S F...

 Sometime abbreviation for sci fi aka science fiction.

The best way to get some points across is through fiction, actually faction.

It can frighten.  It can warn.  It can offer ways to triumph.

Long ago, I discussed the encroaching evil in the world.  There are several warnings and gateway works around.  They offer hope and solutions.

The person I engaged in conversation said there was no use getting upset about things we cannot change.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

She was refuting the very concepts she and many embrace re SF..

Don't fall for hopelessness.

If we lie down or bend over, we'll truly be sc***ed.

That view countermands the Founders.  It subverts Freedom.

We refuse to live in fantasy and let the winds of fate bat us around.

We must ride the waves of destiny.

Don't betray SF.

Psych 101

 Yes I was a Clinical Psych major.  I was on a fast track to start on a doctorate.  I'll talk reasons I didn't another time.

The staff was one of the best Psych departments around, along with the Socio Dept.  Good memories of those days and the opportunities with which I did avail myself.

Psych 101 is the basic course all take for a Bachelor's no matter the major.  

Many stories could ensue and maybe I'll do a bio one day.

Here is an interesting interlude.

My intro class was taught by my mentor, the head of the Psych department.  Great guy and quite human, not stuffy.

He interlaced facts with anecdotes and tales of a much travelled life.

There are a lot of initial lessons to be learned, as in all of life.

One of them is observation/perception.

During a lecture, someone rushed into the room creating a disturbance.  It wasn't too violent, just enough to jar us, at least supposedly.

It quieted down and our prof said it was a test.  He asked each of us to describe what happened, with details of appearance etc.

Many over or under observed.  Mine was one of the most accurate.  Tooting my own horn lol.

It's important to develop observation/perception skills.  It's true for all kinds of events.  Tumultuous times, in which the fate of the country and the world hang in the balance, demands it.

Funny enough, I watched A Man Called Intrepid about Sir William Stephenson and his org during WW2 last night.  Whatever you think of intel today, many were sacrificed for Freedom.  The ones who would be our masters use techniques, as do we, to further a cause.

The scenario described above was used in agent training, though in a more intense way.

May we all be graduates of Freedom 101.

Our post grad future awaits.

Apes Redux...

 Must be Redux month lol.

Some things surely need to be brought back.

Planet of the Apes was an extraordinary novel.  I suggest you read it.

It goes into greater depth than the movie.

Astronauts end up on a planet orbiting Betelgeuse where apes predominate and humans are the feral beasts.

There are nuances and a surprise double ending. 

The fate of one human is to revert to bestiality.  When approached by the protagonist, he screeches and runs scared to the pack.  This is the scientist who had invited the protagonist on the expedition.

Think of today.

We stand up to the beast or become cowardly mewling beasts ourselves.

Whose planet is it?

Past Redux...

 Mt Dad died a week before my Senior year of high school began.  Such mixed emotions and events.  They are varied and a whole account would fill at least a post.

It is enough to mention this as an illustration.  That was then.  This is now.

One time, I had finished writing a sermon at a downtown church library.

As I exited, there was some kind of festival going on.

I ran into an old buddy from high school.

Did the usual hi, how're things etc.

I reminisced re those years as is normal'.

He remonstrated me and said I should stop living in the past.

I was astonished.

How could a casual meeting and recounting be living in the past?

I made not of this and we parted.

Perhaps it triggered unhappy events for him.  Not as unhappy as mine I wager.

There are some who do live in the past.  The good old days.

OK.  

They retreat.  Hide.

Well, we don't live in the past.  We remember.

The past is a basis for the present and a springboard for the future.

To do the former is to live in denial.

To do the latter is to assess and go forward, not get stuck.

What do you need?  Want?

7/4

 A day to celebrate, remember, contemplate.

It's right to have a good time.  But we must never stop there.

Remember what happened and the sacrifice of the Founders.

Many lost all-except Freedom.  Can we do likewise?  Think about it.

It is time to do more.  Just reacting and defending are not enough.

We must be proactive.  We mustn't let tyranny off.

Be like the Founders

Termites

 We had termites in the backyard at the old house.

They are progressive.  They took out a maple which crumbled and fell.  Then they spread to another and it died slowly.  Limbs fell and one even snapped in a windstorm.  

Why didn't we take care of it earlier?  Slow almost secret deterioration and preoccupation with the interior.

However, far as we know they have stopped the rot.

There are other wood eating insects, hornets especially.  So-called death watch beetles work from within.  They have a weird knock as their 'work' continues.

That house survived.  Not just the bugs, but slow breakdown.  It was 200 years old and solidly built.  It has been restored, and should last for a long time.

It takes perseverance and skill to keep it up.

On the dawn of 7/4, the symbology is obvious.

Be alert.  Restore.  Maintain.

Vigilance.

Bugs

 Not listening devices.  Maybe irritation.

I remember going on bug hunts on Saturdays with my siblings for their HS biology classes.

Their classes would sweep fields with nets and capture different type insects.  They placed them in kill jars then pinned them to boards.

My favorite part was going to a drive-in afterwards.  A post on them would be cool for another time.

A type of research ensues.  Where can the subjects go?  They're pinned.  There are, of course, live studies too.

Scientific curiosity motivates people.  We know how that can be taken to extremes especially with humans.

Don't let them pin you.  Let them think they know and meanwhile do Freedom.

Don't let them make you eat bugs either.