other tangibles that are well worth looking into); the company that I used for formatting has a fiction package deal of $300 for two e-book files and a PDF.; and the last time two times that I had used an editor (including this one), cost me $500 & $600 respectfully.

There are other tangibles where the cost is much lower: registering your US copyright starts @ $60. This is a fixed rate that US Copyright office charges; you can purchase ISBN numbers directly from the company that produces them, or you can use the FREE ones that each platform provides to you.

As for reputable publishing platforms, the king has been Amazon/KDP, followed by Draft2Digital, ITunes/Apple, and Ingram/Sparks to name a few. Their royalty splits, which is how they make their money, starts on a 70-30 split (that is 70% you and 30% them). The second one and last one mention provide distribution to other retailers, free of charge. And as always, read the ToS for each platform.

In essence, you shouldn't be paying any money to any of these so-called "publishers" because all you get is nothing in return. I haven't even touched up on other marketing aspects, because that's whole other animal, but some of the platforms mentioned, do allow you to market/promote your books for a modest up front fee. Even FB charges a modest starting rate if you wish to advertise with them.

What it boils down to is this: do your research on any ads that pop-up in your feed, because why should you throw away your hard earned money for an end product that could turn out to be garbage.

Have a fantastic week!

    

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #162: Writing To The Government Taxes Me

Fundraising this past winter at WestFarms Mall, one of the few remaining malls in Connecticut that has actually changed and pivoted quite well with the times in the past 4 1/2 decades.

Note: this 2nd consecutive post where snide/smarmy political jabs are foisted on to the reading public. I think this will become an ongoing thing.

As a writer, you never really want to have a lull in your writing day, simply because you can possibly find yourself thinking about what you need to do next. It's especially bad when you purposely create a lull in your writing day because of a real world issue that simply needs your attention.

In the U.S., the time period from Jan 1st through April 15th, extended three days, usually due to Patriots Day in Massachusetts for those who have to send their returns to Andover, MA but now extended due to a new holiday in DC, is tax season, where you have to pay money to a government that you probably dislike, depending on what side of the aisle you're on (go on, if you're a Democrat, I double dog dare you with a can of Iams Dog food, to say with a straight face that you love your President), for programs that don't benefit you because you're not special enough.

{Okay, rant over. I promise I will try to tone down my political snarkiness and place nice with the friendly men with their clean white coats}

Anywho, because it's TAX SEASON, I have three tax returns to do: mine, daughter's and BiL. Which means that my writing life is on hold. I did try to delay the inevitable after finishing book #2 of my trilogy by writing a 13 page synopsis of all 49 chapters as a much needed reference guide for when I start of book #3.

So the problem right now, besides doing 3 TAX RETURNS, is that I need to switch gears to a book that I rewrote, that I want to republish this year. But apparently my brain don't want to go there yet, It's still working on a power-point program for that last novel of the trilogy.

Pretty soon, I'll start smashing two bricks against my head to get my brain to toe the line about my writing, because it's TAX RETURN TIME, and I need to get MY TAX RETURNS COMPLETED.

So....yeah, I have a manually built in lull to my writing life, and it's driving me nutz. 'Cause you kw, pro as opposed to amateur, crastination can often be the ban of my existence. Which is whee we're cuaght in the  throes of. I really don't want to do my taxes or even my daughter's taxes, but it's something that i really need to do.

I would rather be working on republishing a previously book, A Taste Of Pain for those of you who are curious, than sitting in front of my computer figuring out my 1040, schedule C, schedule 1 & 3, contributions to an IRA, and deducting interest on a student loan. I might get a refund this year, but we won't know until we do our Fed.

And don't get me started on the fiasco known as the state of CT income tax return.

Sigh...I rather be writing, because one's writing is never written rotten, than doing my taxes. How do I know my writing isn't rotten? Apparently my reviews on my local Google maps have received over 200 views.

Go figure.

I leave you with The Beatles: "Taxman".

{c} 2023 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #125: Dad Has An Opinion

I wanted to post a happy picture, since the content of this blog post is decidedly unhappy, and I needed something to take my mind of the topic at hand.

For those of you who have been around since day one back '09, I rarely write political oriented posts. I think in those 13 years, I've written maybe the equivalent in political posts. I usually play it close to the chest with my political views, since over the years I've gotten a serious quantity of static for publicly stating them, and I've learned that sometimes, staying true to yourself can be a lonely existence indeed.

Note: the last political post that appeared here, was in 2021 and that lost me a dear friend whose political views were for the most part, diametrically opposite to mine and were getting worse.

Anyways, the last time I wrote about gun control was after another well known school shooting that happened in my home state about a decade ago. And here we are again, ten years later, talking about gun control.

For the record, I am neither pro-gun nor pro-gun control. I know that sounds wishy-washy, but while I do have a healthy respect for firearms, I do not own one, and in fact, with the family exception of an old Civil War military rifle, never saw one up close until a few weeks ago when my son showed me his 9mm (very long story as to why he has CCW permit). I also respect the myriad of reasonable laws on the books, both Federal and State, that govern/dictate how to purchase/own a firearm.

In today's post, the only thing I'm going to touch upon is the old (and to be honest, quite tiresome) refrain of demanding yet even "tougher gun control laws". I'm not even address the call for banning assault rifles, because while I do agree that the average citizen has no real need for an actual assault rifle, people calling for it really do need to narrow their definition of what one actually is.

My thoughts are basically, we don't need tougher gun control laws because frankly, we should be properly enforcing the ones that do work. Now, the reality is that gun control laws only really work on those who are law-abiding to begin with, however minimal that may be. People will always work within the parameters that they're given in order to get what they want. The most recent incident confirms that point, which is that the person in question legally bought his weapon.

I really have only three questions that I would love someone to give me an honest answer to, because I don't think that those pushing for more gun control can truthfully answer them.

1} If I legally purchase my weapon and successfully go through all the hoops in completing the purchase (background checks, firearm safety classes, apply for/receiving a permit, how are those laws exactly stopping me from using it for nefarious purposes?

2} I meet a friend, who introduced me to his friend, who said they had a firearm for sale and did I want to purchase it? Well me, being the not-very-nice person that I am, purchase it and later use it for nefarious purposes. How are those laws exactly stopping me from doing so?

3} If I'm throwing all kinds of shade and vibes about doing something nefarious, such as posting diatribes/pictures on all kinds of social media, why aren't the authorities, who are probably afraid of violating someone's "rights", doing something to stop me after being notified?

One more point I should mention that seems to get lost in the shuffle. Firearms are 100% inanimate objects, and they need a human to make them work. So really, they don't kill people unless a human operates it. They are simply a method to a means. If we severely restrict firearms, like in other countries, people with nefarious intents would be using something like knifes and machetes to do the job.

And yet still, one more point: based on the information coming out in the past few days, I sincerely hope/pray that not only the police are brought up on charges and are made to pay heavily for their inaction, but the school administration are brought up on charges too. There is a boatload of blame to go around and we should not simply focus on demanding more gun control laws when we don't properly enforce the ones we have to begin with.

Stay safe, stay sane, and hold your loved ones a shade tighter, because there's a whole lot of evil in the world today and sometimes, the law doesn't really help you to stay safe.

{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #109: I. Are. Not. Smart.

Maus

So, I saw a story about this book a few weeks ago, and ever since the day I read the story, I wanted to writer about it. I tried to write about it on FB, but apparently I'm their mini-doghouse, as whenever I try to post something that triggers a fact-check bot of some kind, it does the old, "we're experiencing technical difficulties, please stand by" and promptly eliminates the post. Apparently "book banning" is a naughty phrase.

Anyways, on to the story.

A mentally challenged school board in McMinn County, Tennessee has decided to have the book Maus pulled from all school libraries and curricula, due to the book containing things like: swearing {the horror!}, nudity {the HORROR!} and violence {THE HORROR!} and they don't want the "tender" minds of little childrens to be exposed to such "filth" (paraphrasing here).

A couple of things I would like to point out:

1} The book is bio/memoir of Art Spiegelman's father surviving the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and trying to come to terms with it.

2} Yes, the book has swearing. This is to be expected, as it takes during the rise of Nazi Germany and the background of WWII; Yes, it contains nudity. The horrors of war and concentration camps have a tendency sometimes to have nudity, that is a given. Yes, it contains violence. The horrors of war and concentration camps, which begat genocide, does indeed involve a level of violence that can be upsetting to people to read/listen/watch about. It's something that, quite frankly, is unavoidable.

Political views aside, I am not a fan of book censorship. If you don't like a book, fine. No one is forcing you to read it. Have an opinion? Dandy. Just don't force it on anyone else. This showcases the ugliness of war, true racism and the intentional eradication of a particular group of people who did nothing wrong beyond apparently being born into the "wrong religion".

As a sidenote: I have read the book. Once I figured out the gist of the book, I found very troubling and as very outstanding take on a survivor's take of surviving against all odds. 10/10 would highly recommend.

That being said, I really do hope that some outraged citizens contact their state department of education about this as well as contacting a lawyer and filing a lawsuit to overturn this narrow-minded and obviously obtuse decision of a school bard that apparently is working for themselves and not for the people who elected them.

On a similar topic, this one is about bigotry and narrowness of mind.

A few weeks ago, roughly the same time as the book Maus was getting banned, a small person who is a mayor in small town Mississippi decided that he wasn't going to give the public library their legally required/voter approved budget money (approx $110k), until the library got rid of ALL THE BOOKS that covered/were about the gay community/lifestyle. To paraphrase, he said he was "a god fearing Christian" and he didn't want any kind of "sinful books" like those in the library, and he wasn't going to give the money until they do.

Now, personally, it doesn't matter to me where you are on the political spectrum in regards to this issue (no, really, I pursue a "I don't ask" when it comes to issues like this unless the persona chooses to tell me, then I'm more than happy to listen), but you have to agree that something like this is just plain wrong. In theory, an elected official serves the people of the community who had elected them, so their personal feelings simply do not come into play.

Your personal beliefs should not factor into making a professionally public decision like this. It's your job, in this case, an election got you employed, to do what you personally loathe. We all have to make decisions about things we find personally detestable for the greater good. Are there things I personally do not like that I have to do? Absolutely. But this action by this mayor just simply reeks of cancel culture/wokeness,  and that's not right. Bullying sucks in all forms, and that is what their mayor is doing.

I certainly hope you enjoyed my little rant for the day. Tune in next week when I hope to be back into the swing of things w/o someone doing something to annoy me to the point of having to blog extensively about it.

{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserve

Episode #105: One Year...Later?

Originally, I was going to write a post about the one year "anniversary" of the protest in DC. But after giving it some very serious thought, I decided that, unlike everyone on the left who are comparing it to being as bad as Pearl Harbor or 9/11 {among other things}, I wasn't going to give it any more attention that what it actually deserves, which is nothing.

Instead, I decided to do a semi-recap of my 2021 and possibly a goal list of what I want to do in 2022.

I did start off the year by writing a blog post that, one year later, I still stand behind, even though the fallout was personally bad. I also spent the next three months rewriting, then republishing this fine and dandy book called A Trilogy Of Love, which you can find exclusively on Amazon, with copies of print available  through me around early to mid February.

By early Summer (around mid June or so), I decide to tackle a few writing projects so that when 2022 rolled around, I would be a couple of steps ahead of the game in regards to getting a few books published. My first project would be a rewrite of a previously published book called A Taste Of Pain. Unfortunately, a broken/rotted out water pipe created such a wonderful mess in the basement, that I had to relocate upstairs.

Long story short, that particular re-write wasn't completed until early September, with the same amount of chapters and word count but with a new title.

My next writing project featured a manuscript that got remanded to the slush pile after stupidly spending $350+ on editing some 6+ years ago. By all accounts, the manuscript was indeed garbage, but some valuable tips were gleaned from it. Ultimately, the project was finished by late October/early November, with roughly the same word count and double the amount of chapters.

Which leads us to our final rewriting project.

This one I had actually started reworking back in 2014, after initially creating it circa 2011. But most things back then, I kind of gave up on it. Not sure why, but most likely probably had to do with not having the patience/inclination to overcome the many issues that the story contained.

And now seven and a half years later, we're trying a different approach. Instead of containing uber cliched trope (aka what a newbie writes), we decided to do a complete 180 and have the two main characters be sympathetic to each other, all while running a separate plot line that comes together in the very last chapter. I'm still keeping about fifty percent of the basic tenor/tone (using the current dialogue as an outline) and  roughly ninety percent of the various scenes in use. It's been really difficult for me to write as I'm trying to keep the same scenes in the new story while changing the tone of the story. Kind of like when a band does a song a particular way in the first half, then in the second changes a couple of words in the second to make it completely different {see "Figure You Out" by Nickelback and "Wonderwall" by Oasis for two good examples of this concept}.

Besides the writing, the past year has been pretty much a break even. My retirement was finally approved in May, so the reality of not being a worker drone at the age of 56 sank in pretty good. My health has stayed pretty much the status quo, with the only blip being that they still can't come up with an accurate genetic diagnosis of what kind of muscular dystrophy I have, but they're still trying. Beyond that though, we're looking forward to being a homebody with an empty nest to enjoy for 2022.

And hopefully, a more consistent blogging schedule for 2022 as well.

{c} 2022 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #100: A Blogging Milestone And You Better Not Say That

Oh happy, happy days are upon us. The weather is starting to turn just a tiny bit cooler and we've settled down to a good routine of being alone while being together.

With that being said, today's post is a kind of two-fer, so we'll just begin at the beginning.

This is post #100. In blogging's heyday, this was really a nothing milestone, as people were hitting this sometime before the 2Q had gotten out of 2nd gear. Lately though, with blogging being on the downside of importance to those who casually blog, like myself, it actually does become a milestone of sorts.

Think about it, It has taken me until the very beginning of the 4Q to hit that milestone, while in years past, I would #100 for a given year in three to five months. But be that as it may, getting to 100 is a remarkably achievement for a blogger whose output is now down to roughly five to six posts per month. So three cheers and a yellow oversized frog for me.

Back in the day, I used to participate in a monthly blog hop sponsored by the IWSG, a phenomenal writer's group for anyone who is, or is thinking about  becoming, a writer. I say used to, because for the past year or so, my blogging has been erratic enough that participating wasn't a doable thing anymore. But I still stay subscribed to their wonderful newsletter.

For this month, their optional question, and I'm paraphrasing here, was to the effect of "are there any topics or language that you will simply not include in your writing at all?"

For me, this is a weird two part answer.

In regards to topic, the usual suspects that you see in most website's T&C are pretty much verboten in my stories (and blogging for that matter) as well. I do write about violence {mild to hardcore like you see on t.v. shows/movies} as it pertains to a given scene in a given story, but beyond that, common sense does dictate that you really don't write stuff like that. I do have a slushie manuscript about serial killers that will never, ever see the light of day, simply because I'm not that stupid to make that attempt.

Language is a bit more problematic. As most of you know, I am in my mid-50's, so a large portion of the woke/p.c. nonsense that permeates today's world simply did not exist while growing up. When I was a child, it was common sense in my household and in general that you simply didn't use racial epithets.

Also, hyphenated americanism, like you see in excess today, really didn't exist. If you proud of your heritage, you said so. No more and no less.

Certain words back them didn't really have the exaggerated "hurtfulness" that people like to assign to them today. In my day, one of the F words that was bandied about was used extensively w/o really knowing about the actual meaning of the word. The insulting version of the word superseded the known definitions {e.g. bundle of twigs, slang for a cigarette}. The "r" word that was backed then also was the musical term for slowing the tempo, a valid medical diagnoses that is sill used. and as a term to slow things down in general.

You get the basic idea.

So for the most part, most of those words don't make it into my writings because I have no need for them in my writings. Trust me, you can get eloquent with your insults without resorting to crass words, with very minimal effort.

The only issue that people seem to have that I can tell, is using certain descriptors to describe someone's ethnicity. In today's overly hyper vigilant/woke atmosphere, people can and do take offense at certain descriptors. What was acceptable and permissible back in my day, is apparently not acceptable nor permissible now. Which I find a bit hypocritical. I mean, if someone actually described themselves as such, would you personally get overly upset about it? Sadly, in today's world, some people do (see stories about North Korean defectors having issues at American collages for liking certain "unapproved" white authors) get extremely upset and not take in the whole picture.

Suffice to say, the preceding paragraph has resulted in a particularly long cooling off period in one of the groups I participate in. When I do come back, I will probably change the way I participate in the group. I'm not a fan of censorship, unless I apply it to myself (which I have on numerous occasions), and my usual response has been to go scorched earth. This time, we decided to walk away and cool off. Life is too short to get upset over words, and honestly, if you're getting upset over a word(s) what's that say about you as a person?

{c} 2021 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #73: And You Censored Me Because...Why?

As most of my long time readers know, I'm incredibly squirrely when it comes to be moderated/censored. As in, I get seriously bent out of shape to the point where I often cut ties with the person/entity who did the censoring.

The censoring itself has been pretty much dormant for the past few years, beyond the occasional unfriending of those on FB who took exception to a comment(s) that I made on a post that they were unwilling to defend (easier to unfriend someone that it is to defend your point of view).

I say "dormant" since I've become much better at reading what a person's personal views are on a given topic, so I make it a point to be respective and simply "scroll on by", which is a concept utterly lost on 98% of Americans who lean left/progressive with their personal views. Instead, I keep my more "offensive" comments limited to the pages that I follow/suggested pages that I troll.

For the most part, this has worked fairly well for me. I play nice with people I like, and they play nice with me. Easy peasy. However, this year, there have been two occasions in which I've been taken to task and had verbiage removed, and I've had two noticeably different reactions to being called out.

1} I had a blog post removed from a writing group I belong to. This happened during the first week of January when protesters stormed Capitol Hill (IMO it was not "an insurrection"). I had posted it in the group for a prompt that day. One of the lovely admins (I genuinely mean that as a compliment) removed it and gave me a few thoughtful reasons as to why. I told her that I appreciated the sentiment, that there was no hard feelings on my end and that everything was good. Ultimately though, I probably prompted a tweaking to the group rules on what can and can't be posted in the group. 

2} This one is a bit more difficult to simply accept. I've become a bit more active on YouTube as of late and have posted dozens of comments over the past couple of years, some thought provoking and some funny/whimsical and all about the topic of the video being shown at the time. And none that violated the fluidity of the community guidelines. None. Earlier in the week, an acquaintance of a writing group I belonged to posted a video link to someone who talks about all things writing, which the topic of the video was about vanity publishing (of which the acquaintance was interviewed for the video). I made what I assumed to be an inoffensive comment about it, along with a suggestion about a website to check out, and also subscribed to the channel.

Maybe about an hour or so later, I went back to the video and saw that my comment was gone. Now there was nothing on the channel itself saying that comments were being moderated (like you can on blogs), so you can imagine that I was extremely upset about my comment being nuked. I left one about my comment being nuked and sure enough, that one never posted as well. Suffice to say, I was really upset about this and immediately unsubscribed to the channel. The owner eventually commented and offered to restore the comment. Long story short, I'm not quite sure what happened to my original comment. He said that it wasn't him that took it down, that it must've been YouTube. Personally, I find this hard to believe as all my previous comments have met/passed the various algorithms with flying colors, and only YouTube and the owner of a channel can remove comments they deem offensive/poor taste. In any event, I politely gave my two cents and wished him well with his channel.

So these were my most two recent bouts of censorship: one where my response was casual and understanding, and one where my response was not casual and understanding, but more to the point of being seriously ticked off and pledging to avoid the content creator for the future.

Censorship is fugly, but depending on where and what the circumstances are, can be, to a small degree, acceptable.

{c} 2021 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #68: Bullied? Suck It Up! No, We Will Not Do So Any More!

So. Unless you’ve been in your basement in deep transcendental meditation or living overseas with minimal news coverage from the US, you know we had an election and the unit that I like to call Dementia Joe and the Hoe will be our new Big Brother for the next four years. There was a lot of shit being inflicted on the chunk of the  populace that voted for Trump  for the past four years leading up to the election, and on Jan 6th, things came to a head.

There were protests in D.C. and because it wasn’t allies of the Democratic party (e.g. Antifa and bclm) that made it “bad” and “treasonous’, at least according to most woke celebrities, sufferers of TDS, social justice warriors, MSM and their pimp the Democratic party. However, as much as they refuse to admit it, the DNC and MSM are very much to blame for what happened that day as well.

The chunk of the populace who voted for Trump basically got tired of being viciously insulted, physically threatened, jobs threatened, families threatened, physically assaulted, doxxed, harassed and treated like pieces of shit for having the audacity to actually think for themselves, for the past 4+ years. They simply responded by finally standing up to the bullies of the playground and fighting back, and now somehow, the bullies are now “shocked” and “surprised” that their victims are now fighting back.

Hello! How did you think people would respond after being tormented for so long? Turn the other cheek and say, “Please sir, may I have another?”? Of course not. They’re going to respond like any normal sane person would and fight back. And bravo to those who did. The DNC and MSM, who ultimately helped give birth to this protest as well as the Dementia Joe and The Hoe presidency (more on that shortly), are 100% to blame for what happened today, and to say otherwise, is to be simply a sheeple that follows the mantra of “Newspeak, Thought Crimes and 2+2=5”.

Some words about Dementia Joe and The Hoe.

I’m not a believer in conspiracies at all, but the way the DNC orchestrated the election of Dementia Joe is classic manipulation/bribery. They managed to get a field with quite a few good candidates to drop out so as to have Dementia Joe fulfill his lifelong dream of being President. How? Promises of spots in the incoming administration’s new Cabinet (and yes, this is actually true). Once that was done, they needed to keep Dementia Joe out of the spotlight. They knew that he was suffering from cognitive dissonance due to two serious brain aneurysm surgeries that he underwent in 1988, so he needed to be kept out of sight for the majority of the campaign.

Now for the V.P. pick. Since the DNC are slaves (insult intended) to all things identity/politically correct/woke driven, they needed a female to ride the coattails and ultimately, after Dementia Joe kept the seat warm for a year or two, become the first female president. So they picked the one person who could not hold her own in the debates, that everyone absolutely despises, and has questionable morals and ethics (due to her previous life as an D.A. and member of various California political entities), The Hoe. By the time 2024 rolls around, Dementia Joe will have already gone as per the 25th amendment (for legitimate medical reasons and not like the fake ones given to try to get Trump to leave) and your incumbent, who will be a half-termer at best, The Hoe.

That is the one conspiracy theory that I’ve chosen as my hill to die on. This also wraps up my one and only post on the national political scene, and I pray that I don’t have to do this again until 2024. In any event, enjoy the next four years, because you voted for it and you’re not allowed buyer’s remorse.

{c} 2021 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #59: I Are Ready To Do....New Things?

Hi-dee-ho everyone! Welcome to my little slice of suburbia, where opinions are given careful consideration before being stored for future muddying of the waters.

I actually gave some serious thought about commenting on the fiasco that will bring Harris/biden to the White House in January (yes, I know that technically biden was the official candidate, but we all know who will actually be finishing the term as a one and done, so 'nuff said the better), but since I've posted but three times in 11+ years about the national political scene, posting for a fourth would just make me go on a ginormous rant to prove my preference of saying Harris/biden, and I really don't feel like doing that just right now.

I could also go on about my home state of CT, but how many times can you talk about one party control w/o repeating yourself, especially since Democrats have things the way they want in Connecticut again, which is a veto proof majority and absolutely no need to engage the GOP for anything?

Instead, we'll talk about how yesterday got me feeling like our late dog Lucky in the picture there, just stylin', profilin' and chillin'. Yeah, it was just that kind of day yesterday (11/7), mid 70's, nice breeze and a good day to be alive.

So we're a week into our retirement and we've already got a strange routine down for a typical day: breakfast/goofing on the computer until 9-ish; going for a morning walk (minimum one hour); then vegging out watching YouTube until lunch; lather, rinse and repeat for the afternoon; followed by dinner and evening errands; and concluding with computer and YouTube. Oh and listening to a ton o' podcasts while on those walks.

You'll notice that I haven't said anything about writing yet. Well, with the exception of restarting this blog, I haven't found that happy space yet that I need to do any writing. My den has moved from work mode to non-work mode, which is a plus, but I haven't really found the energy/motivation to turn on my old computer to work on any of my partials. I have plugged it in from time to time to charge the battery and I have turned on at least twice to run virus scans (still have the anti-virus software for my Win7 from my ISP) but other than that, nothing.

Well, nothing except a short story that I had started working on about one month into our man-made global pandemic. It was pretty much the standard fare that now populates what few micro/flash fiction that I write: mixture of very dark horror (think Night Gallery on steroids) and the normal day-to-day activities that populate our existence, like work and family. Somehow, I managed to crank out just a shade under 4k words, with the bulk being writing in April and August.

I'm thinking of going back to that story in order so as to complete it, although I'm not sure if I really have to add anything to it. The point where I had left off at actually makes its own nifty little ending, so I definitely have some serious thinking to do to see if I want to leave it as is, or create a proper conclusion.

So this is what my post work life is like presently. My goal is to get back to serious writing in 2021, but who knows what the next two months will bring us. 

{c} 2020 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

I Have Stories To Tell! Episode the 41st: Pop Culture!

Boy howdy and howdy to one and all and welcome to the wonderfully skewered literary world of G.B. Miller, where crap is king and we like dirty laundry.

Recently, I made a comment on an FB page that I happen to follow, called Occupy Democrats Logic (yes, I am a moderate Republican and this page mocks Democrats/Liberals in all of its glorious hypocritical form).

Basically, they shared a post from Twitter that said the following:

Today, I slapped a man and he slapped me back.
People, this guy legit slapped me back.
How dare you slap a woman back?
How dare you?

And I wrote a comment that got about 140+ likes: And you expected what, a Kevin Bacon response, "Thank you ma'am, may I have another?"

Someone responded to my comment by saying that millenials would never understand the pop culture referent. I responded by saying, "Sad, but so very true."

For those of you who didn't get the reference, it was a tweaked quote from the movie "Animal House", where a very young Kevin Bacon is getting paddled in a fraternity hazing ritual.

That got me to thinking about the fact that anyone under the age of 35, for the most part, do not get any pop culture references that hearken back to the previous century. And thus, a topic for a blog post was born.

Case in point: I have a supervisor, who I love dearly, who falls under the category of being south of 35, which means that any pop culture reference from the 20th century she does not get. Anyways, for a while we had a staff member that earned the nickname of a particular movie character from the early 80's. Anyone who met this staff member immediately got the reference. Well, everyone except my co-worker.

Apparently, this was because the movie in question came out when she was but a toddler. So being the thoughtful individual that I am, bought the movie for her as an late Christmas/early B'day present.

But really, my overall point is that having to explain a pop culture reference after saying it can be quite exasperating sometimes (another example is that I had to explain "happy little clouds" to someone). But, as they say, knowledge is power, and a lot of minutia knowledge can make G. B. a very strange bedfellow.

So my question to you, my dear readers, is this: have you ever had to explain a pop culture reference to someone, simply because the reference was from the previous century?

{c} 2019 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

I Have Stories To Tell! Episode the 24th

Girl howdy and howdy to the boy who shakes his head in bewilderment at the type of outerwear his girl chose to drape herself in {YOU'RE WEARING THAT?!} and welcome to the skewered literary world of G.B. Miller, where being called wholesome is something that I often find to be very, very confusing.

This past work week has been a serious canine of the female persuasion, and as such, we've developed an abnormally low tolerance for TDS. Let me say one thing, and then will move on to something more meaty: People who suffer from TDS (and that includes the socialized media corporations), just give it up already. Hasn't the past with Bill Clinton taught you anything? If not, then be prepared to suffer devastating losses at the ballot box come 2020.

Now, the other day, with a few extra minutes to kill, I decided to watch a music video on YouTube, which is my current down time obsession for my phone when I'm at home (channel is a major inhaler of data usage). The song in question was Filter's Hey Man, Nice Shot. Being that this was YouTube, you can bet your personal paycheck that you can find almost anything video related.

This was no exception to the rule.

Searching my memory banks brought up the background story to the song, which was the on-air/live and in living color death of a politician falsely accused of a financial crime (the two people who peddled this lie later 'fessed up to it). And yes, you can find the entire uncensored video of this incident on YouTube.

I bring all of this up because I got to thinking about what I wanted to write about for today's post, and the first thing that popped into my head was rock songs that were based on real events. The song by Filter was one of them, although the connection wasn't made apparent until the band had to clarify that the song wasn't about the death of Kurt Cobaine.

So, in no order of particular importance beyond being my own personal preference, here is a very short list of songs that were based on real life tragedies.

1} The Dead Kennedy's cover of I Fought The Law. In a nutshell, they re-worked the lyrics and turned the song into diatribe about the Twinkie Defense used in the murder trial of Dan White, who shot and killed Harvey Milk and George Moscone.

2} The Boomtown Rats, I Don't Like Mondays. This song was based on a California schoolyard shooting in the late 70's. The shooter, who was a teenager, when asked why she shot up the school (killing two and injuring 8), said, "I don't like Mondays".

3} Seven Mary Three, The Water's Edge. This song was based on an event in Chicago, in which a woman was being verbally and physically assaulted by two men on a bridge. It was witnessed by dozens of onlookers who didn't get involved. The woman ultimately jumped from the bridge to escape her attackers and drowned.

I don't mean to gross or horrify anyone with this particular very short and very dark list of songs, but I do want to point out that all creative people can find inspiration in all sorts of news, whether it's very good or downright deplorable. And more often than not, it's the item based on deplorable events that will be remember years/decades after its been created.

{c} 2019 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

I Have Stories To Tell! Episode the 16th

Just outside downtown Hartford CT

Hi-ho and welcome to the skewered literary world of G.B. Miller, where the cityscape that you see is simply a pipe dream for liberal/progress politicians to perpetually hose their constituents with and the constituents are simply too moronically stupid to realize that 1984 is alive and well.

In last week's post, I gave everyone an example on how I used the concepts of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory (aka Limbo) as a partial setting for a novella. For today's post, I will give you a prime example of going hog wild with those concepts, as well as a possible writing tip/discovery.

Back in the land of 2017 when I decided to write my trilogy {the super condensed info dump can be found here} I needed a proper setting/world to have my story take place in. Long story made into a wickedly short sentence, I remembered a particular one-off scene in a previous slushie that I could expand and elaborate on.

Once I decided to devote some brain cells to it, I was surprisingly able to create a entire mini-world for the first book of my trilogy.

Books by G.B. Miller

So using a can opener to unleash the whimsy contained within, I decided that since the only things that I was able to salvage from my slushie novel (ultimately this slushie, which was original designed to be prequel to my chapbook, gave birth to two complete novels) was a girl and a bar. Out of those two particular plot items, I fashioned a complete trilogy

In book one, since I was using Purgatory as my main setting and featuring both plot items, I needed something that would fit seamlessly with the main world. That something turned out to be the old west of the late 19th century, and ultimately we went hog wild with this.

1} We created a noirish/gothic/spaghetti style western town. And when I say spaghetti western, I mean the full complete deluxe version: empty deserted streets, dilapidated buildings, tumbleweed, you name it, it was there.

2} We upgraded the saloon into something positively hideous, which in this case was making it a portal to the land of sulfur and suffering.

3} We took some of the traditional trappings of Hell and turned it sideways. We modernized it just a shade and upped both the horror and psychological factor to the overall journey/rescue.

4} While roughly 95% of the book took place in this warped mini-world, we did add some elements of both Heaven and Hell to the overall mix, the most prominent being a somewhat modern version of the Holy Trinity (apologies to those who might be offended by this). I can tell you with 100% certainty that I did nothing to debase them in any way, shape or form. I may sometimes go off on weird tangents with my writing, I try my very best to show whatever concept I may happen to use, complete respect.

One other thing that I should point out, since I've often been accused of being a neanderthal with certain viewpoints, is that I do believe in diversity. Not the kind of diversity that people bludgeon other people with, but common sense everyday diversity. Like, having a woman as a minister. This person pops up at the end of the story and at the beginning of book #2. I actually I don't have a problem with this, as I remember from decades gone by of having a youth minister who was a woman.

Thus ends our two part series on how I use religion and religious concepts in my writings. Have a spiffy week and I'll catch up with everyone next week with a super riveting post about writing blurbs.

{c} 2019 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

I Have Stories To Tell! Episode the 15th

Boy howdy and howdy to the people who are trying to leave my unhappy state of residence and welcome to the finely out-of-tune literary world of G.B. Miller, who calls them as he really sees them...which would make him a very crappy politician.

Today's post will be a mish-mosh of random meaty nuggets designed to fill your stomach but leave your head completely fried.

Take one-hundred-fifty-seven.

For starters, we have another ye olden Tumblr intro to share with you. From April 22, 2017:

Welcome to the wonderfully skewered literary world of G.B. Miller, where crap is king (just ask a typical Democrat), resistance is futile (just ask any college student who happens to be a Republican) and nanny government is the new 1984.

A few posts ago, I feather touched the hot-button topic that is religion, with my focus being on a particular throwaway scene between the MC and a one-off character. For the next two posts, I thought I would elaborate on that particular hot button issue, thus giving you good readers an small insight on what makes G.B. tick at a writer.

I've always had a healthy, albeit seriously skewered, outlook on religion, organized or otherwise. I'm not really sure why or how that came about. I never really went to church much as an adult, and only went as a child when I was required to do so by the parental units (now that's a dated phrase, eh). I never became skeptical about religion (I do believe there is a higher deity) nor did I questioned the tenets closely. For me, it was just one small slice of my character development that I never really gave any thought to.

I think that because of my relatively blase attitude towards religion, it never became an issue of conscience when I started using a few religious concepts as background scenery for my stories. To me, they were simply places to set a story in, which in turn allowed me to customize/tweak to my twisted heart's content for modern audiences.

For example, for a novel that ultimately became a yummy slushy (this was my first attempt at taking a mediocre 24 page short story and turning it into a full length novel. 75% completed before I completely and utterly lost the plot thread), I took the concept from this Albert Brooks movie and tweaked it just a shade.

I made both Heaven and Purgatory symbiotic corporate entities and went to town with it: a bus making its daily journey around the world to pick up the recently deceased, bringing them to Purgatory, which became something of a transfer station, and then having them relive their life up to the point of death. I never really got beyond that, as it eventually petered out and got shelved.

However, the one thing I did takeaway from that decent slushy (besides not wanting to copy a movie concept too closely again), was that I didn't want to make my Purgatory sterile like that again. You noticed that I didn't include either Heaven or Hell, and there is a good reason for that. I've always found the concept of Purgatory (or Limbo if prefer) completely and utterly fascinating.

I've always thought that Purgatory never got its proper due, unlike Heaven and Hell. So the bulk of my stories going forward that had any religious concepts always focused on Purgatory. Heaven sometimes got hinted at as well as Hell, but the main focus was always on Purgatory.

There was the occasional exception to that rule, with the most glaring one being this particular novella.

Books by G.B. Miller

The story concept was pretty basic: boy meets girl, boy obsesses over girl, boy tries to get girl through nefarious means, boy suffers the consequences.

What makes this more unique is that this entire novella was a based on a blog post. You read correctly, a blog post. I had written a piece of mini flash fiction as a blog post one day and ultimately decided to turn it into a story.

While one of the protagonists was from Purgatory, two others were from Heaven. Purgatory was mentioned infrequently as I decided to tighten my focus on Heaven and Hell-on-Earth.

While I did manage to introduce/flesh out some the traditionally nasty elements of Hell, the main focus was a modern battle between Heaven (in the form of Gabriel and Michael) and Hell (the evil boyfriend), with just a tiny bit of Purgatory being used as a conduit for both Heaven and Hell.

Overall, I did a respectable job of fleshing out and telling a modern version of the age old battle of who was to get a possession of a soul: Heaven or Hell. But I knew, that deep down with a little more practice, I could up the ante and go hog wild in creating another story using the triad of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory that would blow everyone away.

Next week: The Friendship Trilogy.

As always, you can follow me on FB and check out my writings via the covers on the front page.

{c} 2019 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved