Go to Mars...or at least the Moon!

     It's been a while since I have written an entry to this blog. 

     My story is the same:  New technologies in my day job, new opportunities in my part time gigs, new deadlines in my supposed vocation ("Thomas, the deadline is Friday.  The editor needs your MSS!") and old, repeat reminders that I need to upgrade ("Dad, when you are going to replace your flip phone?").  So the mental musings of this minor player in a minor Southern Capital, a minor cog in what may prove to be a minor machine in a minor corner of the Universe isn't too much of a priority.  My vanity (or lack thereof) doesn't address that.

    But today I had to write.

     Last night at 7 PM, under a clear, warm Florida sky, I saw the full moon.  Slightly above and to its left was (I think) Mars.  Years ago, when I wanted to be an astronaut, I dreamed (dreamt?) of the day I would walk on their surfaces.  According to the most conservative Science Fiction Classics, we were to be on Mars by now.  So much for secular prophecy.

     Still...there has to be a lesson in this.  Perhaps by reaching for the outer planets or the stars, we will reach our closest neighbor.  We already have.  Perhaps by having B.H.A.G.s - Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals - we will reach some of the easier targets.  Perhaps the act of simply reaching, working and striving will put us in a better place than at the beginning.

     Yesterday I drove to and from work.  Today I am biking.  The beautiful nightscape that becons me will - at least for now - be the backdrop of the fitness program I have been neglecting over the last few weeks.

     Weather permitting, look at the Moon tonight and let it inspire you!

     Always B Positive!

Choosing the Last Word

The Boogieman is real...

Or so he is, as per some of my conscientious friends.  The Boogieman lays in wait for our souls and our children, waiting to snatch them into the bottomless pit of perdition.  He is also a writer, and he manifests himself in the form of books that will certainly sprout legs and chase thee down.  So beware, lest thou also be overcome!

I have an avocation that I keep mostly quiet.  As conservative as I try to act and live, I don't believe in censorship.  Period.  So I make it my business to read the major titles of books that have been banned, regardless of the objection.  As a result, I have read tomes banned by Muslims, Christians, Liberals, Conservatives, Communists, Fascists and Capitalists.  I have struggled my way through some heady titles that give voice to those hungering for the advent of either the New World Order or the coming Dystopia and Fall of the Western World. 

Make no mistake; one man's Tea Party...is just the opening chapter of another man's Diary that Turns.  He that hath an ear...go interpret the previous sentence.

Recently, however, I read two titles that were judged to be unpublishable forty years ago.  Even by today's standards they offend every sensibility.  I skimmed through them both, but managed to write down key phrases that explained either the characters' or author's aesthetic.  The books had been sitting in a box - unread - for years.  Having finished them, I felt (and still feel) unsettled.  Recently, I sold them on the internet to someone else who wants to either read them or burn them.

Normally I end these missives with some question for thought.  But this time, I wish to give the Last Word to someone else, a writer who gives us the antidote to whatever mental poisons we choose to ingest:

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things [are] honest, whatsoever things [are] just, whatsoever things [are] pure, whatsoever things [are] lovely, whatsoever things [are] of good report; if [there be] any virtue, and if [there be] any praise, think on these things."

---The Apostle Paul, Philippians 4:8, New Testament, The Bible (KJV)

First Blog - HTML Nightmare!

This is the first of many daily posts.  Each day I will share just a bit of the trials and tribulations by me, a rather ordinary guy who's done and will do some extraordinary things.

Warning:  If you think everything sucks and refuse to find solutions...then this blog isn't for you!  I'm like Captain Kirk in STAR TREK II:  THE WRATH OF KHAN, when he said that "I don't believe in the no-win scenario!"

Case in point:  I am basically a high end computer user with holes in his knowledge.  I am about even with my kids in terms of repair and troubleshooting.  But in the area of coding (especially gaming, graphics and html), they are light years beyond me.  I had problems centering the title of this blog, Positively Positive!, and they're not around to help me.

If you're an expert at this, then I give you full permission to laugh.

In any case, it took me over an hour to simply learn how to center the title.  But guess what:  I did it!

Question:  What intimidating task is before you right now?  Take it on!  I did, and so can you!

Positively Positive!