I have written a science fiction novelette actually, about a quarter the size of a regular book and three times the length of a short story. The story is about 4 beings (more or less like people) who visit Earth.
One of the beings gives advice on how Earth can avoid destruction from terrorists. Two wildly different beings tell how the advice is saving their home worlds from destruction. There is delightful interaction with a little Chinese girl and a robot, one of the four visitors.
The novel is available as an Amazon ebook and can be read on a Kindle. The price of the book is 99 cents, the smallest price I could make. The name of the book is "The Day The Earth Was Visited". The author (me) is listed as Theodore Herrman (2 letters "r"and 1 letter "n").
All comments/criticism, pro or con are welcome.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
Troubling encounter at the Gas Station
I had a troubling experience a couple of days ago. I don't know why just yet, but this bothers me.
I pulled into my usual gas station to fill up. Cheapest place in town, of course. I was pulling a small utility trailer full of no-longer-wanted household furniture to the county landfill. After topping off the gas tank, I pulled away from the pump but stopped at a more remote place in the far end of the gas station. I wanted to check the ropes for tightness so that nothing would fly out of the trailer while under way.
A car with two young twenties something people in it, a driver and a front seat passenger, pulled away from the gas pump in the lane adjacent to the one I had just left. The car's radio was playing acid rock music fairly loudly. Acid rock to me is music with lots of guitar with rasp turned up full, lots of drum rim shots, playing something that one would not ever be able to later whistle the melody to. Perhaps it was hip hop and not acid rock because there was a kind of monotone lyric as well, but I could not understand a single word of it. Whatever.
As the car pulled out and headed toward the exit, it swerved close to me and stopped. The passenger turned down the volume on the music, leaned out and asked me, "Hey, how about a buck? We need gas money." I shook my head no. I noticed he apparently had money to buy cigarettes, one of which he was smoking. When asked for money I usually soften my 'no' answer with a comment or two. But in this case, the passenger's fairly agressive behavior made me limit my response to the single word I had already spoken. I was just about ready to turn around and continue my work when the thought occurred to me to keep my eyes on this young fellow in case he left the car and came toward me.
The passenger quickly turned his head and said something I could not hear, to the car's driver. Then the passenger turned to me, leaned further out the window, and gave me the middle finger salute. At the same time he said the F word and 'you!' My wife, on the other side of our pickup truck stopped what she was doing so that she could pay attention to what was happening on my side.
My friend the passenger seeing nothing more was forcoming, either talk or money, laughed and gave me another salute. Then he, the driver, and the car sped away.
End of story except:
It bothers me that the passenger showed substantial disrespect to me, a senior citizen. It probably never occurred to him that I have successfully lived through a number of crises during my lifetime whereas it is unknown whether he will be able to survive whatever crises life places in his path.
It bothers me that on getting a 'no' answer for a shouted request unlikely to be granted, he would exhibit even more disrespect and hostility. It cannot be that he actually expected to get a handout; because I would guess most of the time similar requests would go unmet.
It bothers me that the passenger, and probably the driver, apparently lack strong enough work ethics to earn their own gas money. Instead, they hope to get an unearned handout from a complete stranger.
It bothers me that I have seen many such poor achievers in America. It bothers me that the parents of the passenger failed to adequately prepare their son to flourish in the world we have today. I'm sure his parents would verbally defend themselves to the charge of inadequate child preparation to deal with life. Perhaps the passenger is merely duplicating the behavior he observed in his parents. How many generations backwards from the parents could we trace more flawed upbringings?
It bothers me that in many other countries, particularly those with strong work ethics, like China and India, there are probably fewer instances of such poor behavior. In those countries I would imagine there are fewer instances where lack of self-discipline means difficult school work goes unlearned, and difficult life choices are not overcome.
I guess what bothers me is that I see where the kind of behavior I saw in this incident will lead us. America is well on the road to becoming a second rate world power because we the people have allowed ourselves and our children to take the easy way. Others, hungrier than us will work harder, use more self discipline, do whatever they need to do to climb over us.
I pulled into my usual gas station to fill up. Cheapest place in town, of course. I was pulling a small utility trailer full of no-longer-wanted household furniture to the county landfill. After topping off the gas tank, I pulled away from the pump but stopped at a more remote place in the far end of the gas station. I wanted to check the ropes for tightness so that nothing would fly out of the trailer while under way.
A car with two young twenties something people in it, a driver and a front seat passenger, pulled away from the gas pump in the lane adjacent to the one I had just left. The car's radio was playing acid rock music fairly loudly. Acid rock to me is music with lots of guitar with rasp turned up full, lots of drum rim shots, playing something that one would not ever be able to later whistle the melody to. Perhaps it was hip hop and not acid rock because there was a kind of monotone lyric as well, but I could not understand a single word of it. Whatever.
As the car pulled out and headed toward the exit, it swerved close to me and stopped. The passenger turned down the volume on the music, leaned out and asked me, "Hey, how about a buck? We need gas money." I shook my head no. I noticed he apparently had money to buy cigarettes, one of which he was smoking. When asked for money I usually soften my 'no' answer with a comment or two. But in this case, the passenger's fairly agressive behavior made me limit my response to the single word I had already spoken. I was just about ready to turn around and continue my work when the thought occurred to me to keep my eyes on this young fellow in case he left the car and came toward me.
The passenger quickly turned his head and said something I could not hear, to the car's driver. Then the passenger turned to me, leaned further out the window, and gave me the middle finger salute. At the same time he said the F word and 'you!' My wife, on the other side of our pickup truck stopped what she was doing so that she could pay attention to what was happening on my side.
My friend the passenger seeing nothing more was forcoming, either talk or money, laughed and gave me another salute. Then he, the driver, and the car sped away.
End of story except:
It bothers me that the passenger showed substantial disrespect to me, a senior citizen. It probably never occurred to him that I have successfully lived through a number of crises during my lifetime whereas it is unknown whether he will be able to survive whatever crises life places in his path.
It bothers me that on getting a 'no' answer for a shouted request unlikely to be granted, he would exhibit even more disrespect and hostility. It cannot be that he actually expected to get a handout; because I would guess most of the time similar requests would go unmet.
It bothers me that the passenger, and probably the driver, apparently lack strong enough work ethics to earn their own gas money. Instead, they hope to get an unearned handout from a complete stranger.
It bothers me that I have seen many such poor achievers in America. It bothers me that the parents of the passenger failed to adequately prepare their son to flourish in the world we have today. I'm sure his parents would verbally defend themselves to the charge of inadequate child preparation to deal with life. Perhaps the passenger is merely duplicating the behavior he observed in his parents. How many generations backwards from the parents could we trace more flawed upbringings?
It bothers me that in many other countries, particularly those with strong work ethics, like China and India, there are probably fewer instances of such poor behavior. In those countries I would imagine there are fewer instances where lack of self-discipline means difficult school work goes unlearned, and difficult life choices are not overcome.
I guess what bothers me is that I see where the kind of behavior I saw in this incident will lead us. America is well on the road to becoming a second rate world power because we the people have allowed ourselves and our children to take the easy way. Others, hungrier than us will work harder, use more self discipline, do whatever they need to do to climb over us.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Ted's Musings: Imation Solid State Drive - Doesn't work and no te...
Ted's Musings: Imation Solid State Drive - Doesn't work and no te...: "Imation Solid State Drive. Sad story. Dec 29, 2010I bought a 64 GB SATA II solid state hard drive (ssd) from Buy.com. It was&nbs..."
Imation Solid State Drive - Doesn't work and no tech support
Imation Solid State Drive. Sad story. Dec 29, 2010
I bought a 64 GB SATA II solid state hard drive (ssd) from Buy.com. It was manufactured by Imation.
Imation supplies a small kit with a CD containing a small operating system to clone every last bit on one’s mechanical hard drive onto the solid state drive. Did that. Cloned perfectly.
I used the new ssd for a couple of days and noticed that the mouse cursor occasionally froze on the screen. Also noticed that the little blue led indicating activity on the hard drive, ssd in this case, was lit continuously. Only thing I could do when the mouse cursor froze was to physically turn off the power and reboot. Problem got worse, within an hour after each reboot, the mouse cursor froze, etc. all over again.
Imation tech support said to ship the ssd back to them, that the firmware needed updating. They do not include the necessary cables in the kit to do that yourself.
Sent it back. Got it back. Installed it again. Same mouse cursor freeze, just like before.
I called Imation's tech support line, and was told on Dec 20 that I would receive help within 24 - 48 hours. Today is Dec 29. Have not heard, nor seen any phone call or email --nothing.
I wrote an email complaining about poor tech support to the CEO of Imation, but it turns out he does not have an email address at his own company. I sent the same letter to Imation tech support and asked that the letter be sent to the CEO. No response from him or anyone or tech support.
I will trash Imation’s ssd and buy an OCZ ssd which is one of two premium brands. Comparative studies that you can see on the internet show that Intel and OCZ solid state drives far outperform Imation’s whose performance is quiute slow compared to the two name brands.
Even though I knew Imation's ssd was slower than OCZ or Intel, the kit to clone my mechanical hard drive onto the ssd made it more desireable than the other two. No software reinstalls. Imation's price was lower than the other two. Still, shouldn't have bought it, hindsight now tells me.
Though you would welcome this story as an Imation brand ssd in my opinion is one to stay away from. Save your money and much heartache.
Cevicheman
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