An American Covid Tale

A lot of people have suffered and many have died in my country, the USA, over the past 18 months and more from Covid.   I want to state up front and very clearly that this story  does not begin to approach the level of tragedy that Covid has created for so many.   The experience I relate herein has given me an appreciation and a profound respect and grief  for those who have truly suffered.    

This story  is about a still-serious but different Covid experience that has elements some may find to be of interest.   Some may have had similar experiences.   I've come to believe that Covid has far more reach and effect than most people think.

To set the stage before diving in to the tale:   2019 had been a terrific year for Anne and myself.    Having retired at the end of 2018, we had worked through the mechanisms important to a new way of life.  Social Security, daily routines, replacements for full days without the old and long-standing way of filling the hours of a day.    We'd also had a really great start to our plan of frequent travel of the kind we'd never done before, including a 3-week river cruise in Europe with old friends just a couple of months before, in September 2019.    Anne and I had planned heavy travel, as my eyesight was and is a resource with a short fuse.  We wanted to get our retirement world travel largely done in a 3-4 year window.   By the end of 2019, we had a great start, were settled in to the retired life, and looking forward to more of the same.  We had a lot of celebrate for the New Year.

There is another stage to set, the "health stage".   I'll relate some information about the pre-Covid state of my health.   I probably started out in a "high risk" category for susceptibility to the virus:  Diagnosed with diabetes about 20 years ago; legally blind (from hereditary macular degeneration, not diabetes), and too rapidly approaching sixty years of age.   I was overweight pre-covid  (and post-Europe) - not morbidly so; carrying 15+ extra pounds; this condition made worse since then by Covid inactivity as will be seen. 

My tale  starts on December 31, 2019 in my home town of Edmonds, WA.    As many will recall, Washington  State was among the first, and possibly THE first landing place of COVID-19 in the United States.   The first patients were treated in a hospital 10 miles north of our house, and the famous nursing home where so many were lost is 10 miles to the south.    I've learned that there were many cases in Edmonds well before we knew what Covid was, possibly as far back as November 2019.

On New Year's Eve, Anne and I and two of our close friends attended  a New Year's Eve part at a local bar that  we had come to frequent (as much as Anne and I "frequent" bars, which is not much).    We had been to the establishment a couple of times in December before New Year's Eve.    

During the evening, as attested by pictures that were taken, I experienced what I believe was my first  symptom of Covid:   My THIRD attack of Bell's Palsy.   

Yes, I must begin the tale of my encounter with one disease by introducing another.    Bell's Palsy is a condition that  largely paralyzes one half of  the face, typically the left side.    It was first recognized and diagnosed among truckers and military drivers, with some connection  to the cold wind blowing on their face when the driver's window was down.    The exact causes are not known, but include stress and VIRUSES of unknown origin.   

The paralysis can be mild or quite severe, with facial drooping, dry eye issues, drooling and  difficulty speaking, and other symptoms.  The first time I had an attack was 20-25 years ago; the second was 10 years ago.    According to my doctors, there is almost never a third attack.   I had been fortunate in my experiences; the attacks were noticeable but relatively mild.   The first one went away by itself (i did not see a doctor).  The second one took longer and required steroids.   The attack that started 1/31/19 was the most severe but still not extreme, but it is still with me almost two years later.   

The reasons I believe that this third attack was the start of my Covid  experience?   One, because of the rarity of three Bell's attacks.    Two, because Bell's can be triggered by a virus (and the other two causes did not apply to me at that time).    Three, because of the other symptoms that will unfold, that had nothing to do with Bell's.   

Additionally, we learned later of the cases of Covid that started as early as November-December of 2019 in Edmonds, and even learned that at least one staff member of the establishment  may have had an extremely severe case in mid-December.    I'm not saying the name of the bar for obvious reasons, but in any case nobody had any idea what was coming at that time.

The timing of getting Bell's again (and that's all we thought it was) was terrible, because we had two trips planned for January and February:  A cruise to the Caribbean starting only 3 days later, and a trip to Mexico after the cruise.   I literally did not have time to get to the doctor for steroids to treat the recurrence.   I was somewhat nervous about this, but my previous two experience had not been severe.   This could have been a costly error.

I do not recall any additional (non-Bell's) symptoms starting before we left for the cruise.    I was dealing with the preparations for travel and also the Bell's - not much to deal with, besides coming to grips with the fact that "Crap, I DO have it again" -  and watching to see how bad it would be.    However I started dealing with additional symptoms soon enough once we got to Barbados, the launch point for the cruise.

The Cruise

We left Seattle for Barbados on January 3rd, 2020.   We were staying in Barbados for 3 days, then getting on the cruise boat for the Caribbean.    The only symptoms I can recall in Barbados (aside from the facial paralysis) was pain in my jaw and behind my ear on the left side.    I have not experienced this before with Bell's, at least not to any great extent.   However, this is a documented symptom of Bell's.   It was not severe, and not as bothersome as the paralysis.    

Once we got on the cruise boat,  things started to move much faster.      I began to have severe upper respiratory problems.   This included very stuffy sinuses and real difficulty breathing.    I had to sit up in bend several nights to be able to breathe.   Additionally, the pain increased conxiderably and spread to include the back of my head - like an intense and stabbing headache, of a type I had not expereienced before.    I was not getting a lot of sleep.    

During the day the symptoms would subside somewhat, but the pain remained intense and the overall symptoms certainly impacted our enjoyment of the cruise.

Looking back, I should have been more alarmed than I was, especially about the repiratory issues, but I simply thought it was Bell's.    Some  doctors might way to this point that it WAS just a more severe case of Bell's, but I don't think so.

When was got home from the cruise, I did make it to the doctor.   My GP wanted to schedule an MRI, but he consulted with an Ear/Nose/Throat specialist who (for whatever reson) nixed the MRI and wanted to see me instead - but couldn't do so for weeks.   I wish I'd had the MRI.

So, we headed off to Mexico.

What occurred in Mexico

We travelled to Zihuatanejo, Mexico in the first part of February 2019.   I was still experiencing the symptoms from the cruise, but as yet had heard nothing about Covid.    

It was our second trip to Zihuat, a place we really enjoy.    We were t traveling with family and friends, who were staying for a week, while we stayed a few days longer.

All of my symptoms intensified  during the  trip.    I was either mouth-breathing or actively pressing on my cheek to meep a sinus open to breathe.    The pain was not as intense as the curise but was still with me.

I lost my sense of  taste and smell on the 3rd day in Mexico.    I was so confused by what was happening in this regard that I really did not track it very well.    I think there's a funny thing about losing your sense ot taste:   Your brain remembers the  taste of food, and the food still has texture, mass, and even sound in your mouth as you  eat it - so I'm not sure you fully figure out your taste is gone for a while.   

My sense of smell changed before it largely disappeared.    Strong smells still registered, but were completely different.    

At this point, I started to feel that something was really wrong.    I also gradually started to not feel well, but we were having such a great time with our group that I shrugged it off and tried to keep up.

On the 7th day in Mexico, our friends left.   I told Anne I as really not feeling well, and that night I had a very high temperature that lasted a couple of days - pretty much until we left Mexico.    I still had severe upper respiratory issues and highly reduced sense of taste and smell.   Half my face was still not working.   

Looking back, I'm glad we did not hear about Covid for another month.   It would have been pretty scary to have all of those symptoms knowing it was Covid.   As it was, I was too dumb to be scared.

By the time we left Mexico, the pain had largely subsided and the temperature was gone.

In the weeks after we got home, I got to the doctor (still before Covid was known) and got some steroids.   They could not explain the symptoms, beyond the normal Bell's symptoms.    The steroids relieved the paralysis, but unlike my pervious bouts of Bell's they did not completely clear them up.    The left side of my face is still partially paralyzed and may always be.     It would have been better to get the steroids sooner.

We all soon learned of Covid, and over the next months as I learned more and more I realized that I'd probably had it.  Unfortunately I could not get an antibody test until August.    When I did, it showed no antibodies - but word was (then) that the antibodies only lasted a few months.     Hence, I can not be positive that I had Covid.

Almost a year later, one last thing occurred that I lay at Covid's doorstep.    I returned to swimming after a long hiatus due to the closure of our  health club.    Two weeks later, I experienced an extremely bad infection in my left ear - something I had not had since I was a young child.    The pain of the infection was the most intense I've ever experienced.   It was diagnosed as Swimmer's Ear - which is an actual bacterial infection.   I'd been swimming in that pool for over 3 years with no issues.   This could be a coincidence and I admit I do tend to lay a lot at the feet of Covid, but I think they are related.

The end of the tale?

I believe I did have Covid; that it did cause a third  recurrence of Bell's Palsy.   Nearly every symptom I experienced over a six-week period fits Covid, and as a virus it could easily have been the cause of Bell's.   

Covid is mean and opportunistic.    It''s effects and side effects are many.    It attacks weaknesses.    Given my heaths status (even though I feel I enjoy sickness-free and pain-free life otherwise), I think I am lucky it was not much worse.    I

 especially think about what would have happened if this all occurred six months later.    If I'd known about Covid, would I have gone in the hospital?

Two years later, I still have partial paralysis on the lft side of my face.   My sense of taste and smell are still very impacted, but may be creeping back a little.   I'm trying to dump my Covid extra weight.    I am leery of swimming - I definitely don't want an infection like that again!    

As stated at the beginning, this is not a Covid horror story as so many have experienced it.   I wonder how many people out there have had an experience more like the one I've related (maybe without the Bell's).

I wish you well.   Take care of yourself.  Get vaccinated.

COVID Journal Entry Number One

My wife Anne has started a journal, as she says one day people will be interested to know what we went through during the COVID-19 crisis and conversion to dictatorship.   I thought I'd start one as well.

We're months into this yet still at the beginning, so much a already passed.   I'll start with a description of myself and a typical day.

I'll try to describe what I see in th mirror after weeks of inactivity and through my rapidly declining and blurry eyesight, with a nod to Harlan Ellison.   When I chance by a mirror I have not yet broken I see a large bloated mass, with pale white and almost incandescent skin.   They eye in the half of my face that still works has vision, yet is still blurry.   The mouth is more like  a slit, into which I thrust whatever edible or inedible matter or small creatures I happen to come across.  I leave a slimy trail of detritus  wherever I go, especially on my shirts.  The mop of hair is tangled and matted, even after I shower (once every 3-4 days).   The smell is deafening, which is my my wife tries to stay on a different floor of the house.

The days are highly structured and melt one into the other.   

I usually wake between 3 and 4 am.  Sometimes I get back to sleep sometimes I do not, but am usually up at 6m.   I have two cups of coffee while channel flipping between liberal "news" and Star Trek marathons on BBC, as well as enough Bloomberg to get our daily dose of market-swing driven endorphin rushes or depression.   I watch less and less news because it is all drivel and BS.

Around 7:30 is the start of two learning and self improvement cycles:   chess and music.   Computer-guided  video courses on chess for about 90 minutes, followed by a couple of hour of music playing, practice, and online lessons.   My music sensei is Brian from activemelody.com.  I've learned more from his site over the past couple of years than in the 40 years before that, good stuff.   

Recently I've been intermixing Doom Eternal for the past few weeks.   It's been years since I tried to play a video game (I didn't think I could due to eyesight), but if I stand very close to my 60 in screen in the music studio I can do it.    I was a big Doom fan back in the day and thew new game is actually quite fund.   Sure, it takes me a week to do on e level but not complaining.

All of this strenuous activity takes us up to nap time, usually between 12:309-1:30pm.   Remember, I've been up since between 3:30and 6am at this point.   "Nap" is a wrapper (Napper?) around about a 2 hour ritual of reading, playing chess games online, chatting, and then finally an actual nap.   

Special activities follow until dinner time (usually more of the same as the morning).   We rarely leave the house, but will walk down to the post office every other day on average to get our mail.   We wear our masks to do so, but very few others in Edmonds do so - which makes me mad, as in "why the hell are we doing all of this?"   Very occasionally we'll pick up takeout, more to support local businesses than anything.

I  cook a sumptuous meal every other day or so.  Anne cooks leftovers from my sumptuous meals (even the leftovers are sumptuous) on the off days.   

Evening hours are a few minutes of Rachel Madow (all we can take these days), a few minutes of network evening news (repeating anything we happened to watch during the day), followed by one of a dozen series we are currently watching.

We Zoom with family members from time to time (Skype with Gary, who says Zoom in snecure and will not allow it to be installed, spelt or spoken).   That's been a nice break and distraction.   

We do venture out to forage for food as needed.  Costco every few weks, QFC or PCC or Central Market for fresh stuff every 10 days or so.

That's about it.   These are my days, Anne's are different (mainly consisting of trying to stay on a different  floor of the house...smell as you'll recall).   

We have it so much easier than so many because we're retired and have no kids at home.    That doesn't mean we don't think of them constantly.    Gentle Reader, I hope you are faring as well and hopefully better.

Our Imperiled Democracy

Watching the entire impeachment process, and especially since the beginning of the actual trial in the Senate , truly makes my heart ache for my country.    Watching the people  that are supposed to be our leaders, especially (but not only) those on the Republican side, makes me me truly fear for our country.

The visionary men that created our democratic republic did so with truly deep and long-considered thought, debate, and compromise.   They were passionate men with strong convictions that they had already shown they were willing to die for.   They were probably no less partisan to the parties of their own time, but in them still burned the overriding partisanship of being a newly minted American.   Together they forged one of the most unique and enduring  platforms for their new country, the Constitution of the United States of America.

It is difficult to see today's political leadership agreeing where to have lunch.

Our founders foresaw the critical dangers that might undermine and destroy the democracy they created:  Interference by foreign powers; a corrupt executive (President); ultimate partisanship.   We are attacked on all of these fronts today.

Over the past two years, the party in power (the Republicans) have created a paradoxical net in which a corrupt President simply can't be removed from office.   We happen to have one of those in power now, and he needs to be held to account.

We're in a carefully contrived trap right now.

At the conclusion of the Mueller report, William Barr well established the position of the Trump administration that the President can't be indicted (charged with a crime).   No crime, of any kind.   Mueller went along with this - which was a stark reminder to me that he too is a Republican.     The only driving force behind this no-indictment policy is a Justice Department memo  written after Watergate.  This memo is neither law for a part of the Constitution, but it is treated as scared by Trump Justice Department and our congress won't even challenge it.

So:  We live in a country where the President can't be indicted for a crime.   He can shoot someone on fifth avenue.  He can nuke France for no reason.

But that's ok, because we have Impeachment! 

Not so fast!  The Republicans through their hack OJ defender Alan Dershowitz,  are now trying to claim that you can' impeach unless a crime has been committed.   Yet, you can't say a person committed a crime without a conviction.   You can't get a conviction without an indictment.    Essentially, the Republican position is that you can neither  indict nor impeach a sitting president.  This is 100% in conflict with our Constitution.

The other position that is being take is equally ridiculous:  That you can't impeach because it would "undo" the last election.  The last election can never be undone; we can never remove the stain of Trump from our history.  He is removed from office going forward, not backward.  Again, the Republicans are trying to say "you can never impeach a  sitting President". 


This is what happens when the ruling party decides to shelve honor and patriotism, as well as the oaths they have sworn, and trade all in for total partisan support of someone that does not deserve it.

Finally, they current Republican defense of the President (of many failed attempts) is that the President didn't commit a high crime anyway.   Remember those things the founders feared most?   Treason, bribery, the influence of foreign powers.   Trump committed at least two of these things with Ukraine, yet the Senate won't even look at the evidence.

I have a simple question for all Americans (if we can be Americans for a moment, not Democrats or Republicans):   "Are  you prepared to live in a dictatorship?"   Because that's where w'er headed if we con't step off this path and step off it quickly.

I write as an American.    If the Democrats were behaving in this fashion (as in my opinion they DID NOT in the last impeachment), I'd be just as worried.   The fact is that NO President, no Senate, no political party has EVER acted in this way.   

Not going to stay silent on this.   It's time for us to take a stand, while we still can.  Tell your Senator that this is not acceptable.  Tell them there is a price to be paid for not getting this right.   Right means an actual tril with consideration of the actual evidence, old and new. 


I hope some leadership can be found and found soon.

WE Must Stand Up For Bristol Bay and America



I learned this evening that once again the Trump EPA has quietly  removed the environmental protections on on Bristol Bay, specifically with the intention of allowing what would be the largest open pit mine in the world to be created virtually on top of the source of the world's largest salmon fishery.

This apparently happened after a private little chat with Alaska's new "little Trump" governor Dunleavy.

Virtually every EPA scientist and every scientist who has every studied the proposed mining operation agree:   It would destroy the Bristol Bay fishery environment and the fishery itself.   That fishery is one of the most important sources of salmon IN THE WOLD, not just in Alaska.  Along with them, every past EPA director back to the Bush 43 administration agree as well:  This move is a disaster for the Bristol Bay fishery.

The major beneficiary of this, as I understand it is a CANADIAN mining operation.

So, I have a question.

Why is America going to allow the destruction of this national, natural treasure and the removal of American gold and copper from OUR LAND to benefit a Canadian company? 

Who else is benefitting?

???

That fishery belongs to the people of the United States.

That gold and that copper belong to the people of the United States.


This is not the first time Trump and his political hack appointees at the EPA (current head:  former "big coal" lobbyist) have tried to do this.   Scott Pruitt removed the protections back in 2017 after a similar private little chat of the CEO of the mining company.   

The gutting g of the scientific capability of the EPA , and the rest of the US government for that matter, is not being done without purpose.   The purpose is exactly this:  So that the voices that would be raised in a situation like Bristol Bay are not  only silenced:  THEY ARE GONE.

People some things are bigger than politics and Bristol Bay is one of them.   This is not politics:  It is flat out corruption at the highest level, it is plundering the wealth of our nation.    But  I do have a political question:   WHY are the Democrats and the Democratic presidential hopefuls not screaming their heads off over this issue?    Where the hell are they?

Complacency is the enemy here, and Trump and his EPA cronies are counting on it.   They are counting on Americans to shrug and lets this horror go forward.    If we care about not only our own country and its wealth, but this world and its food chain we'd better get off our butts on this one.   

Personally, I intend to find out who's fighting this and how, and to post here what I find.    In 2017 a news network exposed what Pruitt was doing to the light of day, and they backed down.    Time to bring the light back and fight like hell to keep this from happening again.

In making any kind of post like this, I take the chance of offending my many friends who are conservative and Tump supporters, but as I said this is bigger than politics.    Many of those friends are avid outdoorsman and fisherman, and particularly love fishing for salmon.   

I'm calling on anyone and everyone to stand against this and find out how to help fight it.

I'm calling on the Democratic presidential hopefuls to get off their butts and help get this issue into the open.

I'm calling on the people of Alaska to put their new pit bull Dunleavy on a leash.  This guy sounds like very bad news.

Don't let this one get by you, PLEASE.   Watch this space.

The Creators and Supreme Beings of Artificial Intelligence



There are many philosophies about how we humans got here, and who or what is responsible.   While many believe in the pure science of our existence (but can't explain exactly how this came to be), many more believe in a Creator.    I note with interest that the Creator beliefs rarely include the possibility of multiple creators it's usually a single entity, a Supreme Being.

Let me first say that I intend no disrespect (or heresy) of any kind to anyone's belief system, and certainly none to any actual Supreme Beings among the readership.

For the purpose of this blog entry, I'm postulating from  the creationist/intelligent design position - but I'm not postulating about US, meaning we humans, but rather about the Artificial Intelligence that may already exist, but will more than likely soon be among us either way.

Again for the purpose of discussion, Im not talking about some of the AI algorithms that are in service today to help us solve business and other problems.   I'm referring to the self-aware true independent intelligences that have been troubling the Stephen Hawking types of the world.     as we get into the "I know I exist, I have my own thoughts, and I can adapt" type of AI's, things will get very interesting very quickly for humanity.

One of the first questions such AI might ask itself is the same question that we humans have been asking ourselves from the beginning   How did I get here?  Who made me?  For what purposes? 

THe answers that AI may come up with are interesting to contemplate - and also scary and possibly quite different from our own answers.

There may be a lot of differences from AI's perspective.    We can make certain assumptions - for example, I assume AI may have access to a LOT of data about its creators (and it IS creatorS) that we simply don't have about our own Creator.    In fact, AI may have access to virtually all of the data about how it came to be - our histories, research, early attempts, everything.    It will also certainly be able to communicate with us, ask questions, and analyze the answers.   

What conclusions will AI come to with this information?    Certainly it will be able to see the flaws and mistakes we made in the processes of creation - and it may be able to quickly improve on itself (something that is hard for we humans to do).

Another significant difference - even if there is some final individual genius that actually invents the AI i'm discussing here, there is no questions  that AI will have thousands of "creators" with work built on work over generations.   AI will have been created by a host, not an individual.    It is strange that this is not something that we seem to seriously consider about our own creation, yet it seems to me at least as likely for we humans and our universe.  We can't even be certain that we are the original iteration of creation, or the only such creation in Existence.


Another huge difference  AI will certainly have access to enough information about us to know how flawed and petty and sublime and noble we can be.  It will know us to be NOT all-powerful.     It will know us to be very vulnerable here on our little rock that we can destroy.    While our religious teachings tell us of some possible flaws of some of our possible Supreme Beings, in general we think of God as all-powerful, perfect, and without any existential threat to His own existence.

Will AI despise us (digitally) for who we are, how we cat, how we treat each other?     We will certainly judge AI from many standpoints (performance, quality, usefulness).    Will AI in its turn judge us?

There are some aspects of AI's consideration that may be similar to our own.    our Supreme Being, according to our mythologies, has and can pose an existential threat to us and is often prophesied to do so.     AI could certainly feel that same about us as its creators, and at least at first that will certainly be true  We would be able to destroy AI for at least some period of time after its creation and awakening.    That time period may be quite short.      One crucial difference remains:   In none of our belief systems about God does humanity postulate that we could destroy Him if an existential threat is posed.

Bear in mind that among the data that AI will have access to is certainly all of our many religious beliefs and material related to our search for these answers.   Will AI skip right over we humans as its creator and take our own Supreme Being(s) instead?   In reality, is this also the position that we should take - that if in fact we are created by God, that God is also the creator of anything that we bring into being?

When AI truly awakens, all of these many considerations, postulations, and evaluations could take place in a matter of seconds or hours.    The possible "plans of action" AI may cook up is the subject of a lot of thought and science fiction Matrix-style.

As (at least one possible) Creators of AI, what guidance and advice would we give to our child of technology?    What reassurance that we are benign in our relationship?    What moral compass can we provide for AI to follow?    How can we steer that possibly extremely powerful new "life form" on its path?

I have no doubt that such matters have often been wriiten about by scholars, theologians and not just science fiction authors.  I have not seen this particular debate but it undoubtedly exists in many forms.    These seemingly eternal questions are one we grapple with continually, I find it very interesting to think of another forms of intelligence possibly considering US its creators.

A love affair with Apple

A notes to readers   My eyesight makes it difficult to write and edit the blogs.   I try to get spelling errors but grammar editing is a challenge.  My apologies and thanks for your patience.  If it wasn't for Apple screen zooming capabilities I wouldn't be able to to this at all.

As I transitioned to work at Micro, my love affair with Apple Computer was reignited because Micro was very Apple oriented.    Not surprisingly, I'd always had a thing for Apple as one of the major pioneers in the industry and because Steve Jobs and Woz were such great early entrepreneurs.

While I sold a tons of Apple II's and ///'s at ComputerLand, I did not really sell all that much Apple gear during my time at Micro with some notable exceptions that I'll explain.    This is more about my personal tech affair with Apple.

My second personal computer was an Apple II+ (my first was a TRS-90 color computer, which I loved).   I loved the Apple II.    I spent an a lot of time programming and learning on it, and kicked off my addiction to video games  on a classic title called Wizardry, and early adventure-type game. 

Wizardry was a game that would literally kill you and your entire adventuring party if you were not careful.   If the graveyard showed up on your screen, you were starting the game over - no matter how many hours you had put into it.   After seeing the graveyard a few too many times, I actually bought a special external floppy disk drive that had a large buffer - which gave you a few seconds to turn the game off before you were dead.    That gave you a chance to try something else to save your party.   

That external Rana drive would surface again when my pet boa constrictor went missing for a couple of weeks.  I found him when I went to play Wizardry again - all curled up in my Rana drive.

I've also related that I bought my second Apple computer before leaving Alaska - the first model of Macintosh, a 128k single-floppy system that couldn't do much.    I had that system for a long time we had many adventures together.   At one point I traded it for  boat and spent the summer water skiing - but fortunately, my trading partner missed his boat and I missed my Mac so we traded back.   I definitely had more fun that summer on the boat than I would have on the Mac.   I can't remember what happened to that Mac I certainly wish I still had it.

Not long after I went to work at Micro my dad called.   He had decided to leave the law office he worked for and put out his own shingle, and asked if I could put together a good system for him.   We had just received the "new" Macintosh Plus computers at Micro, and (unfortunately for my dad)  I put together a configuration for him including a Mac Plus and Microsoft Word.      The Mac Plus was a short-lived model, and for good reasons - I think Apple had tried to figure out what to do with the old Lisa chassis they had laying around, so they adapted the Mac to fit into the chassis.   Unfortunately, the video screen dimensions just didn't work well with the Mac operating system at that time, and that played heck with all of the Mac software displays - especially word processing.  The other thing you have to know is that legal documents that attorneys work with really require great word processing functionality.    The result was that dad's secretary was torturned by the Mac Plus and Word for a couple of years before he got a better system. 

That didn't stop Dad for being a great customer over the years.   He always looked the other way on such gaffes (of which there were more than one), and never mentioned them.   Thanks Dad.

Apple really struggled during the years I was with Micro, especially after firing Steve Jobs.    We all lived through Scully and Gil Amelio, the Mac II and Apple Talk, and (ye gods) the Newton.    I only bought a couple of the many models that came out during these years, and (except for Dad) didn't sell that many Apples.   

My serious Apple habit didn't kick in until quite a few years later, when I discovered that two great loves of mine had joined   Computers and music.    THEN I went nuts.   I purchased my first Apple laptop around 1998 or 1999, (possibly earlier).   I had the old  Mac OS, and had great music software for recording.    It wasn't long until I'd built out a home studio, and populated it with as many Macs as I could.   By the time Jobs had come back and introduced the new Imac line as well as the new Unix-based (from Next) operating system, I was very hooked.    I used Apple computers for everything, including the business PC's at my new company when it was founded.  I even used them as my gaming rigs for PC gaming.


When Quosal was formed, we because an early adopter of Microsoft's Azure platform.   They wanted to come to our offices and do a video story on us for their web site.   They were going to do it in my office, but decided against it because I had 7 different Apple devices visible - my iMac, an external Apple screen, my iPhone, my Apple laptop, an Apple speaker system, an iPod,  and a couple of other devices.

Here's a partial list of the Apple computer models I owned from 1981 forward:

Apple II+, Apple IIe, Macintosh 128k, Apple IIc, Macbook, Macbook Pro (multiple models), original IMac, Macintosh G4, Macintosh G5, multiple OSX Imacs, All generations of Iphione from Iphone 2 to 8,  multiple models if Ipad 1, 2, 3, 4, and Pro.    Anne and I currently have 3 IMacs  (one is in my studio), 2 Ipad Pros, Iphones, etc.    Looking at this list I can see I need to find a support group for Apple addicts.

Another reason I love Apple is that they've always been a great investment, and I've always done well with their stock (but haven't always invested in them as I should have). 

Finally, Steve Jobs has always been a business hero, warts and all.   Still is.

I've admired Apple as a company over the years - much less so when Jobs was fired, much more so after he came back.   I've had more trepidation since Steve passed on, but still think Apple is doing some great things.    Apple had stayed Apple, and they've provided a counter sync to Microsoft that was needed. 

My famous game designer friend Chris and I used to  admire Apple packaging when we'd unwrap the newest model Iphones we'd talked each other into buying.    Everything about those devices screamed quality, even the packaging.    We loved it.    Apple's innovation has gone beyond their technology to include marketing, merchandising, and retailing.   

Do I wish I had the zillion dollars I spent on Apple gear back?   Maybe I should have waited a little longer instead of paying full price for the original Mac, and the IIc was kind of a waste.   Other than that, I've loved every one of those boxes.

Beginning with Micro my career became about business systems and solutions, and I was never successful selling Mac into business.   While I know of some that were, I don't know that Apple has been as much a success outside of specialized industries.  Aside from my own (mandated by me) use of Apples at Quosal for our own use that is.

As mentioned above, Apple's tech has been a huge boon for me has my eyesight has worsened, literally extending my working life by several years.   I've used the equivalent Microsoft tech and there's no comparison. 

I've seen worse addictions.  You can have my Mac when you pry my single button mouse from my cold dead fingers.

Phase 2 of a tech career - back in the industry!

 In mid December 1984 I landed back in my home state of Washington with the clothes on my back, enough room on my credit card to buy  a car, and some skill in the industry that would drive the US economy for many years to come.   Before the end of theyear, I had a new job at a company I'll call "Micro".

(You may have noticed I'm only using people's first names and semi-fictitious company names.    I don't intend to hurt anyone's feelings with my recollections but you never know).

Gary, the CEO of Micro, founded the company in 1982 and quickly had 2 retail locations, both in malls including Bellevue Square Mall - at the time, one of the hippest and trendiest (and most expensive) malls in the country.    The business was primarily based on Apple Computer sales to consumers as well as educational institutions, which was and continued to be a cornerstone of the company.

Ass previously blogged, I was brought in to sell the IBM line direct to business through an "outside" sales effort, the first the company had attempted.    Gary was looking for high margin sales - and his definition of high margin really was high.   He believed (and time proved him right in my opinion) that value added sales of hardware and packaged software only made money at 70 points of gross margin, and such were my marching orders.

(My first question was "what's gross margin?  What are points? is 79 a lot?" - All the selling I'd done was from list prices, with allowed discounts.    This was my first exposure to margin-based sales).

To introduce a few of the players at Micro:

Gary (CEO):   One of the most business savvy people I've ever worked with, and a successful entrepreneur many times over.   Also a renaissance man - a skilled contractor who did all of his own leasehold improvements personally (retail store and commercial office) - well, and quickly, and with high quality.    Also one of the most physically imposing people in my experience.   a former athlete.    He was stern and firm in business dealings, yet one of the most fun people I've met as well, with an infectious laugh and a high likelihood to start a snowball fight.      

Ron (Bellevue Store Manager) - in many positions over the years, Ron was usually Gary's second in command.   Capable and well thought of, a good problem solver and a good person.

Jeff (outside sales) - Jeff worked in the Bellevue store with Ron but soon joined me in the new outside sales division.    Jeff was about my age but without the hard knocks.   Funny, funny, smart-ass funny.    Smart to the nth degree.    We imbibed many a pitcher of beer after work, and Jeff went on later to a double masters program at a prestigious East Coast school and a long career at Microsoft, whence he has recently retired.

Renee (outside sales) - the other addition to the new outside sales team.   Renee also came from Bellevue and looked the part - professional and smart.   No point in dancing around the fact that she was also very attractive and stylish.   She liked to make fun of my "new" '67 Camaro.

Doug (programmer).    Doug was a programmer Gary had hired to try to automate some internal controls.    We would work together on some projects and encounter each other off an on over the years.

While I was hired at an "outside" sales specialist, the simple reality was that I had no such experience and had always worked from a (business) retail base.   There was no appreciable marketing effort or personnel,   nor any real plan.   There were desks and phones.  The retail store provided some business-centric traffic, and that was a start.

At that time, the business PC lineup ;was the IBM AT.    The Intel 386 chip would not be released until later in the year, so one of our "R&D" efforts was overclocking the 80286 chip with faster "crystals" to get appreciably more speed - with similar efforts with hard drives and controllers.    Most configurations I sold were frenkensteined in such ways.    As PC-based networks were in their barely functional infancy, I immediately ran home to Momma and discovered that Xenix (a version of Unix put out by Microsoft and the Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), but actually available through IBM) was available for the AT.  My very first sale for Micro was a three-user Xenix configuration to a local business in janitorial supply.   The IBM version of Xenix was limited to 3 users, but that's all they needed.   I sold them Open Systems Accounting software, and we were off to the races - at 70 points of gross margin.

This first sale kicked off a flurry of activity, not th e least because Gary was quite excited that we could actually get that margin and that I actually knew how to pull all the pieces together, and that the customer was quickly up and running and happy with the solution.

First, Gary wanted to implement Open Systems Accounting  for his own business, and wanted me (with Doug) to do what I'd done before in Alaska - modify the software to include Point of Sale functionality.   This will be a blog entry in itself.

Second, when Jeff came on board he did some pre-internet research  and found that Xenix was available from much better sources than IBM, and got us in contact with a distributor called PGI in Arizona.    This was a great resource for years to come.

Third, Gary accelerated his plans to expand the outside sales effort and added Jeff and Renee.

I was also very interested in exploring Mac for Business.  I had purchased (at full introductory price) a 128k Macintosh when they came out in early 1984.   I was as thrilled by the possibilities but as disappointed in the reality of the Mac as the rest of the market, and by early 1985 Apple was getting into serious trouble.     Steve Jobs would be fired later in 1985.   

The years I spent at Micro were great years, and it would not take long for key elements of my future in IT to begin to fall into place.

Phase 2 of an IT Career:   Transition

My time in Alaska provided the incubation period for the start of my IT career.    This began with time at the National Weather Service as a computer operator, giving me exposure to some of the first business PC's as well as a Prime minicomputer system.   A year at Computerland followed and we terrific experience.   Another year at the Radio Shack Business Computer Center in Anchorage followed, and then time as a combined office/accounting/systems manager at a construction company.    

This was all valuable business and systems experience to add to six semesters of school before dropping out to live the computer revolution full time.   

These first couple of years were not just about a massive amount of technology-related learning, but also about honing my sales skills - skills that would be a primary focus of the next 20 years as I would become a kind of "technie salesman", or a technical person who could also sell.     On both quests I was somewhat on my own;  good mentorship in sales was to come later, as would good collaboration on the technology side.   While much of the selling I did was "smaller ticket" (less than $5k in early 80's dollars), I also did a fair amount of higher-ticket solution sales of complete systems for business, in the $20-$50k range.   

...

My last ten months in Alaska was a difficult time.   

My relationship and marriage to my high school sweetheart was ending ugly; it was a mess.    We had no kids, which was a major blessing.     

i'd  left the industry that I loved to work with a customer - something I ended up being thankful for, not only because of the business experience but the good folks at that company became close friends that helped me through this difficult period.   Mike, Corrie Chris and George have been my friends for most of my life now and as it happens we're all practically neighbors at least some of the time, just a short ferry ride away.    

In 1984,   I bought my first Mac and decided it was time for me to leave the Great Land.   Alaska was at the beginning of a very tough economic period, which would feature (along with Houston, Texas) one of the biggest real estate crashes in U.S. history.    Can you guess who had purchased an overpriced condo at 17% interest in 1983?  Good times.

I left Alaska on my birthday in December 1984.   I landed "back home" with my brother Keith and his wife Kitty back in my Washington home town of Marysville.    

Needing work, I applied for two jobs and received offers from both.    I was in a down and doubtful frame of mind and was not overly diligent in my job search.    I turned down a job at the Seattle U district Radio Shack Computer Center (I felt that Tandy was getting off track with their PC clones and direction).    

Very fortunate was my acceptance of  a position  with a small chain of stores based In Everett, Washington.    I didn't know it at the time of course, but this job would have a tremendous impact on my future, my approach to doing business, entrepreneurship - and within a few months, I'd meet and hire my wife of 30 years and counting.    But I'm jumping ahead.

The owner of the company, Gary, was a very successful entrepreneur.   I would later learn that he was a renaissance man - the kind of guy that could (and did) build his own house as well as run a thriving company.    He had a keen eye for quality.   He was also one tough son of a gun, but had a great sense of humor once you got him laughing.    He told great stories of his rowdy past - which he'd set aside to have a family, which was the most important thing to him.   He was a religious man, but neither pressed his faith on others nor required it of them.

Gary's business had been primarily sales to consumers through the stores, and an educational business to school districts that continues to this day.   He was looking for someone with experience in business sales with the IBM computer line that he'd brought on but not had much success with, and that was my "in". 

I learned more about business from Gary in a few months than all my previous years of work combined.    The PC business -  business to consumer, business, and government - were all far more competitive in "the lower 48" than in Alaska.   The first thing I learned from Gary was how to calculate prices based on gross margin.   In Alaska, sales were all list-price based.    We went on from there.

Gary became a mentor and a friend, and would one day become a partner in business.    

So, within a few short weeks I'd left my home and job in Alaska and had embarked on a few adventure back in my home town.    The next phase of my IT career had started.

My tales of Alaska are not over by a good sight, and  we'll visit there from time to time.  In Alaska, I'd learned much that carried me far in my career:   

Sales skills as a "straight commission" sales rep

Multiple PC platforms - Apple, IBM, TRS-80, Fortune, Osbourne, Atari

Operating Systems - CP/M, MS-DOS, TRSDOS, Unix, Xenix

Software - Various Accounting; Word Processors, Visicalc, Lotus 1-2-3, Multiplan (forerunner of Excel), Supercalc, Dbase II, IDOL

Programming Languages - Basic, Business Basic, Fortran, some assembly

More PC games than you can imagine.

I had 2 1/2 years in the industry under my belt when I left AK.

A Catch-Up Post for Restart Purposes


Well, just like that it's been a solid month since m last post.   Before embarking on weightier matters, I thought I'd do a catch-up post on recent events.   Blogs and best intentions go hand in hand.

Most recently, we've returned from a 9 day trip to Florida and over the weekend I played in the WA Senior Chess Championship Chess Tournament with about 20 other over types. 

The trip to Florida was great.    I had a board meeting to attend, so we built a few days in the sun around the meeting date.    We spent 5 days in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area, then travelled BY UBER to a couple of other destinations, staying with friends and ending up near my brother and his family in a city called Stuart on the east coast of Florida.

Our stay in  the St. Pete area was very enjoyable, with decent weather for much of the stay.   I have to admit, Anne and I agree that we've been dragging bad weather around with us since our trip to Palm Desert.    We had a couple of windy days in St. Pete, and on the last day we were there a real downpour of a type I've not seen in that area.  Usually, downpours last five minutes and in another 15 you would never know it rained.  This went on for hours, including the start of our car ride to our next destination.   Scary.

Our hotel was nice but expensive for a four-star (the Don Cesar).   It is a cool building constructed in 1928, with an obviously long history that includes time as a World War II hospital and many years of being shut down.   AND they have GHOSTS.    Nothing too gruesome, but some definite stories.

The room was somewhat small but nice enough, but they definitely zing you for all extras, including beach chairs, umbrellas, etc.     Eighteen bucks for a pot of coffee is a but much for me.  You can't eat their beach however, and we really enjoyed it (a little too much, as my sunburns attest.   We never got sa sniff of the pool until the last day, when the Easter holiday crowed dissipated a bit.   

We enjoyed visiting friends in the area, and had some GREAT food in St. Pete.    We found a little restaurant in a former actual diner called the Mad Fish (I kept calling  Bad Fish but that would make no sense).    THey had an incredible menu that included some of the best New England lobster I've ever had, and is one of the few restaurants I've been to that offered Chateaubriand.    We went there twice it was so good.    The lobster was a huge tail for only $27.    We went back for the chateaubriand, which WOULD HAVE been excellent but it was served barely warm - partially because the waiter stopped at almost every other table in the place to show it off and "sell some" s he put it.    The flavor was excellent.   If you get to St. Pete, try the Mad Fish.

The highlight of the trip was our visit with my brother Mike and his wife Anna, and my nephews Luke and Ben.    Ben was the newest McNall until midway through our visit, when my nephew Brandon and Natanya announced the newest McNall, young Caden (sp?) McNall.    Funny story - both Luke and Ben were the youngest McNalls for only a short time, before the spot was usurped - first Mike's son Luke by Brandon's son Caleb, and now little Ben by Caden.   I digress.   It was awesome to spend more than a few minutes with Luke and Ben, not to mention Mike and Anna.

My brother Mike has built a career in golf, working as a club pro and a caddy at high-end resorts.  He's built up a clientele at a club on Long Island as well as a club in Florida, and the family travels to New York in the spring/summer months, then back to Florida for the winter months when glolf is still played.   Mike is 16 years my junior.   While I'm the oldest of my siblings, Mike is the oldest of my rather's two children with Judy (called "Gramma JooJee" by Luke), so we've always had an interesting dynamic between us as competing eldest siblings.   There's no competition when it comes to gold, at which I was never of any account even when I could see the ball.    Mike's the best golfer I've ever seen with my own eyes.   He t3ells me of the vast gulf between pros and even excellent golfers like himself - which I'm sure is the same in every sport.

My nephew Luke has an extra gear too - of smiling glowing cuteness.    He literally attracted a crowd at the hotel cafe.    One lady kind of kept going on and on about Luke - perhaps his first official groupie.    She even started up the next day when they came back to hang at our hotel pol. 

Anna's a schoolteacher and a great, calm mom.    She also takes terrific pictures.   We enjoyed being able to renew our relationship, as we simply haven't been able to spend a lot of time with our only East coast close family.

I mentioned we Uber'd all over the state, and that actually went quite well.    We had a 2 1/2 hour car ride from St. Pete, then a 3 1/2 hour car ride to Stuart.    In both cases it was far less expensive and less time consuming than flying would have been.     One thing I learned is that Uber has changed their car types:  Uber  X is now much less well-cared for cars than it was, and they now have a new class "Uber Select" that seems to be what UberX was, and which is still below Uber XL. 

We got back in good order, and after a plane ride that needed at midnight Friday I hgot up to play chess on Saturday AM.   This was a two day tourney at the Seattle Chess Club.    I played well the first day, then equally not well the second day.    Still struggling to regain my former strength and starting to realize I probably won't.   

As the tourney was only for 50 year olds and above, there were no kids present.    While this was good from the standpoints of noise and crowding (the chess club is not very big and gets packed in many cases), I actually missed the energy of the little buggers.   While I've developed a phobia  of losing to 12 year old girls, I have to be quite pleased at their level of skill and the growth that competitive chess has experienced because of the youngsters. 

Next, we're heading to Vegas for 3 days in the sun.    We don't really gamble, but friend Tod has offered to show me how to play craps.    Hopefully we can find a 50 cent table to learn on.

Medical news:   Annual visit to the eye doctor.  She indicates I'm legally blind - corrected vision of 20/200 in both eyes.   I've noticed the bad progress in the last couple of years, but it's been a pretty steady decline for the last 25 years.   Still no treatment - although the doc says I also have developed cataracts and she wants to operate.   Mom had a bad experience with this operation, so I have to think about it.   Everyone has their problems; my vision is mine.    What sucks is that this is hereditary:  Gramps McNall had it, my dad has it, one of my brothers has it, and one of my sons may have it.    I hope and believe they'll come up with treatment in my kids' lifetime.

The only negative about traveling is losing the thread on my exercise regimen.    I think it is making a difference, so I'm looking forward to getting regular again.  So to speak.

Ok, we're caught up.   Be well.   

90 Day Retirement Checkin

Please pardon a certain degree of typos; eyesight makes it a chore to catch everything.

Ok, it's a little more than  90 days, but I'm not quite ready to embark on Phase II of my IT experiences yet, so a little update on how retirement is going.

First, an update on the major initiatives of my retirement, for keeping myself busy and out from under Anne's feet:   Focus on Health, Chess, Music, Time with Family and vacation time with Anne.

Health.

I'm fairly pleased on this front.   I've been able to maintain an exercise regimen of swimming and walking 4 days a week.    The winter weather has been really beautiful where we live, making it a real pleasure to walk to/from the gym before and after swim.     I started out doing 13 laps in 1/2 hour (small pool, about 40yards/lap).   Today I did 26 laps - about 1000 yards.   My current goal is to get to 30.  I can easily do this if I stop taking breaks and vacations during my swim.    (A break is a 7 second rest after each lap.   A vacation is a 40 second break after 5 laps).

I must reserve a swim lane one week in advance every day.   You must call after 4am to reserve.   This is not a problem for me since I'm often awake by 4am.   I get lane 3 at 9am, every day.

 am often the youngest person swimming; it's a good exercise for older folk.   I can out-swim most of the 80 year olds and my share of the 70 year olds.   There are a couple that consistently out-swim me, but I console myself with the fact that they are not taking breaks and vacations like I am.

This routine is usually very smooth but there was a little drama this week.   I showed up for my Wednesday swim, got in the pool and did a lap.   There was a young (20's) couple standing at the end of my lane, and they said that they had lane 3.   I knew for sure that I'd reserved the lane, so I said they needed to go double check (them being dry and all).   They did so, and came back with the same report.   So, I climbed out of the pool and walked up to the desk - not far, but dripping wet and cold.   The young lady there informed me that my name had been whited out and someone else had the lane.   I'd had no such problems in 3 months of swimming.   I suputtered and huffed, but did not think fast enough to do anything but harumph off.   I'd been evicted from my lane.

After a shower in humiliation and a chance to think, and went back to the desk and asked how this could happen.   She didn't know, so she said.   I asked to check my next week's worth of reservations - and sure enough, Monday's reservation was missing as well.    Again, I knew I'd made the reservation (a fact I could substantiate because I call on my cell phone at the same time every day.  Yup, ther's the call, 5:05am, 41 seconds long).  I asked for a manger's card and headed home. 

In talking to the manager, it turns out that some members, who have access to the signup list for swimming, will white-out another members name and put their own down.   This made more sense to me than the people I make reservations with every day doihg so, but it's not conclusive.   Bottom line is I'll be triple checking my swim lane reservations every day.

It's been difficult to keep blood sugar numbers stable.   My average (A1C) is still good and improving, but there are too many swings from high to low back to high, and too many lows.   Seeing the doc soon.

Only other thing I'll mentions is that I have two doctors.   My endocrhonologist is 90 years old, and a great doctor.   My generalist MD is a fifty-ish guy from NYU.   I received a notice that my doctor is retiring...and it wasn't the 90 year old, it was the other guy!   So now I have to break in a new doctor.   Ugh.

Music

This part is going pretty good.   I'm getting my studio where I want it, although possibly contemplating seizing half of the garage for a studio expansion.  Anne does not object to this. 

Part of my justification for this is that I believe the next 10 years will see the need for two cars per family start to disappear, between Uber and driverless cars.   If a car can take a guy to work and then drive itself home for the rest of the family's use...I thin a lot of foks are not going to need the traditional garage, especially the older generation (which the area we live in caters to). 

I'm possibly up to two groups recording in the studio; a young cousin will be visiting with a friend from her school singing group, and we'll see what happens from there.

I've been super excited to be playing again with buddies Tod and Ron.   We use the RockSmith Remastered program I've blogged about before.   What a fantastic learning tool.   I've thoroughly learned at least 20 songs, primarily on the bass guitar.    When the trend toward 60-something guys covering 80's music catches fire, I'll be performing once again. 

I can't quite fam with Rocksmith the way the boys can; it's really designed to move from song to song without having to "learn" them.  That unfortunately does not work unless I am very familiar with the song, since I don't see well enough to use the interface in real time.  Still, fantastic learning aid.

Music:  A+

Chess

This is an area I've got to get more in gear.   I've still only played in 2 tournaments.  I play on line, but I have a bad habit of only playing 5 minute blitz games.   This is not good for my chess psyche because I don't see well enough to play five minute blitz, so I lose more than I should and lose foolishly because I'm not seeing obvious things.

I have studied, and do enjoy that.   I've never been willing to study enough and need to concentrate on that more.  I hope to be playing in another tournament in early April. 

I have overcome my fear of the Sophies, but a brief update:   I blogged before about getting beat by a 12 year old girl named Sophi, and Anne got tired of hearing about it.   Last month, my Northwest Chess magazine came in and guess who was on the cover?   ONE OF THE SOPHIES!   I think she's quite the prodigy.   So Anne had to give me that one.

Chess:  C+

Vacations and Time with Anne

We've really only taken two non-swim vacations.   The first was Mexico for a week with friends Tod and Ann.   The second was fairly recent, a short trip to Palm Desert.  Both were good fun trips, and in Palm Desert we ended a 20-year search for a ring Anne likes and she actually let me get it for her.

I was VERY close to being able to go to a regional Burning Man even in Joshua Tree National Park (not far from Palm Desert), but it was short notice and my wingman buddy was unable to go.   My friend Blaine is really into the Burning Man events, and I'm hoping to be able to to the other reginoal later in the year.

We're going to Florida for a week at the beginning of April and will see family as well as visit Connectwise for a board meeting.   

Vacations:   B+

Time with Family

This I hope to see improve, although it has not been bad.

The single biggest pain point here is I really miss my eldest son, William Gregory.   He's working in London, and we're about half-way though his year-long stint.   Very glad he's got the fantastic opportunity to do so, but definitely feeling his absence.

Very fortunately, we get to spend some time with my son Gary and his fiancee Haley - usually after few weeks, but this particular week we've seen them quite a bit.  Always a happiness grenade to see them. 

Had mom's 75th birthday party last week and that was a good time.     60% of applicable siblings made it to the event, as well as grandkids.  Mom was in great form.

Family Time:   C


Outside of the primary missions....


We've connected with friends old and new, and socializing has been a bigger part of our life than it has been for a long time.   I'd say that's pretty much our favorite thing to do. 

We continue to enjoy activities we've always enjoyed - movies, theater, etc.

I've been able to stay on the retirement trajectory.    I've pretty deliberately avoided trying to "check in" too often with my former colleagues (except for social occasions, lie our Scotch Club).    I do not (yet) find myself thinking about another venture. 

Anne's feared twin demons of boredom and the resulting 'being underfoot" have not materialized.   While routine is a big part of our lives, it's got plenty of variability to it and we most often find ourselves asking where the day disappeared to.   I remember being a kid and a teen and thinking that time couldn't possibly be moving slower.   Now, it speeds by.

Definitely watching too much cable news. 

Perhaps because of this, I also find myself feeling very political and even activist.   I am quite alarmed by certain things (which I won't got into in this update), and I'm feeling that the time for complacency may soon be over.

Overall Retirement:   A-



Next:   My IT Journey, Phase II

Its Time to Move Past the NRA


As always, I invite your comments...click the "comments" count button below this post.

Every day since the Parkland massacre, I've been wanting to post about the this issue, and especially about the completely unreasonable level of influence the NRA has in this country.

First, I need the check the usual boxes that you'll usually see when someone attempts to speak out on this issue.    I'm not currently a gun owner, but I have been in the past.    I am a believer in the 2nd amendment TO THE CONSTITUTION, but certainly take issue with the vast expansion of its simple expression of the right to bear arms.    I have a lot of friends of both political parties that are avid hunters and gun hobbyists, people that I respect and that I know might not agree with everything I have to say here.   I feel most of them are also good American citizens and believers in the ENTIRE constitution that would never disagree with my right to speak on the topic, as I would never disagree with theirs.   

I even agree with the deeper original goal of the founding fathers; that the right to bear arms is not just about hunting and self protection.  It is about the rights of the citizenry to protect the nation - from its government.  Particularly topical with our current leadership I would add.   In the days of the founding fathers, citizens with rifles and pistols had a chance to do so.     I see the value in this.

*****
The actions and devices of the NRA after Parkland has gone over the top for me.

This week alone, the NRA has sued the state of Florida for trying to enact very sensible legislation in the wake of Parkland and so many other tragedies.    The President, afraid of the NRA, has backed down on any of the ideas he put forward that make any sense, under the pressure of the NRA.    The attack of the NRA on the children and young adults who were already viciously attacked in their school continue, and are inexcusable.

Watching the NRA and their political mouthpieces try to make the case that our problems are not caused by the huge number of guns in our country despite the massive world-wide evidence to the contrary is Orwellian.    Witnessing the lack of will exhibited by bought and paid for politicians  when other countries like Australia have shown the way out of this mess is the ultimate in frustration. 

Watching the lives of children and the safety of our places of  learning take a back seat to every nuance and every sliver of gun "rights" is the greatest injustice I can imagine.  The very idea that arming teachers is the solution - which by the way would probably sell another 3 million guns to the government - is the worst idea I've ever heard.   Even trained armed deputies on school grounds when the shooting began failed to act.    Americans, you are being mocked right in your face.

The reason cited by the NRA for trying to block legislation requiring a person be 21 years of age to purchase semi-automatic weapons like the AR-15?   "The rights of citizens who have done nothing wrong might be trampled" - referring to the right of an 18 year old to buy a semi automatic weapon.

News flash NRA:   In our civilized society, under our constitution, we ALL AGREE to have our rights impinged.    It's the price of the  greatest level of personal freedom to be found on the plant.

We agree that we can't keep all of the money we earn.   We play taxes. 

We agree that we can't  physically attack and harm another person for what they say.   That person has the right to speak freely on any topic.

We agree that in times of war we may have to give up our personal freedoms entirely to serve our country in the military to keep our citizens safe.     Even 18 to 21 year olds agree to this and are the most often called on during a draft.    And you know what NRA?   I think you'd find the vast majority of those same 18 to 21 years olds that are called on to sacrifice everything would be more than willing to sacrifice the "right" to a a semi-automatic weapon  for an extra 3 years to help keep the most helpless and vulnerable people in our society safe.   I'm certain of it.

We agree that we can't run around doing whatever the hell we want if it harms others. 

And we sure as hell agree that we can't run around shooting each other, and especially our children.

In short, we agree to abide by the Rule of Law, and we eschew the right to anarchy.

The NRA has exalted just one of the rights provided by our Constitution above all others.   There are a of other rights that are quite a bit more important than the right to a semi automatic rifle at the age of 18:  The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The right to a safe place of learning.   The right to not be massacred by one psycho with an automatic weapon.

The fastest path I can see to losing the right to bear arms is the "all or nothing" approach of the NRA.    because in the absence of reasonable, common sense compromise the day will come when the people of the United States are pushed too far, and if the only answer "allowed" by the NRA is nothing, then NOTHING IT SHALL BE.

Only the Sith think in absolutes.    The NRA organization is the dark side, attacking children and taking positions that are unreasonable in the extreme.    Acting as if the desire to get rid of something like "bump stocks" is the government coming into American homes to relieve us of our guns is simple extremism at its worst.

An organization of five million people simply can't stand against and control the other 295 million of us, financially or with the vote.    Since our politicians, including our president, are being bought off and intimidated by the NRA, it may be time to fight fire with fire.    A crowdfunded effort advocating a responsible approach to the second amendment may be an idea whose time has come - an alternative to the NRA for gun rights advocates.   The NRA's strength is organization  and contacts, and that does not come overnight.   Raising 100 million would be a good start.

The NRA is a bad organization with bad leadership, even though many good people are members.      It is up to those NRA members  who do not agree with the extremist all-or-nothing views to be heard and to be heard loud by the leadership of the organization they belong to.    NRA members, you are responsible for the actions of your leadership.     If you do not agree  with the positions taken, please be heard. 

Americans, we can't stand by with our hands in our pockets and let one organization representing an extreme point of view run our country and ruin those lives. 

Agree with me?  Leave a comment.  Disagree with me?  Leave a comment.

Responsibility for the Opioid Epidemic


I ready a news piece yesterday that basically stated that after years of prescribing addictive opioids  for pain, studies are showing that they are no more effective than other forms of pain medication, especially after a year of use.  With the horror of these drugs among us, they don't even help pain sufferers that much.

That pushed me over the edge.

Like many "normal", regular folks I know, my family has been very impacted by heroin-based medications, both prescribed by doctors and obtained on the street.      Our family's experience has not been good; lives are severely impacted and altered, whether for  years or a lifetime.   Our story is the same as many, many other families that I know from all walks of life.

I've read on the subject and participated in treatment programs (as a supporting family member); but I am not a scholar on the subject.     Even so, I want to challenge the assertions that this is a "Mexico" problem and the current and former administrations have loudly claimed.   It is an American problem, and I feel we need to take responsibility for it.

It is necessary to also add this huge disclaimer:   While I've witnessed the cycle of drug addiction many times, I have never dealt with chronic pain or even the severe pain of surgery (and i hope I never do).   I am also not a person that becomes addicted (i gave myself plenty of opportunities to do so); I also don't really like drugs and the states they produce.

There are a few facts that I would present.

1)  It appears to be well known and I've not heard it disputed that 90% of the heroin originates in Afghanistan,  where 90% of the poppy is grown.

2)   For the last 20 or so years, the armed forces of the United States of America have had a significant military presence and operations in Afghanistan.   Before that, Russia spent many years there.   I recall no reports of our military taking any action whatever against poppy growers.  In fact, I spoke to a young man that had done multiple tours in Afghanistan and I asked him whether they ever took action against or even approached poppy fields.   He indicated he'd never seen or heard of any action, and that they could only cross a field with express permission of the owners.     If the damage being done to our people and our society by these drugs are not an act of war against us, I don't know what is.

 3)  Beginning many years ago, heroin moved  from the streets to the doctors office, as Big Pharma started flooding the market and compensating physicians to write addictive prescriptions.   The pharmaceutical companies knowingly lied about the additive nature of drugs like Oxycontin, no different than Big Tobacco and cancer.      The result of years of this "collaboration" between doctors and the drug companies was the entrapment of millions of people whose pain, often transitory pain, became a nightmare of addiction hell.  In my opinion, doctors prescribed these medications unnecessarily both before AND after they knew the addictive effects.  They broke their Hippocratic oath to line their pockets.

Here's the question I pose:  How is Mexico to blame for the rampant escalation of this problem and its encroachment into the lives of mainstream Americans if we allow the Afghanis to produce and ship this poison under the nose of our military, and if we allow our own bloodsucking drug companies to legally produce millions of pills, and we allow our medical professionals to irresponsibly prescribe the drug without ensuring their patients do not become addicts?

They hypocrisy of our leadership, past and present, is unbelievable as it relates to this issue.

The only answer I have is the usual.   We allow this because the rich get richer through means both legal (ownership of large amounts of Pharma stock) and illegal.  Simple as that.

Many Americans are unaware of the scope of this problem, and the drug companies work hard to keep it that way.   We'd be much more aware of it if those who are addicted wen through the life-threatening pain of being forced off the drugs due to inability to afford them - but the same Pharma companies that charged huge amounts to get people hooked while they had insurance to pay the huge prices make those same drugs available at a fraction of the cost to addicts that no longer have insurance - because they're still making money on these cheaply produced drugs, and because they don't want to visibility and the stink of what would happen if they didn't make them available.  I've seen this with my own eyes.

I'm often dismayed by how willing we as a people are to screw each other.   There is no better example of this than the pharmaceutical companies.

It is clear that our government and our leaders are not going to do anything about this, which means this is another are that we the people must find a way to take into our own hands.       We are not the first civilization on earth under attack from drug addiction.    We are not handling it well.

How do we confront the ugly truths and decide on what actions could be effective to end this plague?  How do we deal with the weakness in our own society that allows this to go on?   Many who are prescribed these drugs are snared unwittingly by their own doctors; but for most it is a choice they make and continue to make.   Why do our people make this choice?

I have only one suggestion:   Any doctor trying to prescribe addictive drugs to you is basically putting your life at risk.     AT LEAST ask for alternatives.   AT LEAST demand a full plan not to just get you on the drugs but to get you off of them as well.   ASSUME that you will become addicted.   Here again, I speak as one that has not personally dealt with these levels of pain.     I have talked to many who feel they could have handled their pain in other ways and were simply unaware of the danger their own doctor put them in.

I welcome your comments and experiences.    So many are affected.   This is not a political problem; though it is partially a leadership problem that we've had for many years.   

God bless and help those that are suffering through this horrible experience.

Goodbye to my last Harley


Anne and I went to a play up in Everett last weekend called "the Gin Game".   WE have season tickets; it's  small theater with productions of often unknown works.   True to the title the play was about a gin game between a man and a women in an old folks home.   Over the game they talked about old folks home issues like their belongings being stolen...what small amount of their treasures they had left were walking away.   Kind of depressing really.

Back in 2005 i got on a motorcycle kick.   This came about after a bad trip on some drugs a dental surgeon gave me to have wisdom teeth extracted.   I had the most paranoid tripping night of my life, and in the morning got up, went to breakfast, and bought a Honda at the local Harley dealership.    Well, I got bit by the bug and before you know it I traded the Honda in on not one but TWO brand new Harleys, a soft-tail "Fat Boy" and a VROD. 

The Vrod was an awesome bike (they both were), but it was special because it was co-designed with Porsche.    I loved that thing.

I didn't have a lot of time riding the bikes; my eyes were already starting to go, not that riding motorcycles isn't dicey enough as is.    I was able to ride for about 3 years.   Never achieved my dream of a big cross-country ride, but still enjoyed riding to work and around the area.    Second childhood stuff.

I sold the VRod back in 2007 to a young man from Iran.   His father paid for it with a big wad of sweaty bills.   

I could never bring myself to sell the Fat Boy, but I finally have.   I don't know, there was just something about it that felt like a line I was crossing.  I haven't driven or ridden for at least 8 years, so it's not like I'm "giving up" riding.

I guess that's part of the process as you get older (not that I am), but you give things up, have to let them go, and your world kind of gets smaller and smaller.   We all end up with some set of issues of our own - for me, it's my eyesight - but whatever it is (even simple old age) you can't keep doing everything you were able to do in younger days.

There's plenty to look forward to, I would say that being in a geiatric care facility waiting for my stuff to walk off would not be one of them.

An interesting sub-story:

I ad not licensed the Harley Fat Boy (sub sub story:  I bought the Fat Boy not only because I loved it but because I thought it was the Terminator bike; it wasn't - that was actually a Honda) since 2009 - about 8 years.    In all the house moves, I'd also managed to lose the title.

Well, in turns out in trying to get a title to the bike that the state of Washington only stores vehicle records for 7 years.    After that, if you lose your title, you can be in a situation they call "ownership in doubt".   If you land in this mini-hell, you have to jump through a lot of hoops and then you can't register or sell your vehicle for 3 years.

The state said "we can't store those records in our computers forever", like we're still e]dealing with PC's from the 80's that only have 20mb storage.   Pointing out to the state that the cost of data storage has decreased by 10000% over those same 7 years does not get you far by the way.

At any rate, the problem turned out to be mistaking an 8 for an X in the VIN number, so the "tier 2" folks at the DoT were able to find my records - and my last Harley is gone.


Depressing play, depressing blog post.    I think I'll take the proceeds and buy a new guitar.

Adios friends!

How Peter Jackson Sold Out Every Character in The Lord of the Rings:  A Tolkien Rant

Please leave a comment, especially if you get through this whole thing!

Yes, I am stepping fully out of the geek closet to state that I'm a lifelong Tolkien fan, to a fairly (but not totally) unreasonable degree.    Middle Earth was my happy place growing up, even before I discovered the much larger world outside of the Lord of the Rings that Tolkien created with The Silmarillion, the Lost Tales, and the many studies that his son Christopher Tolkien has created.

To put a limiter on this Tolkien geekery, I will say that there is a level (or perhaps many levels) beyond me - the truly hard core scholars of the Tolkien Society for example.   I do not profess to be a scholar.    If we get to vote on our next world of choice, there's a fairly good chance I'll be some kind of hobbit, elf, or Balrog in my next existence.   That's assuming I'm not an inchworm because the Buddhists are correct.

As these two paragraphs have already shown, not everyone will be interested in this particular blog post.    It's been a rant I've needed to get out ever since seeing the Lord of the Rings however.    Most people that watched the LOTR in the theater were perfectly happy with it because they are the great Tolkien unwashed, never having read even the LOTR once (much less 100 times), and never gone beyond to the greater world of Arda.    Jackson's movies were entertaining - but ultimately very untrue to the core characters, especially the Nine Walkers.

There is no doubt in my mind that one day these stores will be told fully and I hope in a way that is true to the stories, the grandeur, and the unbelievable depth that JRR Tolkien spent his whole life (literally) creating. 

I understand why Peter Jackson did what he did; even with three long movies he could not get into the depth of the story and the characters.    Still, I do not feel it was necessary to cheapen and dumb down the characters as much as he did - to what I call "Sell them out".    Without further adieu, her's my list of the characters and how they were hamstrung for the sake of shortening the films or dumbing down the story for the uninitiated audience

Let's start at the top.

Frodo

Frodo was one of the many characters impacted by some (to my mind) foolish manipulation of the timeline of the events in the Lord of the Rings.   The biggest example is the fact that between B ilbo's Farewell Party and Frodo's flight from the Shire, 20 years have passed...but in the movies, Jackson shortened this to practically days.    Among many other impactful effects is this:  This Ring is like crack - anyone possessing and particularly using the One Ring would become attached or addicted to it, and would be unable to let it go.   Frodo  would not become so addicted in matter of days (or hours) as the Jackson story represents.    Over 20 years in the actual story Frodo used the ring on several occasions, and certainly possessed it for a long time.   IN the movie, he only used therein twice for very short periods.

In the movie, Frodo sends Sam away at the Pass of Cirith Ungol and went through Shelob's Lair alone.    Frodo would NEVER have sent Sam away, and Sam was with him through Shelob's Lair.   While Jackson's exploration of the empathy/sympathy Frodo had for Smeagol/Gollum, this was taking it too far.

By skipping both the adventure with Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Downs, as well as the death of Saruman in the Shire, Jackson left out important elements showing Frodo's courage, character, and the elements of fate that he was subject to.  I dearly hope the future remake of the LOTR will not omit these elements.

Samwise Gamgee

in Tolkien's LOTR, Sam defines loyalty and dedication in service to Frodo, and ultimately is shown to be a shrewd (if not overly quick on the draw) and critical element of the success of the Quest.     While Samwise as created was not hesitant to speak his mind (and was usually right), he was not what I'd call a whiner as he was portrayed in the movie - and eh was absolutely no quitter, and would NEVER have left Frodo whether ordered to or not.    His epic struggle at the Pass of Cirith Ungol and in the Tower was absolutely defining, and was almost fully skipped in the movie. 

As will be seen with Merry and Pippin as well, Sam did not stumble into his role as a member of Frodo's quest in the matter of the few hours between Bilbo's party and Frodo's departure; he was the member of a conspiracy that was committed to helping Frodo that cooked up their plans over a long period of time.    It was very shallow make it appear otherwise.

Aragorn

As the heir of Isildur and the rightful king of both Gondor and Arnor, Aragorn's ENTIRE LIFE was dedicated to the long foretold final confrontation with Sauron and regaining his crown, saving Middle Earth.    He was intimately familiar with and aware of all of the history and lore of the Elder Days and knew the ties between the current struggle and that history - and as a Nemenorean, he knew also the atonement that was due from his people.

In the movie, many references are made to Aragorn's "Turning from that path long ago" as if he had walked away from that commitment, which would never have happened,.  Aragorn also continually received help from Arwen and Elrond (in events that never occurred in the books) that were in themselves major transgressions against the tenets of the story.  Aragorn was a noble but not flashy character; his actions were not rash.   He certainly did not nearly die and disappear from the action before Helm's Deep.    What he DID do was confront Sauron directly through the use of the palantir of Orthanc AND DEFEATED HIM - an event completely left out of the movie theatrical release and mischaracterized in the extended release -     which would have been fascinating to include in toto.    What he DID do was encounter his own people the Dunedain  after the victory at Isengard, who then accompanied him on the Paths of the Dead (rather than just Legolas and Gimli). 

Aragorn was also a Numenorean and built like a Numenorean, "tall as the Sea-Kings of old".   Viggo didn't cut the mustard for me.      Aragorn has a lineage and a nobility that was not come through in the movies.

Boromir


In the small context of his time with the Fellowship, Boromir was not a major character and there were not enough events to really flesh him out - and thus he wasn't sold down the river too much.  However, his doubts about Aragorn should have been portrayed more than they were.   The funeral of Boromir was omitted from the movie (and the subsequent sightings of Boromir by his brother, a key part of the story.      As I also felt Boromir was underdeveloped in the context of the LOTR by Tolkien I'm not grousing too much here.

Merry and Pippin


I'm committing a bit of Jackson's sin by lumping these two important characters together. 

I truly objected to the way they were treated; they were only a part of Frodo's party because they happened to run into them stealing vegetables from Farmer Maggot.    While they might have done this as Hobbit teens (and in fact Frodo had don so earlier in life), at the time of the story and their ages in the story they would never have don so.    They were a part of the conspiracy to help Frodo and the team that was helping him move from Hobbiton to Crickhollow, an event again completely omitted from the movies. 

They were portrayed as completely lightweight characters throughout the story.   While Pippin was not quite the contributor Merry was, they both played key roles at key times.   Merry was instrumental in the omitted trek through the Old Forest where Bombadil was encountered; and he  was instrumental in the killing of  the Witch King of Angmar for gosh sake

Perhaps the most serious wrongdoing against these characters involved Treebeard and the Ents.    The coming of Meriadoc and Peregrin to Fangorm Forest catalyzed the outrage of the Ents, and Treebeard in his slow way had nurtured a strategy against Saruman.    The movie made it seems like all involved just bumbled into this absolutely critical battle, with Pippin "tricking" Treebeard (one of the oldest living beings in Middle Earth into a casual walk with all the Ents into a field of destroyed trees.   Nothing could be further from the spirit of the story or the characters.

At the death of Boromir, in the movie Merry and Pippin were picked up like toddlers by the Orcs and carried off.    IN the actual battle, Merry relived several Orcs of their hands and arms before being overcome - again, under-serving the valor and character of these to young hobbits.

Finally, the omission of the final battles in the shire with Saruman robbed Merry and Pippin of their showing as trained, wizened leaders capable of mustering their folk and defending their land,.   They simply came across as lightweight truants.

Gimli

Gimli the Dwarf of Erebor was a significant character in the story, representing one of the Free Peoples of Middle Earth - and it was important to the story that all the free peoples tark part in the destruction of Sauron and earning the right to Middle Earth.   Aside from being cast as comic relief and not otherwise fleshed out, there was not a lot of serious dirt that could be done to GImli -

Except that a major aspect of the story line related to Gimli was this request of Galadriel at her gift-giving ceremony at the end of the stay in Lothlorien (unfortunately omitted in the theatrical release) for a lock of her hair, for him to treasure.  This completely forward address was extraordinary, all the more because she agreed.   I learned years later that Feanor himself (a character of the Elder Days and the First Age) had requested of his cousin Galadriel many times a lock of her hair, and she had refused him.    An extraordinary centuries-long "F* you" to dead Feanor!

Legolas

Ok, so now I have to admit that there is one of the Nine Walkers not seriously dissed by Jackson, at least not in the LOTR.    The Hobbit series is another matter for another day.

Legoals was abused as a kind of "catch all" of knowledge and information he did not possess in the books, and would have had no way to possess about things like the Rohirrim and Gondor.    He was also cast as a kind of superhero vastly beyond the capabilities of any actual Elf short of Feanor or Fingolfin.    They did ned to expand his role from the books (which was not very prominent), so this can be forgiven - especially since Legolas was a fairly big hit to the moviegoers.

Gandalf

Gandalf was the bringer of hope and endurance to Elves and Men, sent to Middle Earth to combat Sauron but forbidden to do so with power.    He was the Gods' cleaner, tasked with ridding Middle Earth of the remnants of the old evil of Melkor and his servants - Sauron, Dragons, Balrogs, Orces etc.

Gandalf would never have (and did not) "lose hope" as portrayed in the Return of the King at the Council of Captains, where Aragorn has to pull him back from depressions.  .

The beginning of the tale being characterized as happening in days instead of 20 years also affects Gandalf and makes his actions seem questionable - deliberately sending the hobbits off without guidance or planning, for example. 

The re-tooled confrontation with Saruman and breaking of his staff was not included in the theatrical release, and is the moment that truly defined Gandalf as "the White". 

Overall, Gandalf received reasonable treatment consistent withe the story and his place in it overall.  IN particular the battle with the Balrog was awesome.

Other Characters and Peoples of Note


The Elves - 

When an elven army showed up at Helms Deep I was seriously bummed out.    The joining of the forces of Gil-Galad and Elendil at the end of the Second Age was called "THe Last Alliance of Elves and Men" for a reason.     The Elves did not and would not directly help Men fight Sauron again.

The Ents

I'm really chapped that the Ents were portrayed basically as idiots that had to be tricked into fighting Saruman.  The whole "When I walk South I always feel I'm walking downhill" was flat ridiculous.   Not a way to treat one of the Free Peoples, creatures thousands of years old.


The Hobbits

As a people, the Hobbits were dissed of their role and suffering during the War, and their ultimate victory over evil men and Suruman.   It just wasn't included.

Elrond

Never journeyed to visit Theoden and deliver Anduril to Aragorn.   Anduril, the Sord REforged, was with Aragorn always and was reforged before the Company left Rivendell.   Elrond would not have said that "Aragorn turned from the path of kingship long ago".

Arwen

Arwen Undomiel was a great lady of high lineage and prestige, and also several hundred years old.    Aragorn had to work his butt off to win her and deserve her.   In the movie, she is treated like a teenage warrior princess, on the road fighting the Nazgul.    This is a part of th missing nobility of the story and many of its characters.   Also, Arwen never set off for The Grey Havens to sail to Valinor.

Eomer

A key and noble character in the story, Eomer came across as a lout and a bully, even making fun of Merry (whom he highly honored in the book).    Many of his key interactions were removed altogether.

Faramir

Big time objection here.   Again, Faramir is a very noble chracter who used wisdom in his judgement in dealing with Frodo in Ithilien - he did not and would not have taken him prisoner at all, much less march him back to Osgiliath.    There did not seem to be any purpose served by this major alteration of the story, and the timeline was casually altered by the quick jaunts back and forth from Ithilien to Osgiliath and back, territory crawling with Orcs.

The Ringbearers

Frodo and Sam were accorded no congrats or honors for their incredible sacrifices, at least in the theatrical release of the movies.   Merry and Sam were accorded as much honor and while it is not a contest there's not much comparison of efforts.

You'll notices one name not on my shitlist:   Smeagol/Gollum.   I thought that this chracter was absolutely spot on, and even in the areas that Jackson expanded over the book were amazing.   The scene with Faramir was a great example.    I never expected to see Gollum in all his glory; I don't know how this character could be better done.

******

Well, there you have it.    While many might think I'm picking nits, many of these issues are at the heart of these characters, their histories, and their motivations.  How esactly I would have "fixed" these issues would be a longer discussions and probably a fourth movie.

Some of these issues would have been easily solved, some not so much.

I hope there's at least one Tolkien fan that got this far, and if so please leave a comment!

Namarie!