Hiding in the shadows

see more This is Photobomb

The couple in the foreground of this picture are having fun, but not as much fun as their shadows. Look again you'll see what I mean.

I write a little different than most writers as on my first draft the plot and dangers are subdued and other things are pushed to the front. I believe this is because of my education as an English major. We poured over books and stories to find the deeper meanings. Often times concentrating on one line so long we lost the plot of the story.

I like to give the reader stuff to dig in to.

The problem is if I bury it to deep there is a good chance that the reader will miss it. Just like at first glance that photo just looks like a couple playing a game.

I find myself having to go through and emphasize the major plot points to make them clear. Risking the chance that I'm beating the points on the readers head.

It is always a tricky thing finding the right balance.
By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Hiding in the shadows

see more This is Photobomb

The couple in the foreground of this picture are having fun, but not as much fun as their shadows. Look again you'll see what I mean.

I write a little different than most writers as on my first draft the plot and dangers are subdued and other things are pushed to the front. I believe this is because of my education as an English major. We poured over books and stories to find the deeper meanings. Often times concentrating on one line so long we lost the plot of the story.

I like to give the reader stuff to dig in to.

The problem is if I bury it to deep there is a good chance that the reader will miss it. Just like at first glance that photo just looks like a couple playing a game.

I find myself having to go through and emphasize the major plot points to make them clear. Risking the chance that I'm beating the points on the readers head.

It is always a tricky thing finding the right balance.
By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Super Space Battles

In my last poll I asked which ship(s) would win in a fight?

Enterprise A

Starbug

All the Tie Fighters

As far as the poll Enterprise A and Starbug were evenly matched with two votes each. The Tie Fighters got half as many votes with 1. So it would be an epic space battle if those two ships were to go at it.

On to the next poll.

A lot of people are talking about how the Republican candidates are trying to out do each other in denying science and reality. So here is the question:

How do you respond to reality?

I base all my decisions on it

I take the bits I like.

Ignore it, what could happen?

As always vote on the upper left hand corner of the page.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Kentucky Farm Bureau

Kentucky Farm Bureau (An insurance company that specializes in small farms) revealed in their 2009 Polices manual that they hate gay people. They also support forced labor, the belief that the unborn are entitled to special privileges while saying that, “We are opposed to granting special privileges to anyone.” and they support the death penalty.

The big problem with Kentucky Farm Bureau taking these homophobic and hateful stances is the very nature of how insurance works. The fundamental rule of insurance is “The law of large numbers”. If there is a 1 out of 1,000 chance that your house will be destroyed in a year it really sucks if you're the one whose $100,000 house is destroyed. But if everyone pays $100 that year to pay for the person whose house is destroyed it's not bad.

With home and auto insurance it is easy to have enough clients that to make the law of large numbers work. With niche markets like Classic Autos, Malpractice, and Farms there isn't a large enough base to have multiple companies. That's where specialty insurance companies like Kentucky Farm Bureau come in.

If the big insurance companies, like Allstate, Progressive, and Shelter started carving up those niche markets they would fall below the large numbers and rates would skyrocket. So they refer farmers to Kentucky Farm Bureau.

Just like any other profession there are gay farmers. Since woman have been given the right to own property there are woman farmers. A lot of small farmers don't earn enough farming to live on so they have jobs off the farm.

So Kentucky Farm Bureau is discriminating against their own customers.

Kentucky Farm Bureau needs to follow the lead of the other insurance companies and recognize gay customers. The company I worked for, Allstate, treated gay couples in Kentucky the exact same way they treated unmarried couples. In states that allow gay marriage they allow agents to click the “Married” button and make life easier for the agents.

In the insurance world Allstate and State Farm are like the Bloods and the Crips, so it is tough for a former Allstate rep to say this, but if you are a farmer in Kentucky and you don't hate gay people I really recommend switching to State Farm.

State Farm has the same policy toward gay marriage as Allstate and has gone to court to fight California's ban on gay marriage where it forces insurance companies not to recognize those marriages.

So to Kentucky Farm Bureau, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, your hateful discriminating policies are targeted against your own customers. If you weren't in a niche market you wouldn't be able to stick with your agenda of hate. I hope State Farm takes advantage of this and crushes you.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Star Trek vs. Red Dwarf

So far my latest poll is tied between The Trekies and the Dwarfers. No body thinks the Star Wars Tie Fighters are much of a threat. To join the battle click on my poll at the upper left hand side of the page.

In other news my latest thoughts on writing are up on my other site. HERE.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Sci Fi Poll

My last poll asked: Which do you prefer?

A tax increase on the top 1%

Free Beer

Puppy kisses.

It turns out people unanimously prefer increasing the tax rate on the top 1%, over Free Beer and Puppy Kisses. Poor Puppy.

In light of this poll and many other the Republicans want to increase the tax on the bottom 49% of Americans. How come whenever a poll shows Americans want something, Republicans do the exact opposite?

On to the next poll:

Sci Fi fans like to speculate about who would win in battles between the most powerful star ships in fiction. Enterprise vs. Battlestar Galactica, Defiant vs. Babylon Five ect. But what about the not so powerful starships? What about the one that can barely get out of their own way. So I wonder who would win in a fight?

Enterprise A:

This great starship was the last of the Constitution class of starships. Its construction ran so far over schedule that the others in the Constitution class where 30 years old and being used as training ships for Starfleet Academy. Not being up to that task it was given to James T Kirk to keep him out of trouble. Scotty pieced it together so that it had CRT Monitors (Really in 1998 it had CTRs), Crewmembers would have to put down stairs for the shuttle craft, even though all other versions of the shuttle crafts had their own retractable stairs, and little else.

Somewhere in its full 7 year history it had a total rebuild, but was still no match for a Klingon Bird of Prey.

Over thirty years being built and it was in service for seven.

Starbug:

The landing vehicle for Jupiter Mining Corp's RED DWARF. This one has its pros and cons. As far as technology when Kryten mentioned that a ship had, “technology far in advanced to our own.” Lister replied, “The Albanian National Washing Machine Co. has technology far in advanced to our own.”

As far as the hull it is made of the same material that the little dolls that always survives plane crashes are made of. So it is quite tough.

Tie Fighters:

In the original version of RETURN OF THE JEDI, Lando flew the Falcon through a swarm of a dozen Tie Fighters and wasn't hit by a single one. That is some bad targeting computers. In the remastered version Lucas upped it to about 100 Tie Fighters. How they all missed is baffling. They even managed to miss each other. So the Tie Fighters can miss their targets with pin point inaccuracy.

Throughout the Trilogy they proved that 100s of Tie Fighters were no match for an old broken down freighter.

So I ask:

Which Starship would win in a fight?

Enterprise-A

Starbug

All the Tie Fighters

Vote on the poll at the top left side of the page.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Mitch McConnell

The Senior Senator from my state, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), recently said, “We need to make America work more like Texas." Well Mitch, that is a really low bar to hit. Why not shoot a little higher and look to have it perform as well our home state.

Since the recovery began, Kentucky's unemployment rate fell by 1.6%, not great but at least it is falling.

During the same time Texas's unemployment rate went up by 0.3%.

Mitch are you embarrassed that Kentucky is recovering at roughly the same pace as the rest of the country, instead of getting worse like Texas.

Also every major city in Kentucky is recovering with revenues growing, in Texas several major cities have shrinking revenues and are financially at risk. Do you really wish that more cities in the US were insolvent?

Comparing poverty rates: Kentucky is at 14.8% (slightly above the national average), Texas is at 16.2% (only four states are worse).

So to Mitch McConnell, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, if you are looking for an economic model for the US you could at least look at the State of Kentucky, you know that state you visit once every six years. It is not the best model, it scores right around average in most economic measures. At least it isn't getting worse and scoring at the bottom. Or is that your idea for America a place where unemployment and poverty are on the rise?”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Three Elements a good story needs

My latest writing post is up:

Three Elements a good story needs

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

We're Doomed

In my last poll I asked,

When do you fight the good fight.
1 person fights it in the morning while drinking coffee.
2 people have been meaning to get around to that.

According to this poll if evil doers work in the afternoon or evening, we will be doomed.

On to the next poll.

Which would you prefer?

A) A tax increase on the top 1%

B) Free Beer

C)Puppy kisses.

Like always you can vote on the upper left side of this page.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Corporations are People

Mittens Romney was in Iowa explaining his ideas on raiding the Social Security $2.5 Trillion surplus, and stealing an average of $60,000 from every American, in order to make sure the top 1% of income earners can continue to pay less in taxes than middle class Americans. After doing his normal talking points of saying, having the rich pay as much in taxes as the middle class is punishing success (let's punish hard work instead). Someone asked, “What about Corporations?”

Mittens responded, “Corporations are people too.”

If corporations were people they would be locked up.

Corporations are by law, amoral. They HAVE to place profits over everything else. That doesn't make them immoral, or evil, it just makes them devoid of any morals whatsoever.

People balance their self-interests with the interests of their community, Corporations just look at their balance sheets.

People are judged more by their character than their credit scores, Corporations are (and should be) rated by their assets.

People spend a limited time on Earth, they die, Corporations only die through mismanagement.

If a person breaks the law, they go to jail, Corporation don't.

People pay taxes, the largest and most profitable Corporations don't.

Finally I will blatantly steal from Addicting Info:

People generally don’t refer to multinational, lifeless, amorphous engines of soul-sucking greed whose sole purpose is to downsize and shed hard-earned American jobs in order to tear apart the earth in the Third World and enslave its local populations as, well, people. http://www.addictinginfo.org/2011/08/13/10-reasons-corporations-arent-people/

So to all those like Mittens who say, “Corporations are People”, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, laws protect people on the assumption that people are generally moral. Corporate Regulations are in place knowing that Corporations are completely amoral. If you extend the protections that are given to moral people to amoral Corporations, you make a amoral society.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Society Building in Fiction

My latest writing post is up. HERE

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

The most useful poll results ever!

Last week I exposed my poll to ask an incredibly useful question:

In most Internet discussions someone will eventually point to a non-scientific poll that says that their side is right. I hate to make them go through all the work of googling a non-scientific poll so we can solve problem this with a totally non-scientific poll.

Who's side do you think is right?

A) My side
B) The other side
C) It is a complex issue in which both sides have some merit.

With this poll we can finally find out who is right and who is wrong.

The results are in

100% of the respondents said that, My Side is Right!
0% thought that the other side was right.
0% thought that both sides have merit.

So whenever you are in an Internet discussion you can honestly point to this poll and say, “A poll absolutely confirms that my side is right!”

How much more useful can a poll be.

On to flashing my new poll:

The band RUSH has said that you should, “Fight the good fight every moment, every minute every day.”

It is good advice, however most of us have to do things like sleep, work, and household stuff. With our busy lives it's hard to fight the good fight all the time. So with this poll I was wondering:

When do you fight the good fight?

A) Every minute, Every Day
B) In the morning while I'm having coffee
C) After work
D) I've been meaning to do that

The poll is on the upper left hand side of the page.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Shut-up Stupid Sunday: Contraceptives

In a win for sanity, under the Affordable Health Care Act, women's basic healthcare now must be covered by their insurance, the millions without insurance are still out of luck. This includes breast exams, contraceptives, pap smears and preventive care on women's internal plumbing. There are still millions of women who this doesn't cover so volunteers, like myself, can still offer free breast exams for women that don't do them themselves.

This policy, being applied universally, will in the short term cost pennies to the insurance policy holders, not enough to pay for a separate rate increase, but save millions in the long run as health problems will be caught earlier and it will decrease abortions.

Naturally with any sane policy the totally insane people have to comment on it.

Bill O'Reilly had to hit the airwaves to say that “Women will be too drunk to use the birth control pill.” Besides showing his total ignorance as to how the birth control pill works, it also shows a little something about Bill's sex life. This might be a shocker to Bill, but women do enjoy sex when they aren't so smashed that they can't control simple motor skills. They just don't have sex when they are sober with Bill O'Reilly. I can't blame them.

Just because Bill O'Reilly has never had sex with a woman that was sober enough to know what she was doing, doesn't mean it doesn't happen. Here is another shocker for Bill, sex is a lot better for both partners when sober.

In college I much preferred girls to be sober for sex. I was one of those sneaky guys that would switch a girl's screwdriver with plain orange juice at a party, keeping them sober for fun afterwards.

So Bill you should really try sex with a sober woman, I realize you might have to pay her for it, but trust me once you try sex with a sober woman, vs one that is so out of it that they can't do anything but lie there, you will be amazed.

Another insane person to comment on this was Rep. Steve King of Iowa who believes that free contraceptives will mean the end of society as women won't voluntarily have kids. Here is a shocker for Steve King; Sometimes women want to have kids, if the time is right in their lives and they have someone with good genes that they would like to pass on. They just don't want to have kids with men that have a serious genetic defect, like stupidity. That is why Steve King has never met a woman that voluntarily wants to have his kids.

So to all the people who believe that women can't responsibly have sex and then have kids when they choose, I say, “Shut-up Stupid, letting women take charge of their bodies doesn't mean that the human race will stop reproducing because they only have kids by accident. It just means they won't pass on the stupid gene that Bill O'Reilly and Steve King seem to possess, which will be a good thing.”

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

Worlds of Writing

My latest writing post is up, HERE

Sorry I am temporarily out of puns.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE

The most useful poll ever.

Last week, I tried to put my poll into a 35 year old... mystery. In Thin Lizzy's song Jailbreak they said that:
Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak,
Somewhere in this town.

As to where the Jailbreak might happen it was an even split between Bob's Place and the Five and Dime. We did rule out, the deepest, darkest recesses of the human soul.

Even though we couldn't solve this mystery, we have given Bob a reason to be nervous.

Now I want to make my poll useful.

In most Internet discussions someone will eventually point to a non-scientific poll that says that their side is right. I hate to make them go through all the work of googling a non-scientific poll so we can solve problem this with a totally non-scientific poll.

Who's side do you think is right?

A) My side
B) The other side
C) It is a complex issue in which both sides have some merit.

With this poll we can finally find out who is right and who is wrong.

Vote on the upper left hand part of the page.

By Darrell B. Nelson author of I KILLED THE MAN THAT WASN'T THERE