Pugilist's Spew

Another Book In Paradise

pugilist@spewgilist.com — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 05:00:00 GMT

I am finishing up, albeit a little late, my third book of the year, The Art of Stickwork. This book will be an introduction into the style and techniques I have developed since 1977 using the bo or quarterstaff. It was an outgrowth of the classes I have taught and the request from students for a manual of sorts and after several years of handing out what was a pamphlet, I decided it was time to expand the concept and make the book into an actual study guide. I should have had it finished in June of 2011, obviously that did not happen and I hope to put the finishing touches on it over the next few days and get a proof copy out and available in time for the class I am teaching in a few weeks time.

I plead laziness on this. I could say that I got stuck at one point in May, and I did, I could say that putting out The Art of the Compliment and The Map Story and Other Tales earlier in the year took a lot of effort and energy, and it did, and I could say that I had a lot of other things going on in my life that made it difficult to find the motivation to work on this, and that is true as well, but the basic fact is that I was lazy and did not keep to my schedule and now I am rushing through the process of getting the book ready which, inevitably, means that there will be embarrassing proofing and editing errors for which I will have to apologize in edition two.

And there is more bad news, for me. My fourth book of poetry, Suck Free Poetry Volume 4: Utopia, With Calories, is also delayed. I had planned to finish it up parallel to The Art of Stickwork but I am stuck with about 20% writing left on it and almost no editing or proofing complete so this will slip to the fall of 2011.

Still, that will be four books published in 2011, so that's not horrible and for 2012 i have three planned:

The Art of Contemplation

An update to The Art of the Compliment

Suck Free Poetry Volume 5:

Though the latter may slip to 2013, if the world has not ended. I will also be collecting stories for my next volume of short stories and I have, in mind, a work of parody and satire on a certain series, details to follow.

If you want to review all of my publications, check out my author page on Amazon.com. You can leave me a note, tell me I am a fool, or indulge yourself and buy copies of everything I have written as presents for your best friends, or, if you hate what I write, for your worst enemies.

Really, as long as you buy the books I don't care if you read them, burn them, or sue them to line the crate of your pet.

Pages do not a novel make, nor printed words a book

pugilist@spewgilist.com — Fri, 20 May 2011 05:00:00 GMT

Let me start by saying I own a lot of books. I own, literally, thousands of books. I own so many books I double fill my bookshelves, have books stored in boxes, have books in my bedroom, in the living room, in my guest room, in storage, in my attic, in my basement, and probably other place I have currently forgotten.

I own a lot of books.

I'm ready to nearly never buy another physical book again.

Because I own a lot of books that I love to reread, I often have two or three or five copies of a book that I love and can no longer find new so I pick up a copy whenever it crosses my path. I buy books to read, not as an investment. These books take up a lot of space, are subject to water and insect and fire damage, and when I lend one out, like I did with my copy of ME by Thomas T. Thomas, I may lose it forever.

When Microsoft came out with their e-reader, I bought a few books that I can no longer use because of their arcane validation scheme, same with Mobi format books, but Amazon has made the Kindle device and platform so ubiquitous that I finally have hope that I can maintain a library i can access from anywhere rather than having to carry around books physically or hoping my digital copies don't die with my device.

I don't own a Kindle device, yet. I have the reader installed on my phones and my desktop and I love that I can read anything I have purchased at any time I want. I also love that I, as an author, can make my work available via Kindle, which makes it more readily readable to a wider audience all over the world without me incurring pre-production costs.

For those people who have vowed never to own a digital reader, I was you 30 years ago and I was wrong.

So what prompted this rant? I needed to get copies of some out-of-print favourite books. The cost for one book is over $100 for a paperback edition. I don't want to collect it, I want to read it but now I have to wait for the copyright to lapse before I have any hope of getting a copy and I would much rather pay the author or their estate for a digital copy.

From experience, I know the process to convert to Kindle is fairly painless. I had to clear headings and convert the TOC to links but it was less than 30 minutes work. And now my works are available to the world for a small fee and, what is more, the people who purchase them electronically never have to worry about losing them because they can always download it again from Amazon.

Sure, if Amazon goes out of business, we are screwed, but I'm thinking amazon is not a bad risk based on their track record.

Me, I'll take that risk.

May 21 2011 - Stupid is as Stupid Does

pugilist@spewgilist.com — Tue, 17 May 2011 05:00:00 GMT

I've considered myself a Christian for 42 years now. Throughout my life my faith has aided me through good times and disastrous times but never once have I felt compelled to celebrate the end of the world or the suffering of billions.

So, if you pretend you are a Christian and you pretend you know the mind of God, you are an idiot.

Just so we are clear.

The best anyone can do is to look at the lessons attributed to Jesus and try to structure their life to further them. Anything else violates every Christian tenet.

And I make this guarantee; if the world ends on May 21, 2011, just about 4.5 days from now, I will buy everyone in the world a beverage of their choice. If you honestly believe the world will end in 4.5 days, let me know and make the same guarantee with me, that you will buy me a beverage of my choice.

If you pretend you have faith and are part of the folks insisting "this time, really, we mean it," then you should have zero problem agreeing to this. If you cannot, then I not only doubt you have faith, I doubt you understand what faith is.

Me, I take my faith seriously. I don't parade it in public for favors or celebrity, I don't use it as a club to disdain others, I don't flash it as passers-by to intimidate and cow them. I live my faith rather than shout it because, well, that's what Jesus did.

Folks pretending they are Christian should know who Jesus is. Since many of you pretending to be Christian apparently do not, look it up, it's in the New Testament of the Bible, the same book that contains the following passage:

Matthew 24:36

But of that day and hour knoweth no [man], no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

http://bible.cc/matthew/24-36.htm

That's Jesus talking, the person Christianity is purported to be founded upon. So, who to believe, people who keep getting the end of the world date wrong or the person these same people declare is the son of God?

I believe the word you are all looking for is:

"Oops."

Not to worry, I forgive you, for you know not what you do.

Making Friends on the Internet

pugilist@spewgilist.com — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 07:00:00 GMT

I could start by saying it's not easy being me but that would be a lie. It's hell-a easy being me and I have such a great time being me that I wonder how there is enough mirth left in the world for anyone else. I don't mean to indicate I have no issues or troubles, just that, at the end of the day, I rather like the person I am and so have a good time being me.

One of the things that provides me with so much entertainment is the way folks on the Internet posture and preen hoping against hope that others will take them seriously. I am never that person who takes them seriously. I am normally that person openly mocking their pretense and arrogance and cackling in delight as they try to threaten and intimidate me.

And just so we are clear, it's not because I am tough and it's not because I am anonymous because I am neither. In an age of assume identities, I have one, the same one, all the damn time. No, rather I am cackling in delight because these people so desperately wanting to appear tough are the same brand of coward and moron they are in the physical world.

They are seeking validation in their life and their inflated precence on the Internet, just like their inflated presence in the Bridge Club or other semi-closed social setting, is what they use to mollify their pathetic and crushingly mundane lives. And normally I would not care in the least about them. They have their pathetic life, I have mine and never the twain should meet.

But the issue arises when they decide they must prove to me that I am not better than they are. And this is a bizarre instance for me because I am never claiming to be better than anyone. I don't need to because I'm not in competition with these folks so a question of better is stupid at best.

At the heart of the problem is that they have decided I am better than they are and so must engage in strategies and behaviour to assuage their fragile egos and the only way they know how to do this is the way that has worked for them in the past with most everyone else. They try to demean and threaten and intimidate and subdue through their statements and actions.

And that's the wrong way to handle me. If you really do not give a shit about me, ignore me. As soon as you decide you must "take me down a notch" well, for you it is a fight, for me it's entertainment.

What do I care what some asshat on the Internet thinks about me? Are they paying my mortgage, my salary, my car insurance? If not, why the hell would anything they say upset me? But it does intrigue me because when folks attack others, they reveal their own fears. It's why I harp on competence to other people since that is a trait I most highly value.

And their are two hilarious points in these exchanges. The first is when they get themselves in such a state that they call me the worst name they can consider. It reminds me of the time my eldest son was three and stomped in the bathroom to say: "Daddy, you're a, a, a BIG DUMMY!" I nearly fell over trying not to laugh as i explained to him that it was okay to be angry at me but not okay to call people names.

But these folks are not my children, they are just pathetic souls with pathetic lives who pathetically want to demean the world until they feel some solace in their lives and a kinder, nicer man would understand their pain and realise that it's born of frustration and they probably are just angry and give them the chance to calm down.

I'm not that man because that man obligates himself to have these morons and idiots in his life for a long time and I only want them to leave me the hell alone and so I accomplish this in the most effective manner possible. I mock and insult and posit offensive questions. I demean any talent they pretend, I attack everything they state is important, I basically demonstrate to them that even as a bully they suck ass, and not in the good way.

And the second hilarious moment occurs. They implode and claim victory and vow never to interact with me again.

Problem solved.

April 2010 - The Review Cycle Begins

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 05:00:00 GMT

April 2010

So March was my "Fine, let's take a look at this whole dating thing again." decision.

If I don't sound happy about it, it is because I am not good at pretense. I am only dating to spend time with folks, I am not looking, desperately, for my soul mate because I have concluded that what I need to do is find people who do not despise the things I do before anything else. This sounds simple, right? Wrong.

I am not certain what checklists women are using when they are looking for dates but my supposition is that it resembles the following:

Looks like Brad Pit
Built like a Greek god
Loves children
Hates all women but me
Richer than Gates
Sensitive
Loves to do housework
Is a man's man
Thinks I'm sexy
Does not objectify women
Consider any two basically contradictory positions, add them infinitum

And the problem with this list is simple, it's insane.

That's right, I am saying women's expectations of men are insane and this is most obvious on dating sites.

And what a segue for a comparison for a man who is looking to date, not immediately find a person to marry, and how these sites stack up. I'm only covering standard sites and only sites I can review without spending any cash. It's not that I am cheap; it's that I am cheap and cantankerous.

I'll be critiquing the sites using 5 major criteria:

Profile creation, scored 1-10, higher score indicated ease of creation
Search parameters, scored 1-10, higher score indicates available fine-tuning for searches
Match effectiveness, scored 1-10, higher score indicates matches that fit your stated preferences
Site intrusiveness, scored 1-10, higher score indicates fewer stumbling blocks to navigation, advertisements, etc
Value (1-10); scored 1-10, higher score indicates better value

Profile creation will judge how easy it is to create and maintain a profile including required and maximum length of fields

Search parameters will gauge how easy it is to search on a variety of parameters with the focus on searching the parameters you have entered in your profile

Match effectiveness will review how often the site gives you matches, how original these matches are, and how closely they fit the type of person you wish to date

Site intrusiveness will note the amount of third party ads, pop-up, ability to navigate without being blocked, etc

Value is a judgment of what is offered for what is asked.

To be clear, I've not found any dating site I like. All of them fail on at least one level and many of them on many levels. You may disagree.

Our first candidate for review is Http://www.PlentyOfFish.com

PlentyOfFish.com

Unique Attributes: Free, even to communicate

Profile Creation: 8
Search: 5
Match: 5
Intrusiveness: 5
Value: 10

The profile creation for PlentyOfFish.com is open and extensive and that is good. You can go on and on and on and on and some people do. This is neither good nor bad, but it is a consideration should you be a wordy person like me. There are significant data points to include height and body type and income and education and all the rest. The profile at PlentyOfFish.com is extensive and gives you the feeling that this will extend throughout the rest of the site.

Unfortunately, this is not the case and that is demonstrated in the Search capacity.

With Search there are several types of searches, all supposedly based off of criteria you have previously specified. My interest is always he Advanced mode where I want to be able to search on every data point in my profile. I have a preference for brunettes and redheads and am only interested in women who are confident enough to post a photo and getting 30 pages of "matches" from my search which translates into 500+ total matches of which 30 actually match the criteria I want to specify, well, not a good use of my time. That I am not able to sort by distance or match percentage is another issue and presents a weakness to the system. And this weakness in searching translates directly into a weakness in the matching.

I get matches via PlentyOfFish.com that are mysterious. One reason they are mysterious is that I cannot look at a profile and determine the income level of the match. Why is this important? After all, don't I make a good living? Haven't I always been the breadwinner? Sure, but aside from my children I am done financially supporting adults. I am looking for someone who not only has their own life and interests but can actually pay for them. If I was looking to fund the life of an adult I'd find some 25 year old bimbo who would trade sex for support.

That is not my goal so I want to know with whomever I am communicating has the resources to fund their own life.

And then there is intrusiveness. PlentyOfFish.com is a free site. You can communicate free, look at profiles, search, get matches, see photographs, etc. Certainly on the free side there are limitations but you are always able to determine before you pay a dime if you believe there will be value in paying for additional privilege. But then there are the advertisements. They are all the bloody over the place and they do not disappear when you decide to actually hand the site cash. I get the whole idea of advertisements to make money off of free loaders but I will, at times, pay just to be spared from ads. And if there was a "Pay $5/month for no ads" option I would gladly take it.

Not only are the ads targeted, they are also constructed and placed so that you can mistakenly click on the should you not be paying attention or honestly believe that a large breasted, narrow wasted, model quality looks, 25 year old woman actually is interested in anything more than your wallet.

I get that there are some younger women who are not cold and heartless when it comes to trading access to their body parts for cash and prizes, I get that, but it ain't the norm and I am not interested in wading through the 75,000 bimbos to find that one woman who just might be my kind of insane.

Plus, let's admit it; if you are in your 40's and are dating anyone younger than your own children it is just creepy.

So PlentyOfFish.com does not hound you incessantly and try to force you to pay to review who looked at you or read e-mail or who view pictures or anything but their ads are nearly overwhelming and when it comes to pornography, I prefer mine not to be PG13.

And then we have value for use. If you are willing to spend the time to wade through 500 profiles, send 100 e-mails, and get 12 responses resulting in 1 meeting, PlentyOfFish.com is great. And since it is free, well, that is a nice counterbalance to those sites that want $60/month if you want to look at the outdated and inaccurate photos of people who beg for honesty while lying through their teeth.

I'm not bitter, I'm experienced.

Next time we take a look at Geek2Geek.com God help us all.