Back from the Shadows!

Well, it’s been a couple weeks since my last blog post. The holiday’s are a very busy time of course but that is no excuse for hiding away like that.  Well, OK, they actually are an excuse…and one I will use with diligence and care. Anyway….news keeps on moving regardless. Here are a few of the headline stories  worthy of blogging as we close out 2009

Item 1

IRAN

As much as the news media keeps beaming stories of Iranian freedom demonstrations I think they are really missing the facts. Who is behind these demonstrations? Is it really western ideals of egalitarin freedom? No, it is actually a different Ayatollah who’s been made rich by tricky business dealings with the outside world that got around the thirty year old sanctions since the “Revolution'” took over. It is not the revolt of the democracy loving, pro-western educated classes against the despotic regimie of Khamenei and Ahmadenijad. It is rather one set of despotic rich rulers fighting another set of equally despotic rich rulers for control of the cash and power of Iran. No matter who wins in this case know this USA and pro-western democracies….you still suck in their eyes!

Item 2

CLIMATE CHANGE

Nothing much has changed here, except the conference is now over, the hypocrites are pretending all the more that there really is a global warming trend caused by man instead of that crazy concept known as ‘weather”, and snow and ice storms are still ravaging much of North America in spite of the ‘fact’ of global warming. It is getting so warm it feels like it is getting cold, but really it is warm….really….it is so….now shut up and pay your carbon credits you worthless little anti-big brother-progress realist.

item 3

Security and Terrorists

No matter how much any one may wish to put their head in the sand, there are bad guys trying  reeeeeeaally hard to kill us all. they are called terrorists, and it is only a matter of time before one gets through.The Christmas day flight scare on the way to Detroit is a case in point. I am fairly certain that guy was not really expected to succeed by his superiors. I think he was just sent to test the system. If it was intended as a full on attack I am pretty certain there would have been a number of simultaneous attempts.

This is not to say that the passengers, especially that Dutch fellow who jumped the would be bomber, were not truly brave in their attampt to stop him.They were. Their fast thinking  probably saved a whole lot of lives. But I am fairly certain that the bad guys are simply honing their skills and trying a few different methods.

One of these days we will see another 9-11, but bigger. It will probably be multi-continental and it will definitely be brutal. We have no choice but to continue being vigilant, and to keep the fight on their soil. Don’t be fooled, they won’t be giving up anytime soon.

To quote an old military axiom:

STAY ALERT, STAY ALIVE!

 

On that note, I am still going to go downtown in Anchorage on New Years Eve and watch the fire jugglers and dancers and listen to music, and see the pyrotechnics and have a generally great time with my wife and kids. Then off to church for out New Years service.

In light of that I bid you all a happy new year and many blessings for the months to come!

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Back from the Shadows!

Well, it’s been a couple weeks since my last blog post. The holiday’s are a very busy time of course but that is no excuse for hiding away like that.  Well, OK, they actually are an excuse…and one I will use with diligence and care. Anyway….news keeps on moving regardless. Here are a few of the headline stories  worthy of blogging as we close out 2009

Item 1

IRAN

As much as the new media keeps beaming stories of Iranian freedom demonstrations I think they are really missing the facts. Who is behind these demonstrations? Is it really western ideals of egalitarin freedom? No, it is actually a different Ayatollah who’s been made rich by tricky business dealings with the outside world that got around the thirty year old sanctions since the “Revolution'” took over. It is not the revolt of the democracy loving, pro-western educated classes against the despotic regimie of Khamenei and Ahmadenijad. It is rather one set of despotic rich rulers fighting another set of equally despotic rich rulers for control of the cash and power of Iran. No matter who wins in this case know this USA and pro-western democracies….you still suck in their eyes!

Item 2

CLIMATE CHANGE

Nothing much has changed here, except the conference is now over, the hypocrites are pretending all the more that there really is a global warming trend caused by man instead of that crazy concept known as ‘weather”, and snow and ice storms are still ravaging much of North America in spite of the ‘fact’ of global warming. It is getting so warm it feels like it is getting cold, but really it is warm….really….it is so….now shut up and pay your carbon credits you worthless little anti-big brother-progress realist.

item 3

Security and Terrorists

No matter how much any one may wish to put their head in the sand, there are bad guys trying  reeeeeeaally hard to kill us all. they are called terrorists, and it is only a matter of time before one gets through.The Christmas day flight scare on the way to Detroit is a case in point. I am fairly certain that guy was not really expected to succeed by his superiors. I think he was just sent to test the system. If it was intended as a full on attack I am pretty certain there would have been a number of simultaneous attempts.

This is not to say that the passengers, especially that Dutch fellow who jumped the would be bomber, were not truly brave in their attampt to stop him.They were. Their fast thinking  probably saved a whole lot of lives. But I am fairly certain that the bad guys are simply honing their skills and trying a few different methods.

One of these days we will see another 9-11, but bigger. It will probably be multi-continental and it will definitely be brutal. We have no choice but to continue being vigilant, and to keep the fight on their soil. Don’t be fooled, they won’t be giving up anytime soon.

To quote an old military axiom:

STAY ALERT, STAY ALIVE!

 

On that note, I am still going to go downtown in Anchorage on New Years Eve and watch the fire jugglers and dancers and listen to music, and see the pyrotechnics and have a generally great time with my wife and kids. Then off to church for out New Years service.

In light of that I bid you all a happy new year and many blessings for the months to come!

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ALASKA STORIES WANTED

Have you got an Alaskan story you’d like to share? I want to hear it.

My talk show, Basil’s Alaska Weekly News Review is looking for stories and people to tell them about experiences related to Alaska. When they are adventurous, funny, serious, heartfelt, cutsie, or downright strange I want to hear it.

Every week on the Saturday show the last half hour will be dedicated to Alaska stories as told by people who are or were here or by those who can relate the story. We can tell them live on the air, or it’s longer than a few minutes call it can be pre-recorded or scheduled to make sure you get the full time you need to tell it right. If you are uncomfortable being on the air but want to share your story, write it out and send it in to the email address below.

So get out your hunting, fishing, hiking, backwoods living, ALCAN roadtrip, growing up in Alaska stories and share them with the show. If you need more information drop a comment to this blog or email me at basil @ basilsands . com.

I look forward to hearing from you.

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Climate Change Mind Control Ray

As I stated in my previous blog entry I am increasingly of the mind that the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference is actually a meeting of Dr. Evil Wannabes bent on taking over the world.  They are meeting with their evil henchmen and dancing the night away with fembot cyborgs designed for the genetically discerning nerd.

I think this conference is a dual purpose meeting of sorts.

Purpose #1: Mind control of the world. These diplomats and fame hungry scientists have come up with a cracked idea to control the population of the nations by forcing us into a system that makes countries pay up for progress.

“Want to get out of the Stone Age? Pay the Climate Troll.”

Already out of the stone age? Then you owe big mister.

As proof of my theory that mind-control by evil overlords is  a primary motivating factor check out the attempt at mass global hypnosis a couple of days ago.

Thousands of Norwegians stared in terror in the night sky Tuesday night as the Dr. Evil’s attempted the first part of their evil plan for world domination. But of course, like all evil dominion plans things did not go as planned. In this case, a henchmen apparently spilled his hot cocoa into the rocket fuel and it did not have the umph to get into the upper atmosphere where everyone in the northern hemisphere would have been drawn into it’s mesmerizing swirliness.

The Russian’s of course claim that it was actually a failed missile test in the Arctic Ocean north of Norway. Yeah Right!  I’ve seen that swirly pattern before, and it didn’t work out well for the those people in that episode of twilight zone.

As further proof of my point, after receiving his Nobel Prize in Oslo Norway President Obama immediately left, skipping the traditional dinner with the Nobel Prize committee. The Norwegians were rather miffed by the snub. Why would Barack Obama, a narcissists narcissist, skip out on a major dinner in his honor?

Simple.

He expected to find them in  a glassy eyed hypnotic state where he could control the conversation and program their minds to turn them into his very own army of minion henchmen and sexy blond fembots. Instead he finds a group of coherent scientists, diplomats and professors who want to talk science. And the fembots….well they were not what he expected…and man can Michelle slap when she’s jealous. (should’s learned from Tiger, dude)

Speaking of fembots.

Purpose #2: getting chicks. That’s right. Think about it. A bunch of science nerds and guys that look like Al Gore. Getting together in cold wet Denmark to talk about shrinkage caused by being in heat too long. What kind of chicks attend meetings like that?

1. The Cheryl Crow’s of the world, who advocate saving the climate by using only a single piece of toilet paper per visit to the WC. Scientist, being obsessive compulsives by nature, are afraid to touch chicks like Cheryl, therefore:

2. FEMBOTS: Programmed to please and totally sanitary. And they’ll never tell on you.

(Lesson for golfers, hang out with scientists and you won’t have to worry about getting caught. … “What honey? It’s not a real woman, more like a microwave with legs.”)

So, Dr Evil’s of the world, we know what you are doing over there.  You will fail….
because I know how to reprogram the Fembots chichi-guns!

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The Evil Dr. Chill, Climate Control Dark Overlord in Copenhagen

Currently I am looking out my office window and experiencing a strange Alaskan day weatherwise. It is both brightly sunny and blindly foggy. At the same time.

It adds a kind of surreal feeling to the day. To look out and see a mile of brightly lit ground, parking lot, runway, highway, but to be totally surrounded by dense fog that blocks out the blue horizon and distant Denali (Mt. McKinley). The local Chugach mountains are quite visible, but right behind them a smooth grey/white wall of mist hangs like a blanket till it dissipates into the blue above. Hmmm. it’s like being in a Stephen King novel. We are in a bubble. It looks just enough like the real world that most people will not question it, because most people don’t go far out of town this time of year. They won’t notice till spring that w e have been captured inside a bubble and are slowly being transported to the secret underground lair of the Dark Overlord of Climate Control, the Evil Dr. Chill where slowly but surely the earth will be cooled and humans put into a Lilliputian time warp prison existence where we only get to come to the surface once in a thousand years for one day to reduce our Carbon Footprint. But his real plan is to chill the earth to the point that his asexual mind control cybots can operate without overheating their core circuits.

It cannot be just a coincidence that the Copenhagen Climate Change Overlords and their minions are meeting at the same time. Their plot is being hatched as we speak.  Life on earth will never be the same. We Are DOOMED! DOOMED! DOOMED! DOOmed! DOomed! Doomed! doomed! doo…  doo…

Did I mention I slept in the snow at my son’s boy scout camp over the weekend. Yes, on the ground, in the snow…it was 20 degrees below freezing. Global warming was nowhere to be found…it was freakin’ cold!!

Curse you Dr. Chill, curse you!

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See This Movie!!

I don’t watch too many movies, at least not compared to many people. When I do watch movies, I want them to be good. I have now found what I will probably consider the top contender for my movie of the year award.

RED CLIFF
http://www.redclifffilm.com/
I love historical fiction and have a particular thing for Chinese and Korean epics. Don’t know why, but they grab me. Among the greats I have enjoyed are Musa, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, Yom Ge So Mun (Korean tv series), Tae Guk Ki, and The Road Home ( I know it was a love story, but hey it was good).

But my new absolute favourite is Red Cliff, by John Wu. Dang!

Big action, real heros, historical feeling, incredible plot twists, believable story. This was not fantasy, it was like my dream of what the time was. At the moment I am in the early stage of writing a historical fiction set in a similar time as this movie. And I will say that this film has injected itself into my thoughts and the images that will end up on the page of my own work in the future.

This movie made my heart thump and my knuckles clench the couch. It made the new 50” plasma & surround sound system worth every penny.

SEE IT!

Other movies I have seen and liked this year ( they are not necessarily new) include the following:

1. District 9 – wow, good stuff
2. Spirited Away – Anime that kept my full attention
3. Metropolis – Ok, I was on an Anime kick – but it was good
4. Madea goes to Jail – I laughed myself silly

But Red Cliff is definitely my personal favourite for 2009

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See This Movie!!

I don’t watch too many movies, at least not compared to many people. When I do watch movies, I want them to be good. I have now found what I will probably consider the top contender for my movie of the year award.

RED CLIFF
http://www.redclifffilm.com/
This movie made my heart thump and my knuckles clench the couch. It made the new 50” plasma & surround sound system worth every penny.

 

Other movies I have seen and liked this year ( they are not necessarily new) include the following:

1. District 9 – wow, good stuff
2. Spirited Away – Anime that kept my full attention
3. Metropolis – Ok, I was on an Anime kick – but it was good
4. Madea goes to Jail – I laughed myself silly

But Red Cliff is definitely my personal favourite for 2009

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Talkshow Name Contest Extended!

Due to my own tardiness at getting the word out I have extended the contest to name my new talkshow by one month. You now have until December 31st to put in your suggestion. Here's the details.

I am starting a new radio talk show on www.blogtalkradio.com starting in December and am enlisting the help of my faithful audiobook listeners to name the show.

The show covers Current Events, Politics, Sports and Entertainment presented against a humorous backdrop of live talk mixed with occasional skits and coming from  a fairly conservative viewpoint from America’s northern frontier state of Alaska.

It is guaranteed to be informative, sometimes serious, generally fun and at times downright silly of the Kharzai Ghiassi school of silliness (listen to Karl’s Last Flight or Faithful Warrior and you will know that means).
The title needs to reflect that the show comes from Alaska, is a general information/entertainment show, and sound intelligent when spoken aloud.

If your suggestion is chosen you will receive $25 USD to Paypal  or Amazon.com.

To submit your Title by commenting to this post or use this Contact Page with the subject “Radio Title”.  You have until  December 31st to submit.

I look forward to what you come up with.

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He don’t look that tough…

Someone recently brought up the topic of author photos on the back of books. Some authors really look like their characters, tough as nails and ready for anything. But they wondered how many of those authors were really bad asses like their characters and photos seemed to portray. Other authors look like meek and mild accountants with a temerity that makes Elmer Fudd look like a Hells Angel.

So the question came up, “What does a real bad ass really look like?”

I worked among the military intelligence community for several years during and just after the Cold War, including Special Forces and Delta. One thing that astonished me was the fact that most of the real bad-asses, and by bad-ass I mean people who went undercover in terrorist infested nations, gathered human intelligence, spied on people who trained professional killers or killed said people themselves, most of those real life bad-asses looked like boy scouts, or marching band types. A lot of them never played sports in school and were serious bookworms.

As adults all of them lived for adrenaline and the life and death power moments their jobs entailed. Now, mind you I was not one of them per se. I ran the mess hall they ate at, yes, I was chef to the spies. But I got to know them on a personal level that moved behind the curtain of mystique they let the world raise between them.

With the exception of a few Marines and a couple of Army Rangers none of them made one's spine shiver with an icy glare. (Those exceptions were truly terrifying men too, let me tell you). Those who acted the baddest in public were usually "Sigint", signals intelligence...nerds with headphones listening to the enemy from continents away.

The public perception of bad-ass is skewed. But I guess that makes for good book covers and movie images with muscular dudes and icy stares. And the consumers want us, the writers, to look like our imaginary friends we write about. I remember hearing CS Lewis stepson mention how disappointed he was when his mother married the famous writer and he learned that Lewis was not a six foot tall muscle bound Knight in armour, but rather a balding pudgy professor of English, and Christian teacher.

Should our favourite writers look like the heroes in their books? Maybe. After all, who wants pay ten or twenty bucks to see the guy they remember as the chubby flutist from their high school band slink through the shadowy underworld doing bad things to bad people?

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Name My New Web Radio Talk Show

I am starting a new radio talk show on www.blogtalkradio.com starting in December and am enlisting the help of my faithful audiobook listeners to name the show.

The show covers Current Events, Politics, Sports and Entertainment presented against a humorous backdrop of live talk mixed with occasional skits and coming from  a fairly conservative viewpoint from America’s northern frontier state of Alaska.

It is guaranteed to be informative, sometimes serious, generally fun and at times downright silly of the Kharzai Ghiassi school of silliness (listen to Karl’s Last Flight or Faithful Warrior and you will know that means).

The title needs to reflect that the show comes from Alaska, is a general information/entertainment show, and sound intelligent when spoken aloud.

If your suggestion is chosen you will receive $25 USD to Paypal  or Amazon.com.

To submit your Title by commenting to this post or use this Contact Page with the subject “Radio Title”.  You have until  November 27th to submit.

I look forward to what you come up with.

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Basil’s Weekly News Review talkshow

I am starting a new live call in talk show at www.BlogTalkRadio.com , "Basil's Weekly News Review". It's like Dennis Miller & John Stewart get mashed up and sprinkled with a bit of Alaskan somethin'r'other. Need listener input on what's a good time and day , include your state / prov or country w/ suggestion.

Planned start date will be after thanksgiving, but maybe sooner if I get sufficient feedback.

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Win a free CD-Audio book

Just in time for the Holidays! Sign up for my newsletter at the newly rebuilt www.basilsands.com and you will be automatically entered to win a signed CD-Audio version of one of my books. You can even choose which one you want.

The newsletter promises not to clutter your inbox, as it only comes out once a quarter or less.

If you’ve already listened to all of the podcast novels…well…listen again with no breaks, no commercials, no bumper music.  Just the story.

Or give it to a friend who hasn’t heard. Heck, you can even donate it to your local library!  Just sign up, and tell all your friends.

While you are there take the poll question and leave a comment on the comments page.

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Are Female Authors as good As Male Authors?

this question came up on The Killzone.  I asked my friend Grunk what he thought about whether female writers were as good as male writers. here is what he said.

Hmm...

Me solve prollum

bang woman on hed with stik

drag back to cav

she rite storee

me kill big antler to eat

she cuk

she cleen

she rub my shoulders give hot bath and make Grunk feel like man aprisheyated

me smash things to make her good plot lines...me modul for cuver grafik

Her lituriree fyoocher good...

Hmmm...me like wumun writer...and her look varee hot in bearskin minidress ... Grunk feel primal urges now ... plees leev and clos dor after u.

So there you have it folks, Grunk’s answer to the age old question.

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On the radio again

Between returning from vacation last week and killing / reanimating my entire website, it’s been a busy week. But now there is icing on the cake of busy-ness.

I am guest hosting the Glen Biegel Half Hour Show on KBYR AM700 tonight from 5:30-6 pm AKST ,that’s 9:30-10pm EST.  That’s also 0230-0300 GMT…I won’t be hurt if my UK listeners wait for the podcast version.

Then I will be doing Hometown Talk on the same station tomorrow morning from 0800-1000 am (Noon-2 EST, 1700-1900 GMT). that one will longer therefore funner.

I promise to be witty, intelligent and not pick my nose in front of the camera.  Tune in via the web at www.kbyr.com and click the ‘listen live” link or check out the podcast archive on the site in a few days and let me know what you think.

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Retribution of a sort

Monday I posted a blog about terrorists getting their due. Then it would seem that the terrorists got back at me.

Half an hour before going home for the day my wife calls and says the washing machine is not spinning, can I take a look at it. I take the look. Then I grab some tools and proceed to figure out what the problem is. It has to do with the brakes, they won’t release the drum. No problem I just take the motor out, pull out the gear box, reseat the brake pads and replace whatever part is bad right?

Well, in an ideal world that is what I would have done. In the real world I loosened the screws on the gear box and it suddenly dropped two inches then the brakes fully deployed and locked in the cylinder. I could not get it out, or in, or even jiggle it in place. I was two hours into the repair and my bum shoulder was killing me. At that point calling in a professional would have ended up costing more than a new washing machine. And I did not want to explain how it had ended up in so many pieces and then deal with the inevitable sneering and “You should’ve called us from the beginning, we could have fixed it in half an hour.

Depression set in. In the back of my mind I think of the harsh words I had for Megrahi and his ilk and wonder if they had something to do with the death of my washing machine. For what may well be the first time in my adult life, I gave up and said “Forget it!”

I determined to just replace the whole machine the next day. After a night of sleep and nearly forgetting the turmoil and depression of the night before I go to Home Depot and get a really good deal on a nice cherry red washer and dryer set with no interest financing and free delivery and setup. I’m in a good mood again.

Then I go to dinner at one of my favourite restaurants with a friend last night. Apparently the Libyans were not happy that I fixed the machine the night before and they decided to poison my dinner with salmonella or some such vile evil. By the time I get home I am starting to experience waves of dizziness and freezing chills coupled with a compelling urge to stay very near the toilet all night. At one point the dizziness over came me and between episodes of liquid rapidly evacuating all intestinally connected portals on my body I passed out for at least ten minutes. When I awoke blood was smeared across my hand and nose from what I assume to be a spontaneous medieval bleeding performed by my subconscious.

I spent the night in a daze of quasi-hallucinogenic dreams wondering if I should wake my wife to take me to the hospital but choosing instead to continue my conversation with the blue rabbit and the pancake bush.

By this morning I pulled out of the haze and now weakly sit in my comfy chair debating on eating this delicious smelling squash gruel my wife made to help settle my stomach.

I don’t know though…she doesn’t look Libyan…but maybe they’ve replaced her.

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Mickey Moss Chapter 4

Basil’s Tweet Book, Mickey Moss, has been updated. Check it out at @basilstweetbook

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Mickey Moss Chapter 4

Basil’s Tweet Book, Mickey Moss, has been updated. Check it out at @basilstweetbook

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Lockerbie/Pan Am 103 bombing mastermind still lives

Despite being released from a Scottish prison on a “mercy ruling” due to terminal cancer that was supposed to have claimed his life within three months Abdelbaset al Megrahi, sent to his home country of Lybia for what was supposed to be his final few weeks of life, is still alive.

For that matter, he is not only still alive, but has ‘miraculously’ improved and recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital and sent home to his family. While the families of those 270 souls on Pan Am flight 103 still mourn their dead more than twenty years later.

This really pisses me off for several reasons.

1. The dude was convicted of planning and supervising the execution of the actions that took the lives of 270 Britons, Americans, and folks from many other nations in 1988. He is a murderer. Murderers should not go free, ever.

2. He is a coward. He and his people rejoiced in their victory over an undefended airliner full of unarmed civilians half of whom were women and children.

3. He will do it again if the chance arises. Of this I have no proof, it is just a gut feeling. But it is a gut feeling based on facts of what is known about terrorist cowards.

And the government and nation of Lybia is complicit with Megrahi for they, in spite of Ghadaffi’s promises that he would be dealt with in a ‘low key fashion’, gave the murderer a hero’s welcome when he was returned to Lybia in August.

There is at least this one consolation from the prophet Isaiah ( CH.5:22-24 paraphrased)

       Woe to those … who acquit the guilty for a bribe, 
       but deny justice to the innocent.

       Therefore, as tongues of fire lick up straw
       and as dry grass sinks down in the flames,
       so their roots will decay
       and their flowers blow away like dust…
    

Let it be known the prophet’s curse fall on Megrahi and those who follow his path, not by the hand of man, but by the hand of God himself.

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Mickey Moss, Chapter 3

Online now on @basilstweetbook , check out the Twitter novel experiment.

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An Experiment: Tweetbooks

I am trying out a new experiment in literature. A tweet  book.

That’s right.  Tweetbook. As in a book done Twitter style.

I am going to see whether people would actually read a short serialized story in tweets. Everyday I will feed 15 - 20 tweets into BasilsTweetBook until it is all on the page.

Please take part in the project and give it a whirl. Just go to Twitter and follow  @basilstweetbook and see how the story unfolds.

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Liberty is to Faction as Air is to Fire

 

Freedom and free thinking. Two things on which America was founded. The ability to pursue life, liberty and happiness all of our days.

But what is freedom? What does it mean to be free? Does it mean doing whatever you want whenever you want to? Is it some sort of system where everyone makes their own path as long as we don’t hurt anyone else? The sad truth is that such a freedom cannot and will not ever exist. Because each different person has a different idea of what happiness might be. Therefore what is one man’s happiness may well be another man’s horror.

No, such total freedom would only lead to anarchy of a sort not seen since the dark ages. For there are those whose idea of freedom involves taking everything you have and spreading it around to their friends…or just keeping it for themselves. I am sure the Viking raiders of the 800’s or the Muslim invaders of the 1200’s or the Mongol Horde of the 1400’s, or the Communist revolutionaries of the 1900’s all felt they were advancing their version of happiness, their ideal of freedom. But to those on whom it was being advanced, those on whom the single ideology of a foreign invader was being forced, it was most certainly not a recipe for joy. With their lands laid waste and their peoples slaughtered or enslaved, the other man’s idea of happiness was nothing like that which they had hoped to pursue. The destruction came when the other side was too weak to defend its ideals, or its borders. And those conquerors in time found themselves on the receiving end of the same fate they dealt to the previous inhabitants.

Whether you are conservative or liberal, always be aware that it is not in the destruction of the other side that you will find your peace. Happiness will not be discovered in enforcing your ideal way of living on your neighbors. It is rather in the balance of ideas, the place in between where the best of both sides come together not to make a compromise, but to make a society based on the what is best of both worlds.

There will always be at least two sides to every issue, usually many more sides than that. Be careful not to invest yourself too deeply in one side to the destruction or damage of the other. For it is in the balance of opposites that a boat stays afloat.

But there is a type of joy that every person can experience in a same way, and at the same time. The joy we find in being with people we love, in a place we call home, a place we feel at peace.

Of course if the other simply refuses to meet on common ground, or worse they just plain lied when they said they wanted to parley then the old warrior’s credo comes into play.

Pray for Peace, Prepare for War and only fight to win.

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Success!

My nerdiness / geekhood has been confirmed! I spent nearly twenty hours figuring out/debugging my websites Drupal php files to find out why i could not upload pictures to my website blog. And in the end, it was a combination of resetting lines of code and flipping on a switch i didn’t know existed until I flipped it.

I love it when things work the way they’re supposed to.

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New Windows Live Writer Thingy

i am trying out this new windows live writer doo-hicky to see if it

works for both my website and my blogger site. If it does, great if not …well then I will have to keep trying until I can find something that does work.

On way or another, it will fit.

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Has email been killed by IM'ing?

The Wall Street Journal posted an article last week stating that Email is moving towards the grave. Replaced by instant messaging (IM) and services like Twitter and Facebook, even cell phone texting. While IM is certainly growing in popularity, especially among the younger folks out there, I do not necessarily agree that email will leave the world anytime soon anymore than I believe eating oatmeal with a spoon will be replaced by sucking it out of a toothpaste tube. The latter is certainly faster, but the spoon method is definitely more enjoyable.

I have used email since 1989, two years before the internet went public. I still use it all day, everyday. Best for business as it is a great way to keep a digital record of forms and correspondence. It'll be a long time before it is gone, just because of the easy archival of emails, and the attachment of documents, images, etc.

I also use Twitter, and Facebook almost everyday. They are a great way to chat and have conversation. I recently got back into MSN messenger (I usually shorten the pronounciation to 'messin')because relatives in far off countries wanted to video chat for free rather than call long distance for a $1 a minute. Once in a while I use Myspace as well.

With all of these different applications I have decided to create a single application that will combine MSN with Myspace, Twitter, and Facebook into one easy interface on my blackberry.

I am calling the new app

"MessinWithMyTwitFace"

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Aging toward deliciousness

I felt perpetually 25 until my oldest graduated high school last year. At the same time I realized that my middle son was having serious discussions about marine biology and my youngest knows a surprising amount about musculo-skeletal anatomy and uses words like endocrine and genetic anomolies in sentences without blinking.

I am still only 4.1 decades old, but suddenly feel as if I have grown up. I'm no longer a kid. For that matter, if my oldest suffers a foolish indiscretion I could easily become a grandparent.The thing is, having completed the first third I relish the idea of the next third of my life.

Yeah, I'm going to live to 120. And like the anticipation of enjoying a fine aged wine, I'm really looking foward to it.

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Political Discourse for Lemmings

As one who makes part of my living doing political discourse I am usually astonished by the fact that a lot of folks really don't want discourse. They just want everyone to agree with them. An how often they are willing, even enjoy, being crude and abusive to their opponents but find the utmost offense if the treatment is returned against their side.

Like herds of disgruntled lemmings they curse their enemies for foolishely rushing willy-nilly into the abyss when all the while they are rushing into the very same pit, to the very same death, on the very same canyon floor, just from the other side of the precipice.

Sigh....that's one of the things I will when I finally become king of the world.

That and creamy peanut butter.

Because both have the same sense of "hey I just ate something, and my breath smells, but my mouth isn't satisfied at all."

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I can survive/fix/fight my way out of anything

Over on the Kill Zone blog Michelle Gagnon brought up the subject of things authors write into books that are just unrealistic in order to keep the protagonist in the game. You know, those just in time salvation things that enable them to escape, beat the bad guys, rescue the damsel in distress, or puppy in a creek, or whatever.

Well I just got out of my truck and realized that it is a haven of just that sort of unrealistic clunky plot devices. I checked around and discovered the following in my little ol' F250 Crew Cab:

1. running shoes in my gym bag
2. a military wool blanket
3. a rain poncho
4. a backpack
5. two knit caps
6. a baseball cap
7. about fifty feet of parachute chord
8. an extra pair of glasses
9. a folding shovel
10. enough tools to do most of whatever I'd need to do
11. two pairs of thick wool socks
12. a K-Bar combat knife
13. a Gerber hatchet
14. a first aid kit
15. a whistle
16. a compass
17. a set of maps covering most of southcentral alaska
18. a case of water bottles.
19. a FRS radio / walkie talkie
20. a shortwave radio
21. a flashlight
22. two different multi-plyer tools
23. mosquito repellent
24. a magnesium fire starter
25. a long stemmed lighter
26. a wad of steel wool (makes good tinder)
27. numerous straps, bungees, and zip ties
28. two MRE meal packs
29. a canteen on a web belt
30. a 20x20 blue tarp
31. two rolls of duct tape (one black, one silver)
32. Four pairs of gloves (only three pairs that match though)
33. a candy bar and four packs of gum
34. a canned air-horn
35. a .38 revolver and ammo
36. a chapstick

Most of it was within arms reach from the drivers seat

Hmmmm.....you'd think I lived in Alaska....or a war zone

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Books of Destiny!

There are several books that changed / effected my life.

1.The Torah & The Bible : actually I can't say it changed my life as much as shaped my life, I've been reading it almost daily since I was six. The study of a culture, their worship, history, laws, interactions and philosophies in the light of a single over arching purpose will effect a person's thinking on the deepest levels. When read in context as a whole the ramifications of its teachings are awesome.
2.The Practice Effect: by David Brin, (c. 1984).
It wasn't terribly deep or elbow patch's & a pipe philosophical but really made me think that if you can imagine it you can do it. That has become my own prime directive of sorts.
3. Once an Eagle, by Anton Myer
One of the best books I have ever read, a contrasting view of life as a whole, beginning to end. One of the few books I will read more than once.

Honorable Mention:
Winter King by Bernard Cornwell
Red Badge of Courage
Johnny Tremaine

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What is in a name?

I almost always remember faces and the majority of details of how I know the person, sometimes even the conversation we had and what I ate just prior. But names...not.
So I have developed a system for remembering names. I use a descriptive nickname for the person to help spur me towards rememberance. These nicknames usual refer to a physical attribute or overt personality trait.

For instance I might remember a person as something like these:

Spandex Fitness Hottie
Sparkly Dimple Smile
French Roast Stubble
Stoned Tortoise Face
Combo-Over Tuna Breath
Gadunka-dunka Butt
Skeletal-Technocrat
Perky Booby Chihuahua Girl
or
Peanut Butter Pimples

and so on.

The down side is that this doesn't always work as intended and usually I still don't remember the name and may suddenly blush as I shake hands and remember only the nickname but barely stop myself from saying "Hey, Nasal Whiner Toad! And your wife, Sticky Toe Fungus Lips. Long time no see!"

So maybe everyone would be best off to just wear a name tag.

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Interview with Michelle Gagnon

Check out my interview with international bestselling thriller writer Michelle Gagnon.

Click to listen, or right click and save it to put on your MP3 player

WWW.BASILSANDS.COM

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Kickin' it to the Taliban - Ollie North Style

Check out this cool article from Ollie North in Afghanistan.
This is what is really happening in the war…Oorah!

http://www.freedomalliance.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2587&Itemid=98

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Haka vs. Kilts

Rugby will never be the same

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_WEP9ZkpS4

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On Peace

Pray for Peace
Prepare for War

...and when war comes, for it will, draw out the scythe and harvest the enemy until the fields are drenched with their blood.

In their place a forest will grow, fed by their flesh, and we will name it Peace and we will praise God as we sup in the Warrior Halls of Heaven.

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Movie Reviews '09

I tend to avoid theaters due to my cousin Leonard's flatulence. He pays most of the time since I am still a struggling writing waiting for that big time publishing deal so I can afford to go to the cinema on my own dime.

Therefore I tend to watch movies at home late at night, alone, while the family sleeps and Leonard is back in his own original 1960's velveteen bachelor pad.

My college son though goes all the time. From an 18 y.o. perspective:

UP: Yeah!
Transformers: Dude, wow!
GI Joe: SICK!!
Public Enemy: Eh.. $3 theatre stuff
Star Trek: Dad's generation was cool
Bruno: I'm scarred for life
District 9: For some reason I don't want to look in my closet at night
My Dad & little Brother's home made Bionicles stop motion video: yeah, cool but uh...dad needs to stick to writing

So there you have it, College Justin's young adult movie review list, summer 09...

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Idiots have rights too...but fools need beating

OK. So…deep breath…OK.

I despise idiot fools. Really, really, really find them to be well, idiot fools.

Now I am not talking about general idiots, or lunatics, or the insane or whatever you want to call those who are uncontrollably suffering from a form of mental retardation or handicap. For such persons I have sympathy. But such persons are typically not found in professional environments where people are supposed to have half a bit of sense and function as a major component of a serious enterprise.

No, those folks are OK in my book. What I am referring to as idiotic fools are those persons who pretend to be smart enough to get a job, even a really high paying one, even one with lots of responsibility, and then they turn out to be idiot fools who cannot follow basic common sense instructions clearly laid out multiple times and even in writing.

For instance, I was on a conference call this morning. It was a one hour conference call training session with fifty other people from across the country. The instructor stated at the beginning of the call, "Please make sure you do not put your phone on hold during this call because it will play your on hold music and the rest of us will not be able to hear anything else. So, please do not put your phone on hold during this call. Also please mute your phone's microphone so we do not hear the conversations going on back in your cubicle. Please mute your microphone and do not place your phone on hold."

The first idiotic fool surfaced less than sixty seconds later. Like a cork bobbing up in the water, they could not be kept down.The fool must have tried a little to stay hidden, but they simply could not resist the urge and their finger leaped uncontrollably towards the 'hold" button on their phone. Muzak was suddenly being piped across the conference call at two full decibels above the instructors volume. Some other idiot fool shouted across the lines to get the phone off hold, and kept shouting for several seconds until it dawned on them that the person on hold could not hear a word they said because…they were on hold.

Finally idiot fool #1 finished whatever idiot fool business they had, I assumed they had probably turned to some other idiot fool who in spite of the fact the idiot fool #1 had their phone on speaker mode, and a sign on the cubicle stating they were in a conference call decided they had to chat about their cute new outfit at that moment. Once the outfit discussion completed idiot fool #1 released us all from the hold music and the class was able to start again.

Only now they had also taken their phone off mute and my assumption was verified as we could hear the continuation of the cute outfit discussion in the background as the instructor tried to inform us on the best methods for doing what she was instructing us to do. Someone calmly informed the idiot fools that they were on speaker phone and we could hear them talking, and that while the red skirt was certainly cute we didn't care. Idiot fool said "huh?" then realized they were the one being addressed and put their phone on hold.

Several seconds later they came off hold, presumably wondering why they could not hear the instructor anymore and deciding to investigate by taking their phone off hold. The instructor calmly reminded us not to put our phone on hold then carried on very professionally. She was not yet flustered until five minutes later the same idiot fool put us on hold again. I know it was the same person because the same music came on and ten seconds later they undid the hold and yes, were still talking about the red skirt.

The instructor repeated her order to not put the phones on hold. Apparently some other idiot fool, idiot fool #2, got confused by the command and reflexively put us on hold again (different user, different music). Five seconds later they were satisfied and took it off hold. Then someone else, idiot fool #3, came on speaker phone chatting something about a refrigerator which drew raucous laughter from the idiot fool they were talking to. The instructor was still in control but her voice was becoming tinged with what could best be described as barely restrained murderous intent.

"Please mute your speaker phone."

The idiot fools did.

Ten whole minutes of uninterrupted learning went on before the next hold music was delivered by idiot fool #2. It only lasted about five seconds, but it was there, and idiot fool #1, not wanting to be upped by idiot fool #2, unmuted their speaker, put us on hold, took us off hold and re-muted their speaker in a rapid succession of muzak, clicks, and half spoken words.

Someone in the background started muttering obscenities, obviously being only a half-idiot themselves because they left their speaker phone off mute. Of course they may have done that intentionally for the other idiot fools to hear, which in reality may mean they are not an actual idiot at all.

The conference continued for forty five minutes like that, interrupted by hold music every five or ten minutes, followed by a flurry of clicking mixed with short bits of hold music, under breath curses, and chatting laughter as idiots of varying degree struggled to remember which button they had pushed, could not remember, and so just pushed every button on their phone until it returned to normal.

By the thirty minute mark I had started to fantasize about being a Viking Warrior, charging up the information stream in my dragon-headed ship and raiding their offices, chain-mail-coat glistening, war-axe and shield held high, the blood curdling roar of my war-cry sending the idiot fools into a panic. The axe comes down and smashes into the laminated surface of the desk, chopping off the button pushing fingers the idiot fool seems unable to control. Blood sprays, women scream, men wet themselves….HAHAHAHAHA!!!! I am Thor Thorgellsson, Vanquisher of Idiot Fools!!! FEAR ME Coporate Idiots, or FEEL MY BLADE!! HAHAhaha…..

…anyway...

The worst part of it all was that the constant clicking and muzak barrage prevented me from either getting the full knowledge of the subject being taught or taking a decent nap. Either of which would have been an acceptable outcome for the morning.

So in summary I will simply restate my initial thesis….I despise idiot fools.

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What's your favourite 80's movie?

Or movies for that matter, got a list of favourites from back in the day? 

Here are a few of mine:

First Blood
Rambo
Red Dawn
Ferris Buellers Day Off
Weird Science
Transylvania 6-5000
No Way Out (dude…I loved that movie)
The Package
Spys Like Us
SpaceBalls
The Star Wars Series
The Holy Grail
The Fly
Lost Boys
War Games
Princess Bride

Whats on your list?

Basil Sands
IT Specialist
Dept. of Veteran's Affairs
Anchorage Alaska
907-257-6763
basil.sands@va.gov

Who Dares, Wins

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OK. Let's face it. The world sometimes sucks.

It’s just that simple. Life can suck.

Just when you think things may start going your way, they take a turn and blam…you are on your face again.

But does the suckiness of the world around us, even our own potentially sucky circumstances necessarily mean that things are bad? Just because life doesn’t give us what we want, and appears to be pulling us down, does that mean we should just give up and turn our backs to it?

No.

Absolutely not.

Why not?

Because suction makes us stronger. Struggling builds strength. If we are being pulled down by the events we see as sucky we have two options.

Option One:
Do nothing. Accept what appears to be fate. Give in and float down the drain. Its easy, effortless for that matter. Don’t fight. Just get sucked on down to the sewer and float off like the digested remnants of yesterdays pastrami sandwich.

I mean hey, the suction is hard to push against. We get tired right? So Quit, run away and save your energy. Maybe some easier way will show up later. What’s the reason to fight anyway? We’re all going to die in the end. Just float away.

Option Two:
Fight. Fight like mad. Resist the suction tooth and nail and never, ever give up.

Prepare for the struggle. Pull and strain and resist being flushed away. It will be hard. Others will try to drag you down. Resist the temptation to be lazy and float with effortless ease. You will lose friends along the way. But never, ever quit.

What is the purpose of struggling against malaise? Simple.

The one who struggles gets stronger. In the strengthening the purpose for life becomes clear. Once one has purpose there is a goal, a reason to live. And the suckiness is no longer sucky.

The choice is yours. Live life floating like a turd on a stream of wasted nothingness until you reach the end and get absorbed back into the ground.

Or, live like there’s a reason to live. Grow in strength. Struggle against adversity. And conquer every day as you strive towards the goal.

God created each of us with a purpose. Humans are creative, the only creature that builds cities, and consistently tries to find a better way. We are the only creatures who ponder such things as why life does or doesn’t suck.

In the end, at death, you will be judged according to your deeds and how you acquitted yourself in the struggle of life. Do you want to be the one who said “this sucks” and did nothing? Or the one who at the judgement will be told “Well done.”

Of course, if you are one who believes there is no judge, no God, no purpose, no goal but the continuation of the species, I feel for you. Because things will always suck for the purposeless being.

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Tactical Awareness and Push-Up Bras

A friend of mine got a speeding ticket a couple weeks ago. She thought that if she went to court about it she could get the points reduced. She is a four foot tall, cute, innocent looking Asian girl who could probably have gotten what she wanted with an approach that accentuated her natural appearance and skill. Instead she came in like a tiny kimchi tornado demanding a discount. The judge wasn't in the mood to deal with a four-foot-tall pushy Korean girl, and said if she didn't shush she'd get a suspension. Afterward she called to vent and when I told her a different strategy would have improved her situation, the realization dawned on her and she got more upset at herself for not taking a different tactic.

The moral of the story is be willing to, as General Sun Tzu said a couple millenia ago, shift strategy to overcome obstacles and keep the advantage.

When it comes to writing and publishing books I have come to conclusion that tactical awareness is just as important as literary skill. We must adjust our approach at times as market needs and publisher needs shift. But one thing must never change and that is the goal. That goal for me is to get my stories published, and to keep writing stories. My podcast audience thus far has told me that they like my stories. A couple of publishers have expressed interest but not bitten yet. What does it take to get their attention? That's where the tactical shift comes in. Keep my end product in focus, but adjust my avenue of approach and redeploy my forces to take advantage of terrain and battlefield momentum. In the end, by what ever method I take, I will have the victory of getting published, that much I know.

A writer on another blog suggested that getting published can be like being a hooker on the street trying to get a customer to take the bait. I look pretty scary in a short skirt and fishnet stocking. Push-up bras chaffe my ribs. But if that's what it takes...

no...wait...erase that mental image....I won't go that far.

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Are You American?

Being Alaskan has been an interesting mix of patriotism and marginalization. We in Alaska, when outside, typically refer to ourselves as Alaskans as opposed to Americans, even though Alaska is a state in the union. Its not that we don't love the USA, we do. Not everyone does, we are the only state with an officially recognized secessionist party that got a governor elected.

But the vast majority of us love the USA. The truth is though, if you proudly tell people abroad you are an American they are likley to roll their eyes and find a way to politely or not so politely walk away. Or if your having a particularly bad day they may take you hostage. On the other hand, if you say you are Alaskan they will want to talk and chat it up about life in the arctic. So it has little to do patriotism and more to do with these two things: Identity and Desire to Get Along.

Even in our own country we are for the most part sidelined. Until the recent national attention toward Sarah Palin a significant number of Americans were not even sure Alaska was part of the USA, or they thought we were a territory like Puerto Rico and Samoa. It still stuns me when American tourists ask local shops if we take US Money, or what is the exchange rate. When I travel to cities in the lower 48 I find it to be not too much like where I live.

Alaskans are like the child born of an affair. Mommy loves us, but Dad kind of ignores us other than to throw a few dollars our way as an act of appeasement. With all of the attention we now have on the national political scene perhaps this will change to some degree. Or, depending on how Palin carries herself, and how the media decides to honor or vilify her, we may or may not get a better image in the world scene.

We are not particularly flag wavers up here. Even though 75% of Alaskans are military veterans, expressions of patriotism are moderate. Maybe its just our understated temperment. Maybe its the fact that it costs so much to ship stuff up that we just don't have all the red, white & blue stuff available like they do in the lower 48.

Or maybe its the fact that most of us are of mixed ancestry within the past few generations and don't really know where to call home. A friend of mine from Vancouver BC, Canada, lived here for two years for his job. He mentioned that Vancouver was one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world. In Vancouver there are more different nationalities represented than any other city on the planet, or something like that. But those ethnic groups tend to stay in their own little communities. You know, Chinatown, Koreatown, Indiatown, Pakistanitown, Kenyatown, etc. I don't know that they suffix the word -town to every nationality but you get my point.

What astonished him in Anchorage Alaska though, was that there were almost no ethnic enclaves here. Yes there is a section unofficially called Koreatown, but it is only about a dozen small buildings, and there are several non-Korean buildings in between them. What really blew his mind was the first time he went shopping at a mall here and saw the ethnic diversity within the same families. Black, Alaskan Native, Caucasian, Asian, Latino, Islander, European, African, you name it. Everyone walking in multi-colored families, holding hands and carrying babies that could not be identified as any particular ethnicity.

That is what Alaska is like. We are a mixed up bunch of people at the end of the world in a state of the USA, but most of our cousins don't even think people live here. And we're just fine with that.

So from an Alaskan of Irish, English, Polish, Swedish, Danish, Sioux and Cherokee descent married to a Korean woman who most people assume to be Mongolian or Eskimo....God Bless America, land that I love.

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Some days you just feel like smiling.

Today is one of those days for me. I don’t know why. Nothing spectacular has happened. My desk at the office is piled with work, no big news on the publishing front, my kitchen is a mess as my wife and father-in-law repaint it, I’ve been fighting a cold for two weeks and my shoulder aches like someone’s stuffing a giant frozen needle into a Basil voodoo doll…but I still feel like smiling.

Maybe it’s because the sun is out and the sky is blue the mountains are majestic and I am alive. Maybe its because I have a family to go home to when it all gets too much. Maybe its because I’m not a road-kill porcupine being plucked apart by a bunch of squawking ravens in the middle of the road. Whatever the reason, it’s a good day to be Basil.

God is good.

Have a nice Tuesday.

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Guest Blogger: Kharzai - Last words out the door....

The last lines of a book can and do leave lasting impressions, even without reading the rest of the book they can have an intersting impact. For instance, look at these:

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past." –F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

"It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known." –Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859)

"P.S. Sorry I forgot to give you the mayonnaise."–Richard Brautigan, Trout Fishing in America (1967)

or of course,

"No glot…C’lom Fliday" –William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch (1959)

I've no idea what that actually means, but I mean...hey...wow...that's some powerful last line.

And of course a good last line can be a great cliff-hanger-ony tool as well.

But just as powerful are last images or thoughts left behind at the end of a story, yet potentially not spoken in the words of the ending. I cannot remember the actual last lines, but Douglas Adams books (Hitch-Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul) always left me with a sense of "wha...huh?"

Such a sensation made me want to read more of his stuff because the ending, being for the most part rather absurd, always drove me towards the next just for closure.

Likewise with serious series novels. I remember as a child reading Louis L'Amour's Sackett series and absolutely needing to carry on to the next, just because there was a next.

When it is time for a story to end, the ending if it truly is the ending and not the beginning of the next episode, should conclude. Whether happy or sad, bright or mobid, the ending must indeed be the end. And upon reaching the end, if it's all well done and the closure is right, we can feel pretty good about it all, and satisfied with the impressions left behind.

And so in ending this entry I will go so far as to say, in all finality:

Life... is like a grapefruit. It's orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast. Douglas Adams

Kharzai Ghiassi

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CD Sets on sale! Save big on all four audio books!

Buy All Four of my CD Audio Books and get $13 off!

Normal Price $78 for all four (+shipping)

SALE PRICE $65!! +shipping

Get them now while I'm feeling generous!

Go to www.basilsands.com & drop me a line via the contacts page for ordering instructions.

(shipping inside North America $5 postal, $10 2nd day, outside N America $20, postal only, free in Anchorage Ak Metro Area)

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Gilles Duperon: Karl's Last Flight

DOB: 1976
Place of birth: Southern France
Physical Characteristics
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 215 lbs
Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Skin: Caucasian
Other:
Tall, thin. Dark personality and brooding expression, he looks like a movie vampire in the right lighting.
Education:
Little is known of his past except for a few bits he told Liam and Kharzai. His parents are dead. He went to public school in France until he joined the military at the age of seventeen. He prefer Cognac over wine and likes attractive yet timid women.
Military Service:
Legion Etranger, Le Regiment Deuxieme Parachutiste (French Foreign Legion, 2^nd Parachute Regiment) 1993-2003.
Professional Career:
Gilles served in the Legion for ten years and attained the rank of Sergeant Chef (Chief Sergeant). He is known to have seen action in Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Cote D’Ivoire. He left the Legion and signed on with a mercenary firm based in South Africa but quite midway into his first assignment due to an argument over the treatment of a prisoner. He wanted to kill the man, but his boss would not let him. He became a free lancer and was introduced to Kharzai through a third party contact.
Other Characteristics:
Gilles has a naturally intimidating personality. He is quiet and tends to stand in the shadows. He is also a ruthless killer. Kharzai and Liam have a contest between them to be the first one to see him smile. In six months neither has seen it happen.
Current:
He has been hired as an extra gun by Kharzai and Liam in Iran.

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Accupuncture & Yucky Tea

For the past several months I have been feeling...well...like a slug.

Until about mid-summer of last year I worked out a lot. I had a full time day job, a part time job as a youth minister of my church, and spent about two hours every day in the gym on top of that. I also had the energy to write and podcast three novels and a set of short stories during that period. I seldom slept more than six hours and was always doing something. I have run that hard since I was a teen and never felt a need for a break.

Then all of a sudden I got tired. I mean really tired. Tired like I have never been before. Not only was 4-6 hours of sleep not enough, no matter how much I got I could not get rested. My work suffered, my writing faltered. I transferred my ministry job to a younger leader, thinking that maybe it was just that I'm over forty now and need to quite hanging out with teens and college kids. ...no change.

I got so tired that I fell down a mountain and got badly hurt while skiing. That made it worse.
Now, six months after shoulder surgery I am still not fully recovered and still just plain exhausted.

Until last weekend. I figured something else must be wrong so I went to a local accupunture and herbal medicine doctor here in Anchorage. Dude!

Why didn't I do that a year ago?!?!?!?!

After just one accupunture treatment I felt markedly better. After the second I started to feel more like myself. And he gave me these bags of herbal tea to help cleanse my body and "equalize the energy levels in my system". This tea is not the kind you buy at the store. It ain't no raspberry & chamomile concoction. This stuff tastes like sucking dirt through a snail's butt.

But it works! Man do I feel good!

Look out world! I'm BAAACK!

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Making a Best Seller

In terms of reaching the top it seems that there are two ways to me.

1. Write an outstanding book, both storywise and readabilitywise.

or

2. Have an adequate story/readability index, but a topic that everyone is hungry for.

Both of these are also contingent on finding the right agent/editor/publisher combo as well, which is pure luck it seems.

Things that don't work:

1. Using a time machine. It freaked out the agent when my cousin Leonard showed up in the past to tell him to buy my book and therefore changed history against my favour. I should have told Leonard to take off the crash helmet before speaking to people. (the agent later wrote a book about being visited by future people, it became "Back to the Future" and I got nothing because I was only sixteen then).

2. Lacing the pages with psychedelic drugs...that was just bad in all ways. Agents can't really fly.

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Keeping Up With The Future of Publishing

A question has been bugging me as I am heading towards publication in the near future myself. How in the world does an author jump into this publishing business, become a best seller, then stay on top for the rest of their life? I fully intend, hope, expect, what ever you want to call it, to be the next Tom Clancy, Frederick Forsythe guy. At least that's what I am aiming for. And as the saying goes:

"It is better to aim for greatness and almost achieve it, than to aim for mediocrity and make it dead on."

Actually I just made up that wording, but I read something like it somewhere.

Basically, I want to make sure I stay in the game once I get on board. But how in the world did the world know to buy and read and buy again those great Military Fiction dudes like Clancy, Forsythe, Griffin, Higgins, et al and keep buying them for years and decades and into the next century. I want to know what the trend is going to be for the future so that I can learn and write in that direction. I do, afterall, have three boys to put through college. The oldest (starting college this fall) plans to be a great business man / musician, the second (class of 2016) an award winning biologist, and the other (class of 2019) a world famous doctor who cures diabetes. I teach them to aim high too.

To reach that goal, I have to make some serious dinero. Which means I have to write and sell some super terrific, spine tingling, brain jolting, keep you up until you've read the whole thing in one sitting, books. And once written get them sold.

As I write this my surprisingly wonderful and hard working agent is busting her tail cross country to achieve that last bit. I can almost taste it. I thought I smelled it earlier, but that was meatloaf & rice with colby-jack and powdered jalapeno sprinkled over it...almost as good, but can't pay my kids college tuition.

Once sold though, I need staying power. The ability to recreate success over and over ad infinitum. In addition to that, I need to be able to guess the next trend in what people want to read and jump on it. Which means I may not always write military/terrorist/espionage thrillers. As it is I have three historical fiction works synoptisized and waiting for the chance to jump on the page. Ken Follet, one of my favourite authors, has manageed to make quite an amazing career writing books that follow no sequence, or series. I hope to do the same as much as inspiration allows. But how to figure out those trends. Hmmmm....

After much long thought and contemplation I decided to work on my time machine a bit over the weekend. It needed some fine tuning. The Fifi experiment was tragic, and quite messy (on the bright side, the dog food bills are not a concern anymore). I think I got it right this time.

Not wanting to risk turning myself inside out or getting my body parts miscellanously reattached, I gave my cousin Leonard ten bucks and a promise of a six pack on his return. Wearing a 60's style blue motorbike helmet with a digital video camera attached he pulled down his clear plastic chemistry lab goggles and I flung him into the vortex to find out what books will be popular over the next fifteen years.

The time machine door opened, and Leonard looked up.

Some huge muscular guy dressed in a full body blue leotard turned around and stared at him.

Leonard stuttered a bit then finally blurted out, "Basil wants to know what kind of books do you guys like in the year 2019?"

To which the guy replied in a thick German accent, "GAAAAAAA!"

Then he punched Leonard in the face and ran away.

A bunch of people in red leotards came chasing after the blue guy. Leonard didn't want to get hit again. He scuttled backwards, tripped over the pilot's seat. His hand smacked the "go" button. The door shut and seconds later he was back in my garage. He stumbled out of the machine, wiping blood from his nose and looked at me with a wild eyed stare then went straight for the six pack.

So the trip did not answer my question in any significant way. Apparently, though, books based on 'Running Man' will not be too popular. So...I guess I'll need to rewrite that manuscript.

As a side note, Leonard downed the whole six pack in one go, without even removing his helmet. I think Leonard may be an alcoholic.

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Vacations in the mind

I love it when I read a book and get transported to a different time and place. When the words on the page create a reality of their own that in the mind is virtually indistinguishable from memory. Even a memory that could in no way be mine.  Such scenes if perfectly painted can feel like a vacation in my living room.

 

I've experienced that with several writers, but the one's that impress me the most are those who do it with historical fiction. For instance Bernard Cornwells "The Winter King" which told an Arthurian legend without any feeling of fantasy, it was incredibly realistic. I also recently finished Ken Follett's "World Without End" and found the setting to be incredibly detailed, even though it took place nearly 900 years ago. Whatever he did that managed to get so many details about the look and feel of Kingsbridge that long ago is what I want to do with my own work.

 

Therefore I am actively working on a time machine to transport me to the Mongolian Empire circa 1150's. I thought I had it the other day, but upon the first live test...well things didn't go as well as I hoped. 

 

...poor Fifi.

 

 

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Dan Browns next big whoopdeedoo

As a super multi-millionaire after The DaVinci Code (TDC) Dan Brown no doubt could probably care less about whether his new book, The Lost Symbol, does terribly well. I mean, it took more than four years to get it out, which means one of two things.

1: He really did a ton of research and greatly improved his writing skills after so many people complained about the poor literary quality of TDC.
or
2: He was too busy partying on the gazillions he made from TDC and simply put it off until his publisher threatened to have a hit man come over for a visit.

If you haven't read The DaVinci Code, don't feel lonely. I never read TDC either, and don't plan to. In my humble opinion, anything written as poorly as the overwhelming majority say it is and becomes that popular probably has some sort of mind altering chemical laced throughout the pages, or spiritual forces whispering into people's ears, or aliens involved in some way.

Even more troubling is fiction that the author openly states is fiction and yet so many seem to earnestly believe to be true. Quite troubling to my rational mind.

Reminds me of an LSD trip back in the 80's where the ceiling opened up and I went to space and aliens with puppy dog heads took the time to tell me the real truth about cheese and the moon.

Uh...did I say that out loud?

See..case proven...Dan Brown could probably care less. He can afford all the moon cheese he wants no matter how well the book does. In the end he'll have to answer to God, but hey his stuff proves that's all just a conspiracy anyway...right?

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“Your characters seem so real, like people I have met.”

Are my characters real?

“Your characters seem so real, like people I have met.”

That has been mentioned by several listeners and readers to my stories. Truth be told, many of my characters are as real as fictional characters can get. Especially the most tragic characters.

A list of characters based on real people and just how close they were.

Karl’s Last Flight:

Karl – based on a retired navy fighter pilot I met who lived for adrenaline every chance he got, but was the most mild mannered, quiet guy in person….until he got onto a fast engine of any kind.

Esther – based on a real girl, although from Afghanistan instead of Iran, who endured almost everything my Esther did. She was rescued by Voice of The Martyrs missionaries and now works in other Muslim countries helping sexually abused girls find a new life.

Kharzai – an amalgam of people I met during my lifetime including several rather interesting people I knew at the NSA where I ran the military dining facility. One of those individuals it turned out, although it was never verified to me, was a real Iranian spy.

Liam – Made up guy, a kind of character I think I could’ve been if I were a classically trained singer turned MI-6 operative.

Gilles – never met him, and I’m glad.

Faisel – based on one of the elders of my church (although he is Korean and Faisel is Arabic). This guy is tireless, and the nicest man you’d ever meet.

Eagle One (aka Kevin Arlington) – based on Ollie North type.

Mojo Johnson – an amalgam of people I met throughout my time in and around the military. The back woods of Alaska have a bunch of them. Really impressive people just don’t upset them.

Lonnie Wyatt – she was an interesting character. A combination of a real person I know and a few extra parts I added here and there and her history. She was one of my favorites to write.

Harley Wasner – based on a guy I met in my day job at the VA. The dude walked into the Voc Rehab office where I was working on a printer and said, “I just retired from the military and need some educational assistance so I can train for a civilian job.” The clerk said, “OK. What did you do in the military?” The veteran said, “Kill people.” He had been in the Special Forces for 24 years.

Mike Farris – he was a guy that I imagined, but I would not be surprised if at least one of the pastor’s I have met over the years had a past like him.

Dan Martin – based on a guy I knew in high school. I don’t think the dude was really an East German spy, but he was a virulent atheist. And I don’t say that to discredit other atheists, he just was that way.
Paul Hogan – made up guy. But the kind of bloke I would love to have by my side in a desperate situation.

Hildegard Rottbruck – based on a lady that worked in the same building I did for a while. Never really got to know her, but she seemed pretty nice. Hilde got her looks and what little bit of her personality I remembered.

Mr. White – met a guy once with that kind of complex personality. Kind of like life was a Japanese anime card game of and the evil magic was real. He had a serious "Small Guy Complex". He reminded me of the guy in the old horror movie Willard. The dude really creeped me out at the time.
There’s an idea of where the characters come from. Not all just made up. And like I said, the most tragic ones are based on very real people. So to quote myself from earlier: I tried to write something close to reality.

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Violent Stories for a Christian Guy, Part 2

In my last entry I defined what a Christian is as compared to those who call themselves Christian.

Today I want to answer the primary question of “How can you write such sex, swearing and violence and yet call call yourself Christian?”

Well, first off let me answer by saying that I have two hard and fast rules in my writing. I never use those English words considered the most foul or sexually derogatory i.e. F**k and C**t. And there are no graphic sex scenes. So, if you thought you read or heard either of the above, it was all in your own head, not in my book. That being said, other swear words are used through out the dialogue as is common in English, although my heroes seldom swear. They don’t need to, they’re too cool for that kinda talk. And there may be a bit of what a friend calls “psychological nudity” but only as required by the description.

(there was a rape scene in Karl’s Last Flight, but it didn’t get too far before the hero stepped in)

Why write that kind of stuff at all? The answer to this is simple.

I am writing something very close to reality.

Often times, especially here in America, we are fed a version of the world that is not at all realistic. The images of violence we see in movies are either too clean and bloodless, or go way over board on the blood and gore. Things are over sexed to the point of being raunchy, or so squeaky clean they represent a fantasy world akin to a pre-schooler’s cartoon. Not that there’s a problem with that, but my target audience is men and women aged 18-45, and they aren’t buying stories about purple dinosaurs and rainbow coloured ponies. Therefore I have tried to find a place in the middle, the place where the reality actually lies.

What I don’t want is for some one to read my books and walk away thinking that the trauma and hardships my characters overcome can be taken care of easily just because they are the good guys. I want them to go through the whole book wondering how in the world the hero or heroine is going to survive, or even if they are going to survive. If you notice, all of my good guys end up getting hurt to some degree. They feel weak, they get tired, they are scared at times.

I want my readers to understand that the heroes in my stories got to the point where they could take care of themselves in horrific situations because they worked hard at staying fit and when the trouble hit the fan they made a hard decision and took take sides in the drama that unfolded. They cannot be wishy-washy, or half-ready. That state of being would simply get them killed.

The converse is that I also don’t want my readers thinking “There is no way that can happen, people just don’t have that much blood or guts in their bodies.” Or, “No one is that strong.” Etc.

I want my story to be believable. I want the violence to be realistic. When a person hits another person with their fist that fist hurts. They may even break a knuckle or a finger. If you get punched in the stomach, unless you managed to tighten you abdominal muscles just in time, you’re probably going to puke or at least get the wind knocked out of you. There might even be broken ribs and will almost certainly be a serious bruise. My characters, those who are combat trained warriors, are smart enough to know that combat should always be considered a fight to the death whether it ends that way not. They don’t shoot to injure someone. They shoot to kill.
I try and research every thing I write to make sure I set the scene as realistically as possible. Whether it is the climate of the Somali desert or the wooden house boats of the Mokken people I do everything I can to not have to make things up when it comes realism. And even the things I do make up, such as the bio-weapon in 65-Below are as close to real as I can make them. In the case of 65 Below, I had a biologist and a geneticist review my work to make sure it was plausible.

The fight scenes I paint are as realistic as I can make them and still put them down on paper. I have had combat veterans from around the world write to me and say how some of the stories captured them and brought back memories of what it was really like in the Jungles of Vietnam or Africa. Scenes like those from Burma in Karl’s Last Flight, or the short stories 1917 and The First Time (from the In The Shadows podcast) elicited a whole slew of letters from people who have been there.

What I am trying to say is that the violence in my stories, while quite graphic, is certainly not overblown. The stories do not glorify violence, foul language or sex. They merely portray it as it is. And yes I do actually hold back sometimes, because real is sometimes just too gross.

In that sense I do not claim to be a Christian writer. I am just a writer, with a Christian worldview. Not all of my characters share that world view. Liam does. Kharzai does not, that’s for sure. Mojo is mostly on board, Lonnie is close too. Farris is probably the strongest adherent to Christianity I will ever write. Because I am writing real world.

And reality is just that: Real.

And if the realism makes you look over your shoulder when the next time you walk down a dark street, well…that’s all part of the plan.

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Violent stories, for a Christian dude

Recently I have received a few comments from both Christian and non-Christian alike on my writing asking how a conservative Christian like myself justifies writing stories with such graphic violence in them. My main characters are warriors who deal with their enemies in absolute terms, like most warriors do, and lots of people end up dead or maimed along the way.

Over the rest of this week I will be posting a response. Mind you, this is not proselytizing; I am just explaining my own position. And since that opinion has taken more than forty years to form it can’t be pushed out in a quick blurb. So…here goes.

To start off we have to look at what we perceive Christianity to be, and what humanity and the universe really are.

Christianity is a religion adhered to, at least nominally, by about one third of the world’s population. I have to qualify that statement with the word nominally, which means in name only, because a vast majority of those who claim to be Christian simply call themselves that because they were born into a Christian tradition. Regarding their lifestyle they do not adhere in any meaningful way to the teachings of the religion. According to a 2008 Barna Research Survey less than 19% of people who call themselves Christian actual hold a bliblical Christian worldview.

Christianity in the truest sense is not a religion in which one chooses to join, performs a ritual of induction, then claims to be a member. In its real form it is a behaviorally linked religion. And the proof of its authenticity is found in a lifetime of growth and internal change as evidenced by deeds that grow increasingly more meaningful in Gods eyes.

Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ (Messiah) for whom Christianity is named, stated very clearly that we can know a tree by its fruit. He said that in the end many will stand before God on judgment day crying out “Lord, Lord.” exalting God as their Lord and Master, but he will say to them “Who are you? I never knew you.”

Just because a person claims to be a Christian, or a godly individual, means nothing in God’s eyes. It is the life of obedience that God judges. There are those who claim to be servants of Christ, even pastors and priests, who God has not nor will ever accept as his children because they live in disobedience. Likewise there are those who have never heard of God who will be received into heaven later because they lived life in obedience to him even though they never heard his words.

One caveat to this is that those who have heard of God and rejected his authority cannot be counted among those who will attain heaven. I am not referring to submitting to church authority, a man-made institution. The teaching of the Bible states very clearly that those who overtly reject God’s authority and refuse to submit to him will be left to their own life here on earth and in the end be rejected by God.

These things are taught pretty clearly in the Hebrew Torah and Christian Bible. Sadly most people, even ardent adherents to either religion, only read the parts they quickly understand and don’t complete the lessons the books teach. In so doing they end up only understanding bits and pieces, and those usually far out of context.

People who angrily reject Christianity because of crimes committed in the name of the religion have frequently challenged me. They claim that God either does not exist or he is evil because the deeds of those who carry his name have been evil. From the Dark Ages to the Spanish Inquisition to Massacres in Bosnia and Africa people claiming to represent God have committed atrocities.

To quote the book of First John 2:19 “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us.”

Those who claim to be God’s followers but act against God’s will are not really his followers. Regardless of what title they claim of the fancy robes they were.

To Summarize: Just because people call themselves Christian means nothing. It is only in their deeds that they can be judged as a true Christian. And even true Christians make tons of mistakes along the way. The test is not, how close one is to God, but are you drawing closer as time goes on.

So now, you can see approximately where I stand on what it means to be a true believer in Christ.

Tomorrow: "How can you write such violent characters and yet claim to be a Christian?"

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Seeds of the Story in the Soil of Life

I read a great article on one of my favorite blogs, The Killzone. John Miller was talking about how childhood upbringing and experiences form the stories we create as writers. He talked about a lot of rather morbid, and some dangerous or scary, experiences he had growing up in Mississippi in the sixties. When I read John's account my first reaction was to think, 'Man, I'm glad I didn't grow up in the south. Seems like a harsh place.'

I grew up between Alaska & Ohio in the 70's & 80's.

Then I got to thinking, especially after considering the comments of some of the other authors who brought up their own experiences. I began to realize that the good old days weren't quite as good as I remembered.

The disciplines I endured as a kid, would certainly have been grounds for abuse charges today. The creep down the street who touched my sister and nearly got himself killed by our step father. The neighbor's wife who walked like she was scared and never made eye contact with anyone. The day I went for a walk, a four hour fifteen mile walk, without telling my folks. After I got home my step father pulled up in his big Buick. He had his old .45 in his hand and tears in his eyes. I didn't understand. I was thirteen and had my dog with me, we always played alone in the woods. Mom said something about a nearby barn where detectives found bloody pentagrams and disembowelled animals...and some kids shoes.

It didn't click then, it didn't seem real.

The fist fights, sneaking around in the dark, imagining death and war. Taking out rage on a heavy bag I built in the basement out of encylopaedias, pillows and an army duffle bag.

I sat back and thought about my own writing. A lot of bad guys seem to die very hard deaths. And the good guys seldom walk away without scars...some don't walk away.

If it weren't for the outlet of art, I wonder how much blood would be on my own hands.

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