No. 72

No. 72



"There is nothing so beautiful and legitimate as to play the man well and properly, no knowledge so hard to acquire as the knowledge of how to live life well and naturally; and the most barbarous of our maladies is to despise our own being."

Montaigne


"You are as much a god as you will own
That you are nothing but a man alone."

Entry above the main gate of Pompeii


"Secure therefore in the darkness they took counsel about the treachery to be done promptly at dawn, choosing from the household of Borsiard the most courageous and bold for this crime, and they promised them great riches."

The Murder of a Feudal Lord


"Females. They'll believe everything except the obvious, and the honest."



NUMBER 72

(redacted version)


INTRO: Slideshows, My Father's House, Reclaiming the Land, New Season, Auditions, Spiderman's Webline, Get a Haircut, Medicine, Pictures and Numbers

ADMIN: I apologize to everyone about the delays in getting back to them personally on so many matters. But the move, the new school year, new work projects, new assignments, all of these things have conspired to slow me immensely and to distract me from other matters regarding my work load and responses to inquiries, project data, and information and intelligence sent to me. Intelligence and information sent to me which does not require immediate response (such as Titan Rain) goes into the appropriate files, and things requiring immediate attention get worked on. But I appreciate it all and if you haven't been able to catch me at home or in my office then this is due to the fact that I've been on the run a lot lately, especially with attorneys, paperwork and whatnot. By the way the new contacts have been helpful as well, even if I am not immediately exploiting them because I'm waiting until I get in my new offices and my new home.

RESPONSES: Glad your move came off well S (well, as well as can be expected) and let me know how you're liking your new job and assignment. We'll talk by phone as soon as we can catch each other. Major I hope your deployment to Germany went well and that everything goes well with your new command. Let me know how things are shaking with you and the family once you're fully settled. Are you guys living on base, I know we had discussed that last visit but I don't remember how you guys finally decided it? Speaking of that how are the boys taking to the new living conditions and schools and so forth? Playing sports yet? Have you guys visited any castles yet and what do they think of them? How's the little woman doing?
F, where exactly did you move to? By the way you'll find W's email address in the address line of this newsletter if you don't already have it.

BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS: I don't really want to report on these matters just yet, still developing and ripening. But have established a relationship with a guy at Blizzard E. (WoW) on the video game front. Have also begun to disseminate some of my software design ideas. Other inventions cooking and of course had the article published in the papers. Researching agents as well. Writings proceeding well.
Things happening with D too, but not gonna discuss that yet either.

Prayers for our success and for the energy to undertake all we are involved in now - definitely appreciated.
We'll pray for your guys too of course.

FAMILY AFFAIRS: Parents have already paid about 20% on their new home. Once we close on their current house and lands, then they will pay the rest and they should have a considerable nest egg left over. We have completed all paperwork and everything is in Bristol fashion, all we need now is an official closing date. We are trying to expedite and speed up everything. Mortgage appraiser is coming out next Wednesday to finalize appraisals. Attorneys are arranged. Payments are ready and I've set aside several extra grand in cash in case of emergencies.
Several interested parties in our old place but I'm trying to delay their interest until we vacate so that they can come in and see the place empty and clean. Hopefully we can move into our new house within two weeks and then have the old place ready to sell in two to three weeks as well (along the same time frame) so that everything comes off simultaneously. But we all know how that kinda thing goes, don't we?
Since the new place is gonna be much larger than the old place we are gonna need to buy several rooms worth of new furniture. Plus I'm gonna be converting the upstairs garage (the large one) into an Art/Architectural studio, and creating a weight room/exercise/training/recuperation area out of one of the unfinished rooms in the basement. I'm gonna completely redo the basement over time and finish all separate basement areas (mechanics area, weight room, area for dogs, small laboratory, private sanctuary) as well as reclaim the pool, cut down all the pine forests and replace with hardwood forests and conduct several other home improvement projects. As I get the time. One of the spare upstairs bedrooms will become a second home office for purely work related projects until such time as we adopt a boy, then that room will become his bedroom. Really looking forward to all of these things.
I bought a new tractor and have been using it to reclaim much of the landscape that my father let grow wild the past couple of years. I've spent the past week or so reclaiming lands, pushing back growth, grading, cutting trees that were let grow untended, redoing the children's play areas and clubhouses, etc. I now effectively have at least quadruple the amount of land to tend as before but I'm not minding, not yet anyway. Last night I was cutting the grass around the children's swing-set and outdoor gym when it really struck me, the old family land and home and estate were mine now. I am Master of the Manor now, all the land I wandered and played on and explored as a kid is now mine, and my children's. It's very hard to describe the feeling that gave me, to suddenly realize it was all mine, and then some. It was almost a kind of ecstasy.

Taking down some of the heftiest undergrowth however kicked out a large branch which hit the drive belt on the floating blade deck of my tractor and knocked the belt clean off the wheels. Meaning I had to take the thing to the basement and reset and replace the belt by hand (it didn't break luckily). It wasn't too difficult a mechanical job but very time consuming and tiring because of the deck design and the twist of the belt. I took about an hour to reset properly and I was able to do everything by hand using no tools because the metallic belt guard at the main drive shaft was designed to float on either side of the drive wheel. Still, I busted my knuckles pretty good a coupla times.
I think G and B suspect something is up too and somehow know that they will soon be living at the new house because they follow me over there all of the time and lay around the front yards while I'm out working. Also I have found them going over there more and more by themselves and unaccompanied by me, as if they are anticipating the move.
J has already come down and completed all of the surveying for the land and home sale and it turns out that several sections of some of my neighbor's yards actually lay on my lands. I'm not gonna bother them about it though nor upset land use rights of way.

The summer season is over for us and the girls. All of their summer camps and classes are over. Both girls did excellent at camps and both did very well in the advanced science classes. E took awards at camp and now wants a four wheeler for Christmas, having won an award for mastery of the vehicle. K delivered extremely well in acting classes and E had her first official audition, which included presenting a dance number, a song, and a memorized dramatic monologue to an audience and her various directors and choreographers.
Now we have to arrange their normal school year academic and gym classes, piano lessons, dance lessons, girl scout troops, soccer and baseball teams and all the other stuff they do during the regular school year. I've already been by FS Elementary and met the new principal there and he has agreed to let them attend various baccalaureate classes which they can then audit like last year. E wants to take Spanish and K Art, but unfortunately because of their grade levels those classes are on opposites sides of the day at the school. It will be difficult to arrange things well for a single day's worth of classes, so I might let one day eat partially into their laboratories or field trips. Something you might find interesting J is that KR is now Vice Principal at FS and she is the one handling the class set ups for E and K.
Both girls are way out ahead of their class levels but I've fallen behind on their testing. It's been hard to get everything done with the press on my time and on D's time.

PERSONAL AFFAIRS: Of course there is the move and the fact that I am also getting new offices. A great deal of work to do over the next six months or so setting everything up and preparing for longer term modifications to both my work projects and to the new home. A lot of things I will want to change to suit me.
I have also been made technical advisor to my church and they have put me in charge of the Mission's house project, meaning I will be responsible for recruiting the missionaries and their families who live in the mission's home during the off season when they are not on assignment in the field. I'm also assisting with the Challenger's class for young kids and several other projects, though right now I'm kinda swamped and anything else they ask of me at the moment I will have to decline, even a Deaconship - if they offer it.
I made both the digital film slideshow and the VHS film presentation for the loan package of the church building/expansion project. I've made slideshows before, mainly of places I have Vadded and for work, like presentations for assignment (but haven't done that in awhile) and found I really enjoyed it. I'm thinking seriously about offering my services to the public in this regard as well as creating presentations on disk to accompany articles and non-fiction works I write. That could be interesting and might even be a unique marketing ploy. I'm also gonna be creating slideshows for some of my inventions now that I have new software which practically handles all aspects of editing, formatting, arranging, etc. by itself (once programmed), highly efficiently and extremely quickly.
I've even thought about creating digital presentations of artwork, architectural designs, and to accompany musical compositions I have completed. That is visual images to accompany musical compositions and/or music to accompany the art, architecture, etc. I've developed, all on the same disk. Just pop the disk in your media player and it could present everything at once, visually and audio files included and seamed together. It could also possibly work with games I've created, etc.
I'm back at my physical training to get into trim after recovering from my injuries, though the move and constant work has prevented me from training as much as I would like. Making good progress at batting and excellent progress at throwing the discus. Shooting a good deal more nowadays, and my sensory exercises go well.

As many of you guys know I haven't been to a barber or to get a haircut in about 15 to 20 years, having taught myself to cut my own hair a long time ago and everytime my hair got long enough I just pulled out the clippers and either buzzed myself or shaved my head bald. Well, my hair grew out a bit because I really haven't had time to cut it and once it reached my ears I decided to have a whack at it. But my wife said, "this time go to a barber and see what happens." (I think she just wanted some kinda new style for me.) So I looked around for a barber, not one of those man-fancy, metrosexual prancy boys who smell like perfume and hair "product," but a real barber, a real man. But they are extinct just about and I couldn't find one near me, even Garrett's in FI is gone. But when I went to get my oil changed and my car lubed I saw this place called Great Clips. E said, "Dad, why don't you get your hair cut while the car is being washed and serviced." So I walked down and took a seat and some woman cut my hair (first time I can ever remember where a woman cut my hair, not a trim - but a real haircut). She was really nice, fast, efficient and pleasant, a young, good looking blonde. She rubbed her hands through my hair while cutting it and put some kinda gook in my hair and massaged it in after the cut. She asked me if I wanted the top spikey like the models in the pictures in the shop, but I told her I didn't much care to look like a pretty boy, I had a brother that handled that kinda thing. But I told her she could rub some more whatever it was in my head, and massage that around a little bit as I kinda liked that. And she did. It wasn't an altogether unpleasant experience.
Afterwards she put me in the computer and we yakked a bit, and she spoke with the girl's too, suggesting things to me to do about their hair, but I told her it would be best to speak with their mother about that as hair wasn't exactly my field of expertise. I'm cosmetologically illiterate. The haircut was only ten bucks though and I reckoned that was about what I paid my for last haircut 15 years ago, so I asked if she was actually working off tips and when she said yes, I suggested she put as big a tip as she deserved on my card. Even so it was steal and I told her that and that she had done me a real service and that it was enjoyable to boot. I might even go back someday. Anywho the wife and my daughters and gals at the church say it looks nice and I've gone out several times lately and chicks have said my hair looks good so I guess she really did her job. Which is all you can ask.
Then I walked back up to AutoX, talked with TT about his business and how things were going (I always visit his shop if I can since I went to school with him ever since 6th grade, and we used to play ball together), got my car (did his usual fine job) and we headed home.
On the way I stopped by one of the new construction sites in town, yakked it up with one of the foremen, got a couple of construction boys to let me and the girls tour the parts of the building they had already finished and so we got a little industrial archaeology and daytime Vadding in before the afternoon was finished. Very enjoyable day.

Also, as for other matters, I have been having a number of interesting observations over the internet with authors like Gary Wassner and Steven Oliverez on subjects ranging from writing to literary criticism. Been a lot of fun and thought provoking in many respects. I've ordered books by both men, have already received the book by Steven but Gary's hasn't arrived yet. Don't know when I'll get the chance to read and really analyze them closely though, because of all that is happening right now. Maybe after the move.


NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS:

1 http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2005-08-31-bridge-collapse_x.htm?csp=24
Good Lord, that's a lot of people to die in a stampede.

From the Magazine World
2 The Invasion of the Chinese Cyberspies (And the Man Who Tried to Stop Them)
An exclusive look at how the hackers called TITAN RAIN are stealing U.S. secrets
By NATHAN THORNBURGH
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR
Posted Monday, Aug. 29, 2005It was another routine night for Shawn Carpenter. After a long day analyzing computer-network security for Sandia National Laboratories, where much of the U.S. nuclear arsenal is designed, Carpenter, 36, retreated to his ranch house in the hills overlooking Albuquerque, N.M., for a quick dinner and an early bedtime. He set his alarm for 2 a.m. Waking in the dark, he took a thermos of coffee and a pack of Nicorette gum to the cluster of computer terminals in his home office. As he had almost every night for the previous four months, he worked at his secret volunteer job until dawn, not as Shawn Carpenter, mid-level analyst, but as Spiderman--the apt nickname his military-intelligence handlers gave him--tirelessly pursuing a group of suspected Chinese cyberspies all over the world. Inside the machines, on a mission he believed the U.S. government supported, he clung unseen to the walls of their chat rooms and servers, secretly recording every move the snoopers made, passing the information to the Army and later to the FBI.
The hackers he was stalking, part of a cyberespionage ring that federal investigators code-named Titan Rain, first caught Carpenter's eye a year earlier when he helped investigate a network break-in at Lockheed Martin in September 2003. A strikingly similar attack hit Sandia several months later, but it wasn't until Carpenter compared notes with a counterpart in Army cyberintelligence that he suspected the scope of the threat. Methodical and voracious, these hackers wanted all the files they could find, and they were getting them by penetrating secure computer networks at the country's most sensitive military bases, defense contractors and aerospace companies.
Carpenter had never seen hackers work so quickly, with such a sense of purpose. They would commandeer a hidden section of a hard drive, zip up as many files as possible and immediately transmit the data to way stations in South Korea, Hong Kong or Taiwan before sending them to mainland China. They always made a silent escape, wiping their electronic fingerprints clean and leaving behind an almost undetectable beacon allowing them to re-enter the machine at will. An entire attack took 10 to 30 minutes. "Most hackers, if they actually get into a government network, get excited and make mistakes," says Carpenter. "Not these guys. They never hit a wrong key."
Goaded by curiosity and a sense that he could help the U.S. defend itself against a new breed of enemy, Carpenter gave chase to the attackers. He hopped just as stealthily from computer to computer across the globe, chasing the spies as they hijacked a web of far-flung computers. Eventually he followed the trail to its apparent end, in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. He found that the attacks emanated from just three Chinese routers that acted as the first connection point from a local network to the Internet.
It was a stunning breakthrough. In the world of cyberspying, locating the attackers' country of origin is rare. China, in particular, is known for having poorly defended servers that outsiders from around the world commandeer as their unwitting launchpads. Now Chinese computers appeared to be the aggressors.
Page 1 of 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next >>
From the Sep. 05, 2005 issue of TIME magazine

I found this article fascinating and extremely useful from various points of view, including national security, corporate espionage and military and private intelligence networks. I think Spiderman is another prime example of the very real aspects of the many discussions and proposals we have all had and made (and many of us have advocated) regarding the use of private individuals as vigilantes (of various kinds) employed by government(s) and the military to do jobs no professional would be in a good position to work.
Give me a thousand of these types of vigilantes and we could severely hobble our foreign enemies and cripple domestic crime.


3 I've been following the evacuation of New Orleans closely and much of the storm damage elsewhere, as well as efforts to rescue individuals and at emergency relief. I've also been assisting with relief efforts here and helping get some supplies out through the SBA. I'm thinking the damage to New Orleans may be so extensive that the city which arises from this disaster, assuming it is inhabitable in most respects in the future, will be an almost completely different city than the New Orleans of the past, which can only be a good thing.
Incredible loss of life, most of which was unnecessary had people simply prepared and evacuated prior to the storm's arrival. Always be prepared.
It is also time to hunt down and kill those armed looters and criminals who are interfering with security, supply distribution and rescue efforts. SWAT teams should be sent in to restore order, liquidate the thugs and help the soldiers and cops and rescue workers complete the evacuations.
Another interesting result of all of this has been rising gasoline and petroleum prices. After the storm everyone went out and began to buy huge quantities of gas, attempting to hoard the fuel, which only drained supplies rapidly and drove prices up further and faster. It boggles my mind how little in general people living in this nation and in other "educated" nations seem to understand markets and supply and demand and price structures. Supplies and refining capacity were reduced by the storm and so as a fix large groups of people rush to the gas pumps to fully extinguish supplies instead of operating moderately to allow supplies to be regenerated or transferred from reserves elsewhere. What do they teach in schools nowadays and how could that possibly pass for either basic economics or just plain common sense? The temporary draining of all supplies as an answer to shortage? Lines all across the county yesterday, as if I was watching the seventies again, with the same foolish herd mentality and foreshortened outlook you would expect of children and perennial idiots.
And we don't even have a moron like Carter egging us on this time. Of course I can hardly blame the younger kids and teenagers, they haven't really seen this kind of thing, and you can hardly expect insight or long term planning out of them due to their youth and lack of experience, but to see people my age running around draining supplies bare (meaning it will only take that much longer to replenish those same stocks) would have been funny if not being so absurd and ridiculous. Even my six year old daughter asked me, "Daddy if everyone buys all of the gas up, won't it become more expensive?" And I've only been teaching her economics for about 2 to 3 years. Instead of answering I asked her a question. "Well, K, if everyone buys up all the gas available right now, what will that mean?" After hardly a moment's thought she said, "It will take longer to get more gas and the price will stay higher."
One good result of all of this, since the main problem is not supply but refining capacity, is that maybe now liberals in Congress can be overwhelmed in their reactionary objections to progress and new refineries can be built immediately. 5 to 10 new large scale refining facilities should be built in the next 3 to 5 years to alleviate the immediate problems (as well as increasing domestic sources and stocks) and hopefully major refining capacity will no longer be "clustered" in and around production and extraction facilities, so that refinery capacity can be spread out over larger areas to avoid refining loss during localized disasters. But, we'll see.
Also hopefully this will spur new technological development and inventions research for energy sources providing power to homes and businesses and well as locomotion to transport vehicles. But again, we'll see what the lessons learned actually are and whether the nation as a whole can figure out what actually needs to be done versus what they just feel good about doing.


LOCAL NEWS: It looks like I'll be teaching the RT classes again this year. I don't mind, kind of enjoyed it last year, but teaching is time I could be in the field or doing something else, but I guess that's the price you pay. I've never minded teaching, but it doesn't thrill me either.

JOKES: NSTR

INVESTIGATIONS/CASES: Been patrolling a lot when I've had the opportunity. I've had to put some of the cold cases I've been working on hold due to the move. Once I get settled into the new house and have my new offices it should be much easier to pursue any number of things. But overall the crime rate has been remarkably low and this has also given me the opportunity to work my contacts and informants in preparation for future events and has allowed me to exercise some measure of experimentation. For instance I have been able to undertake, though only sporadically, three near simultaneous anticipation projects and to partially observe and measure the effectiveness of each.

EXPERIMENTS: Little time to conduct any experiments due to time constraints.
a. Somatic/Genetic- K had another outbreak of eczema. It was my fault really, as over time, after using the treatment method and medicine I had originally invented cleared her eczema up nearly completely, I simply stopped manufacturing anymore and discontinued treatment. But she re-flared recently (probably due to hot and humid weather) and so I've created a new batch of medicine but this time I improved the formula through the addition of small amounts of Epsom salts, citric acid, calcinated and chelated zinc, antihistamines, sulfur and albuterol sulfate. It has had even better effects that the original medicine I created.
I've also discovered by experimentation that this medicine is extremely useful as both a topical antiseptic and helps minor cuts, scrapes and scratches to heal faster than normal. I've been testing it on both K and on my own minor wounds. I estimate healing speed to be about 30 to 50% higher with the medicine alone, and I can raise that rate to about 150 to 200 % faster if I use a lotion I have developed along with bandaging. The anti-eczema treatment is delivered in the form of an aerosol, mostly water based spray.
b. Aesic- NSTR
c. Psychaec- NSTR
d. ACUT- Got three anticipation projects running simultaneously, but haven't been able to fully test any of them due to other work demands and the move.
e. Composition/Design- NSTR
f. Scientific- This isn't really an experiment per se but I have been making a number of close order lunar observations through my telescope and have also been sketching my observations and digitally recording some of the images. When I get the money I'm gonna buy a telescope big enough to put in a personal observatory, build a personal observatory, and design and construct a telescope which can digitally focus and record visual images and one which also can receive radio transmissions and convert those signatures into digital images. I'd also like to take up len's grinding and I'm interested in testing some designs I've developed as well as seeing if compounded and composite lenses might have properties exceeding normal optics.
As for real experiments I'm devising some functional outlines for some of the experiments I've been envisioning as described in the OPAE section below under Scientific Works.

MEDIA REVIEWS: Critiqued in value from 1 to 10, 10 being the best.
Film/Video/DVD- King Arthur- I was pleasantly surprised, especially by the ideals of chivalry and communion at arms among the comrades, as well as by the historical speculation. Nice. 8
A Night at the Opera- the Marx brothers and Three Stooges are the funniest men to have ever lived. The brothers at their best. 10
13 rue madeleine- extremely good period piece. 9
The Man who Corrupted Hadleyburg- very good. 8
Bill Monroe - Father of Bluegrass Music- excellent musical history 9
The Pirates of Penzance- always entertaining. 8
The X Files Movie- I think I like this film better now than when I saw it at the theatres. The Vadding aspects (always my favorite part of the show) were superb. 9
Russian Ark- a Russian film, so be warned, it ain't your typical blow me up. Still, I gotta thing for Russian film. 8
History's Ancient Legacies, volumes 3,4,5,6 9
Hitch- this romantic comedy was not very good at first but kept getting progressively better until at the end it was so good it remained me of fifties' era romantic comedies. Will Smith came off as a sort of Cary Grant like figure and I thought he did an excellent job. The chick lead was simultaneously one of the best looking (prettiest) and sexiest women I have ever seen on screen. I recommend this film. 8
The Pacifier- 6 My daughters loved this, I didn't like it so much, but am giving it a 6 because kids like it.
Are We There Yet?- 6 Very funny in some scenes, not so hot in others, but mostly just a heartwarmer/kid film.
Dead Man's Walk- prequel to the Lonesome Dove Western series. Probably the best and most accurate fictional series about the later Western frontier ever written or filmed. As good as Lonesome Dove. Superb 10
A Brilliant Madness- a true life biography of John Nash, with commentary by Nash. Extremely good 9
The Serpent's Egg- Ingmar Bergman. What else do I need to say? Same for Hour of the Wolf. 10
Hour of the Wolf- 9
Jupiter's Wife- this is one of the most bizarre, realistic psychological portraits of an individual I've ever seen (and you know I've seen a few) - especially on film. Watch it if you can. 9
The Jacket- I highly recommend this. As good in many ways to me as the Machinist. Great ending. 9
The Life of Leonardo Da Vinci- very good biography 10
Youth of the Beast- 9
Lagaan: Once Upon a time in India- I don't know if this is a Bollywood production or not, I doubt it, but regardless of who made it I really enjoyed it. 8
Majikat- this is a restored concert and archival film of Cat Stevens in concert in 1976. I found it to be extremely entertaining. I especially liked the versions of You may be Right, Wild World, Moonshadow (including the animation he made), and the Archival footage. The man was an old style minstrel, a medieval bard. Man could he write a song. 9
Mystic River- I really didn't have much hope for this film, especially given the fact that I didn't expect it to hold up well to the book at all. But I was really surprised. I even liked Bacon and Penn in their roles and I don't care much for either actor, nor Penn as a man. 9
Rivers and Tides- beautiful piece of work. Wish I had made it. 10


Television- Justice League Unlimited - this entire new season of JLU has been incredibly good. It only gets darker as it goes along. It, and Battlestar Galactica are the only shows I videotape or have the wife videotape if I'm not around. 10
Battlestar Galactica- this show is so good that it is almost exactly the way I would have made it if I had made it. I've already figured out several of the plot mysteries though. But even knowing that the show has to be the best one of Sci-Fi series ever, tied with the original Star Trek. It even exceeds Space: Above and Beyond in most respects. It is so gritty that you almost forget you're watching Sci-Fi at all, so realistic is it. 10
Stargate Atlantis- I like this show better than the original Stargate. Major Shepherd, or is it Lt. Colonel now, is really a great character. I like the new guy in dreads, and Tayla (not really sure of the spelling) is easy on the eyes. I also like Skinner as commander of the Prometheus. It's good they have a little naval bite in their arsenal. 9
Stargate SG1- I really like the addition of the new female. She's extremely entertaining, and attractive in an odd, hard to describe way. I miss Jack though.
Smallville- I haven't been watching it during rerun season but I'm looking forward to the new season. 8
Over There- this show just keeps getting better and better in my opinion and everytime I think it is going to go south they pull it out of the ringer and end up making it more realistic and good than I had anticipated it would become PC and wussie. I especially like the Sarge (Scream) and Angel and Dim and Smoke. Tariq is growing on me and truth be told he's he best field soldier in the fire team. Good for just about any duty. Dim's wife is a real twisted piece of work though, she needs a good thorough beating to get straightened out. So far I have especially liked the episode about Roadblock duty and the conclusion to the attempted hostage rescue of the reporter. 10 so far.

Music- The Chieftains 3
Elijah and Elias
Beyond Chant: Mysteries of the Renaissance
Gloria in D Major - Vivaldi
Magnificat in D Major - Bach
Brandenburg Concerti - Bach
Pictures at an Exhibition - Mussorgsky
Symphony No. 9 - Dvorak
Greatest Hits of Neil Young
The Civil War soundtrack
Water from the Well - Chieftains
Symphony No. 3- Bruckner
Tchaikovsky and Korngold: Violin concerti for orchestra
The Best of Tom Jones
Glenn Miller Greatest Hits
Britten- The War Requiem, Opus 66
Wagner- Der fliegende Hollander
Looking to the East- compositions based upon Oriental and Middle eastern Music- very interesting and enjoyable, has given me a few ideas for compositions of my own especially the Habiru sections of my opera Lord Storm and Beauty.
The Beatles Anthology, volume 2- I especially liked the versions of the following works appearing on this CD; Norwegian Wood, Eleanor Rigby (strings only), I'm Only Sleeping, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, A Day in the Life, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, The Fool on the Hill, Lady Madonna, and Hello, Goodbye (one of my favorite Beatle's songs)
Prokofiev, Symphony no. 1

Games- Batman Begins- finally finished this. Excellent first effort in the franchise, but I could see many things worth improving. 8
Spiderman 2- extremely entertaining if not very realistic in many ways. Haven't finished it though, still stuck on the Statue of Liberty and haven't had time to play any games in the past month or so. 9

Books/Audio-
Non Fiction:
Men in Black- excellent send up and exposition on the American judiciary.
The Wormwood File
Desert Father - very good spiritual comparative biography of Saint Anthony
Chronicles Volume One, Autobiography of Bob Dylan- a very different man than the hippies would make out. I've always loved his lyrics and songwriting ability but after reading his biography I have real respect for the man. He's actually anti-hippy, which makes the whole, erroneous personna and myth which the hippies developed around him that much more amusing and ironic. But what do you expect out of hippies?
The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach- solid biography
World Poetry- some fairly modern poetry from others parts of the world ain't half bad. Far better than he modern crap put out in America and Europe.
America's Secret War
A Pirate of Exquisite Mind; the Life of William Dampier- one of the best biographies I've read in a long time about a truly fascinating man.
The House You Build
Spy Handler- Memoir of a KGB Officer- good, solid Intel and espionage exposition from a personal point of view.
Kepler's Witch - this is a biography of Kepler that was so good I would rank it right up there with Galileo's Daughter. Every bit as fascinating and brilliant and devout a man as was Galileo, and Newton, and Bacon. A scientist's scientist in the same way Michelangelo was an artist's artist. He was also a type of Renaissance genius like Da Vinci.
Miles Gone By- literary biography of William F. Buckley Jr.
The Watchman - biography of serial cracker Kevin Poulsen. Very interesting.
How to Write Horror Fiction
How to Write Action Adventure Novels
The Magazine Article
How to Write and Sell True Crime
Writing: Craft and Art
The Sell Your Novel Toolkit
Writer Tells All- extremely useful
Oxford Dictionary of Nicknames- very interesting.
Game Art: The Graphic Art of Computer Games
Writing and Illustrating the Graphic Novel
Music Theory
100 Greatest Poems of All Time- a very good selection of what poetry should be.
Writer's Market Companion
The Invisible Web- one of the most interesting and especially useful books on the history and development of the internet and web I've ever read.
Ghost Soldiers- the book the Great Rescue is based upon. One of the best military biographies and expositions I've ever read. Highly recommended. A brilliant glimpse at war, Special Forces, and imprisonment as a POW in Asia.
Brunelleschi's Dome- about the Renaissance genius who built the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore. An engineering and personal biography I couldn't put down.
On Writing
The Confident Hope of a Miracle- a biography of the Spanish Armada. Extremely good biography of an historical event and fleet.
God on the Quad
Cracking More Cases- by Dr. Henry Lee
Lyrics- Bob Dylan
The 28 Biggest Writing Blunders
The Medieval Reader- extremely good.
On Becoming a Novelist - probably the best book I've ever read on writing
100 things Every Writer Needs to Know
Where Shall Wisdom Be Found - excellent literary critiques by Harold Bloom
Under and Alone - a terrifically good read about an undercover ATF/SRT agent, Billy Queen, infiltrating the Mongols.
Inside the Minds of Mass Murderers - a good book by the forensic psychologist Katherine Ramsland. I don't always agree with her but Ramsland is a pretty good writer and has some fascinating theories.
The Twenty Six Dramatic Situations
Compass- an excellent study of early and later naval exploration focusing upon the compass as the chief instrument of naval exploration and navigation. I loved it, it was a treasure trove of nautical trivia and data.

Fiction:
Brimstone
The Mauritius Command
Artemis Fowl- I've enjoyed the Fowl books to an enormous degree, especially considering they are fiction. I'm trying to read the whole series and often listen to the books with the girls. Butler is by far my favorite character, Fowl is more his foil than the other way round.
Artemis Fowl: the Arctic Incident
Artemis Fowl: the Eternity Code
Dead Man's Walk
Mr. Norrell and Jonathan Strange- an extremely interesting take on fantasy. I wish more fantasy writers, or writer's period, could be this original. It is a talker of a book though, you can tell a woman wrote it.
BOLO- the new book by David Weber, not the original. As good as the original series of stories however.
The Big Sleep - need I say more? 10
Farewell My lovely - 8

Graphic Novels:
Superman: Red Son - probably the single best graphic novel I have ever read on Superman
Superman: President Lex - very good Superman graphic novel
Superman: Return to Krypton - a very mediocre Superman GN
Catwoman: Crooked Little Town - I've never been a real fan of Catwoman but this was alright.
Gotham Central: in the Line of Duty - a very good GN about the GCPD and the detectives on that force. Very accurate portrayal of Dicks in some cases, very inaccurate in others. My Criticism though is that it placed far too much emphasis on Batman. Batman should have played either a support role or no role at all in any of the encounters except for the case against Freeze when Freeze murders a GCPD Dick. The homicide cases weren't badly written at all, and I liked the Firebug juvenile homicide case especially well. It read almost like a real case and was well handled by the Detectives.
Batman: Tales of the Demon
Superman: Secret Identity - One of the best Superman graphic novels I may have ever read. Rivals Red Son. Very original.
Batman: Detective No. 27
Batman: Black and White Vol. 2
Batman: Hush, volume 1
Spiderman: Sins Past
Spiderman: The Book of Ezekiel
Spider Man: Doctor Octopus - Year One


Theory Papers/Essays/Analyses/Articles/Lectures/Sermons- I saw a lecture from the Center of Japanese and Far Eastern Studies on Godzilla. I thought the lecturer did a fairly good job but that my own theories on Godzilla are far better. I won't bore you with them though, I know you guys and dolls get sick of me talking about the Japs and Godzilla and Superman.
The Global Rise of Religious Violence - Mark Juergensmeyer, extremely good lecture without a lot of political hand wringing and pansification.
Faith and Organization - a sermon given by my own pastor. Very interesting juxtaposition between the ideas of faith and organization and organizational ability. I'd never really considered the issue of organizational ability in the context of how faith shapes organizational structure and planning for future events. It has led me to begin formulating the outlines for a series of metaphysical sermons of my own. I haven't written a sermon since I was studying for the priesthood. I'm kinda excited about what I'm developing so far.
Sniper Training: Iragi Insurgent Tactics
PSIC Handbook
I haven't had any time lately to keep up with my trade magazine or special articles so I haven't read any of those.

OPAE:
Fiction- have written scenes for the following works: Doppleganger, The Basilegate, Terra G., Curae, Tiamat, The Vadder (working title, or possibly I'll call it Green and Black), The Composite Angel, Three Lands and Cache of Saint Andrew. I've also written or finished a couple of short stories and have begun to outline a couple of new plots.
Non Fiction- I have been working a little on my autobiography and memoirs, and have begun work on the essays, The Duties and Education of the Renaissance Man and Woman, The Renaissance Soldier, The New Vigilante, The Political Nature of the Republic, The Education of the American Citizen and the sister essay, The Public as Individual, as well as Chimerical Aspirations (creating new hybrid genetic structures and species and what this will mean for Man) I'm also sketching out a true crime book on the murder of Charlie Russel. I'm thinking of calling it a Crime of Dissonance. And also thinking about writing a true crime short story or small novella on the murder of DF. I'm thinking I might present or develop a new kind (or genre) of book detailing as yet unsolved Cold Cases, with each book presenting factual presentations of let's say 6 to 10 unsolved Cold Cases with my conclusions on likely perps or suspects for each case at the end of each book.
Theory Papers/Essays/Analyses/Articles/Sermons- Outlining a new series of sermons on metaphysical matters which I'm thinking about creating using some of my theory papers on spiritual matters.
Scientific Works- working on some of my gravity proofs but recent studies in geometry have led me to the conclusion that I might be able to develop some theorems combining geometrically restructuring matrixes spread over the curvature of a gravitational field projected as interacting mass/force waves produced from each object. (The idea that light moves as both waves and particles gave me the idea that in certain circumstances gravity might act as both the commonly accepted space time curvature surrounding a massive body and yet at other times might act as an accelerating mass-wave projection field.) The basic idea is that as two objects of sufficient mass to produce their own attractive gravitational fields approach one another the overlapping fields produce shifting mass signatures in both bodies which increase in a directly proportional manner related to proximity calculated as area and velocity. That the overlapping fields produce small but measurable mass disruptions in both bodies greatest at the points of common interface and that if these bodies could also be spun in similar or opposite directions while at the same time the separate body electromagnetic polarities could be simultaneously or separately shifted rapidly enough that a certain effect could be achieved. (I'm not saying what I believe that effect[s] to be at this point.)
I'm also trying to calculate and imagine what effect subatomic spin might have in relation to electromagnetic polarity in a mass shifting dynamically increasing gravitational field and if it might not be possible to use such a field to produce high energy shifting polarity electromagnetic particles (which are also shifting spin states) for energy production and communication signals.
One assumption is that a steady stream of polarity shifting particles might be fed outwards but the subatomic spin shifts could be read in communications beams as an underlying on-off code, the duration of a steady spin or the frequency or speed of shift serving as an encryption burst.
I've also got some ideas on energy production but I'll have to work those later.
It would be nice to get access to a high energy particle slab but I guess I could always suggest an experiment or set of experiments to some friends of mine and let them play with the ideas and results. I've ideas for a number of physics experiments like this but since I have no access to particle and collision labs I was thinking about running these experiments by people I know at JPL (who worked on the NASA Scramjet project) to see if they can suggest university or private labs that might be interested in conducting research and experimentation on gravity, electromagnetic fields and spintronics.
Poetry/Lyrics/Songs- I've written maybe two or three poems lately. No real time.
Musical Compositions- No time to work on any of my musical compositions other than a bit of editing on older works and compositions.
Artwork/Architecture/Design- I've made some modifications to the church I designed after reading Brunelleschi's Dome and reviewing my own theory paper on the Ship of the Soul.
Game/TSS Designs- Proceeding on the Terra Ghantik project. Slowly though.
Video/Computer/TSS Game Designs- working scenes for the Vadder as well as outlining a plot for a game about being an undercover detective.
Inventions- a few software/program designs as well as putting together a presentation for a company.

SHARED FILES: I'd like to mention a few quality software products I've recently installed and/or downloaded.
Google Earth - extremely useful
Navaho Lock with Voice
Move on Boot - recommended to me because of XP's tendency to randomly lock files
Dound's Steganographer - updated from my original program
B's Recorder Gold 5
System Mechanic - after an initial adjustment period I'm actually coming to like this product better than Nortons. It works very well, the problem is a very complicated GUI.

WEBSITES/SOFTWARE:
http://www.vfinance.com/
http://developer.intel.com/technology/easeofuse/index.htm
http://www.hg.org/
http://www.rotteneggs.com/re_index.php3
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

GRAPHIX: See attached file - images from my digital camera converted to GIF files. - excised


DANTE'S 9TH LEVEL OF HELL

Deus Ordere et Facere Nos Verite