Stories Untold

Never forsaken, yet feeling alone
Buried hearts afire, still cold as a stone
Severed wings spread wide, eyes turned to the sky
One day soon unnested, lifting to fly

Shaken in torment, bitter rivers we run
Releasing our pain, eyes blind to the sun
Tears once forgotten, revealing our soul
Pain passes once more, reaping steep tolls

Taken for granted, the love that we share
Ticking time passes, without glance or a care
Leaving us lost, fertile seeds still slumber
Awaken spring rainfall, chasing the thunder

Though Love she is blind, eternal she weeps
For once is she sown, forever she keeps
Our spirit of life, unending unfolds
To each of us a whisper, our stories untold

I finally broke down and got on FaceBook

Well I finally stopped resisting and set up a FaceBook account. I am finding people from high school and past jobs that I never would have expected to hear from. It is odd how life goes on and we forget so many people we once were close to. I am excited to see them all and hear about their families and accomplishments. We can get so segregated in this society but now through the wonders of technology we can at least chat a bit with people we once were friends with. Just think, not so long ago this was not even possible. What a strange new world we live in.

New Blog is Up

Here is the new blog. It is not what I am intending to do yet. It is basically just a rant, but maybe I will keep it as my rant space and start another one for serious factual discussion. Let me know what you think.

Shockingly Tragic Blog

New Blog Ideas

I have been out of the loop for a long time. Between unemployment and new projects I haven't had much to say that you would be interested in. One of the new projects I have in mind is a new blog. I am looking for subject matter and am hoping someone reading this will let me know of any they may have. I am looking to start a blog concerning human rights, amnesty, and any world current events (and the history behind them).

The mission of this blog will not be to give people a political soapbox. I am not interested in politics per se. What I am interested in is creating a small community of bloggers that will write articles on events that are not given play in the mainstream media. We as human beings are woefully uninformed as a whole and many injustices in the world go unnoticed by the masses.

I have no delusions of grandeur here. I don't expect to change the world over night. What I do want to do is educate people and maybe change people's minds about certain issues. Issues could range anywhere from the Sudan, Chechnya, and other regions where genocide and mass murders are taking place to more local issues like growing poverty in a certain area. What I don't want is pure rhetoric on the issues.

I have never been strongly on any side of political issues. I have very strong opinions about many issues, but I don't ever mistake that my opinion is fact. I too an uninformed because most of the information I get is from the mainstream media. Rhetoric is everywhere. Facts are sparse and incomplete, and many times not actually fact. "Fact and Fiction work as a team" (Jack Johnson) I want to gather data from organizations (United Nations, Amnesty International, etc) along with personal stories from people directly affected. What happens with it will remain to be seen.

If this actually starts to get any traction, the end goal will be to start using the information politically. Primarily I want to start petitions to accompany articles and reports which will be sent to politicians and organizations that CAN facilitate change. There is so much division in the world over so many issues. I do not want to tackle issues that are already in the media, unless the issue is being misrepresented. I want to go after the issues that are being ignored. Many issues are out there that even our politicians are not informed over.

For instance, Chechnya and its history have been largely misunderstood and ignored by the west. Things there are not as bad as they were ten years ago (to my knowledge), but people by and large thought it was just a group of radicals causing the Russian government problems. The reality and the history were so far from the media's representation and our perception in the west. I don't advocate hatred or reprisal for any action, but I would advocate informing people and petitioning both sides for peace and humanitarian aid for the civilian populations. In this one example thousands and thousands of civilians were killed. In this one example, if there had been a loud public voice opposing the violence, at least some lives could have been saved.

As I stated I don't expect this to happen overnight, but I do want to do my part to try and help educate and change (even if ever so slightly) the backdrop of the arenas around the world where people are suffering or imprisoned needlessly. We have become a society of fear and helplessness, trusting the leaders of the world to deal with the unpleasantness that none of us want to be aware of, let alone deal with. We are one world now, like it or not. We must try to unite on the obvious injustices and leave the rhetoric to the politicians.

If any of you have any story ideas or potential sources of credible information, please let me know. Likewise, if you are interested in contributing please let me know. This will not be a commentary forum, but will be dedicated to reporting facts and testimony. I am sure some commentary will seep in, but I don't want it to be purely opinions.

Please let me know what you think. Thanks!!!

New Work

I have been helping a friend build a web site for his church. In the process I decided to revive an old project. A while back I wanted to build a Bible database and web site using some full-text analytics and natural language processing. When I came up with this idea it seemed like it would take forever, but over the last week I made it a reality. It is very crude at this time, but we do have a version on the web now. The goal eventually is to make and organic online bible. The text itself doesn't change, but the data associated with it will grow and become more relavant as time goes on. Making it more and more intelligent will be a challenge, but I think we are off to a good start.

For the lamen, it may not seem like much, but it is a great test of some new NLP tools and a good start towards creating a community bible study system. We will be adding new features pretty rapidly so check it out if you are so inclined.

http://www.community-bible.com/

Dad's Airborne Memorabilia

Some time ago, when I was jumping regularly, I was at my father's and he gave me some things I really cherish. My father and I are quite opposite in most ways and have never really connected on anything. I have always been a rebel and never lived my life to his approval (until the past few years). That being said, he has always been there for me and let me make my own decisions - and mistakes (more often than not). When I started skydiving he never told me not to, which I found strange, but after a while I found out why.


He was in the Army in the early 1950s. Unbeknownst to me and the rest of the family, he was not just in the Army, he was an elite paratrooper. My father never talks about that part of his life, but when I started skydiving I guess he thought about it and reminisced. My own mother didn't even know he was a paratrooper. Go figure.

As I was saying, I was at hos house one day and he handed me an envelope. I could not believe what was in it. Tucked in a box for fifty years, I now received his jump wings, his patch, and an assortment of cards that he was given when he was in jump school. I was floored as I have never really gotten anything of any sentimental value from my father (he is not the sentimental type usually). My nephew got the dog tags, I got the rest.

I wish I had been able to serve in the military. You see I was in bad health as a kid and was not accepted to the military due to the past ailments. I still regret this, as it may have straightened me out a bit and I would have had some amazing experiences. And as I said, my father and I never had anything in common, although we are very close. Although he never said so, I think he is proud of me for jumping. I think he wants me to stop now, not tempting fate too much for a bounce, but that is a different story. But at least we have this in common now.

I can't imagine what jumping was like for him in those very antiquated parachutes they used then. It was a hundred times more dangerous than what we do today for sure. I have always respected my father more than anyone, but now I have an even greater respect for his level of bravery. My father is very mild-mannered. I never thought of him as a tough guy, but apparently he was.

Well enough of the history. Here are the scans. I think most of these are from WWII and they inherited them during the Korean War, but I am not positive. They are definitely amusing!!!

Jump Wings and Airborne Patch




The Old Masterjumper




The Undertaker


Hazard

"You'll get busted for this when we hit the DZ"

Pinup Girl Bait




Shoestrings



Joe is scared of PLF (Dad's name is Joe coincidentally)

Bad Chute


Photo of Paratroopers


Massive Drop


Not sure what this has to do with anything but here it is anyway...

Makin Music

We started trying to record this weekend, but not much got on "tape". I am going to put a few things down next week and try to post a few samples (just guitar). Shawn is having a hard time still and is not up to recording yet but he has come a long way in a short time. There are three songs I want to record first. Hopefully we can get them organized and add the missing pieces. I am not sure how lyrics are going to fit yet so I have just been improvising to them for now. I am anxious to get back to playing and recording more regularly but other duties call.

But just getting together and practicing has been fun. It gets so old playing by myself. Wish me luck in getting something worthwhile recorded soon!!!