September 2014 – Missile Test

Anyone remember last year when I wrote that my decreased summer output was because I was writing a book? That was true. I don’t have any similar excuse for the desert that Missile Test has become this summer, but I do have good news. The book I wrote, Impact Winter, has failed to find any representation from an agent in the publishing business. How is that good news? Well, the publishing world’s loss is your gain. I grew tired of waiting for good news, so I banged out a 4th draft and posted the book on Amazon.

What is Impact Winter?

An impact winter is what happens to the climate of the earth following a major comet or asteroid impact. The impact occurs with such energy that massive amounts of ejecta are created. Fine particulate matter, i.e., dust, is flung high up into the atmosphere and it can take many years for it to fall back to earth. The dust enshrouds the planet, impeding light from the sun and lowering global temperatures. In the worst cases, all light from the sun is blocked, and photosynthesis halts, disrupting global food chains. Continue reading “Impact Winter”

Last month, after ISIS beheaded American journalist James Foley and posted the video on the internet, I decided enough was enough. The parade of bad news was an anchor dragging on my sense of well-being. Besides the turmoil in Iraq and Syria, there was news that more than a thousand Russian troops had moved into the Ukraine, there were protests over the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, and Congress left on summer vacation without addressing global warming or immigration (in fact, this Congress addressed little other than their own reelections). Throughout all this, the cacophony of arguments and counterarguments spewed forth on the television and the internet, never ending, rarely slowing, and devouring such cherished aspects of debate as ‘nuance’ and ‘facts.’ All of this served to foster in me feelings of anger, anxiety, frustration, and even a smattering of despair. This is something that had been building for a long time. Politics is nothing if not a soul-sucking enterprise. It never ends. There is never any resolution to the debates. Increasingly, it has turned into a zero-sum game. One side has to win and the other side has to lose. The greater the pain is for the losing side, the better. Continue reading “The Best Decision I Have Ever Made”