Vote of No Confidence

Growing up, I was told that if you did not vote, you had no say in an elected official did. At a time, even I believed it, but as I became informed to how the election system works, voting for even the lesser of two evils seems morally wrong. People like to think that in a situation, you have to do something. But doing nothing is something.

Not Really News

I grew up a tad bit strange (still am strange) in that I began watching news channels at a young age instead of cartoons. I began with Headline News, but after realizing that every half hour or so was repeated, I was not able to get the information I wanted. Eventually we got Fox News, and at the time I was still in the left-right paradigm of CNN was liberal, and Fox News was the only station telling the truth.

I watched Bill O'reilly, and later Glenn Beck, but it was during the time that Glenn Beck was on I began listening to Alex Jones. Like a man dying of thirst, I began to relearn economics, government, politics, entertainment, and especially history. One of the first things I heard Alex Jones said is "Don't believe me; look it up." And I did. Everything he was saying I would look up and it was all true. That was no so much surprising as it was surprising that I had not done what I had been taught in college. Since pretty much my first semester, I was taught that if I was to claim anything in a paper, I had to back it up with facts, source it, or cite it.

Author's Research

A couple years ago for Christmas, I got "The Twelfth Imam" by Joel Rosenberg. It is a fictional book set in historical events. You could argue that since it is a book, that alternate version of history or an alternate universe, as it were, would not be the same history as our own. Given how much research the author must have done for the period setting, it would be acceptable to assume that it is relatively the same universe as ours.

Moral Revolution

Right now I am reading "The 5,000 Year Leap" which goes over the principles that the Founders believed in that set up a system to make a country great. There are 28 principles, but the chief among them are liberty, private property, and the pursuit of life and happiness. The book also talks about the doubts these men had before the revolution began. They agreed that a nation must be filled with well educated, moral and just men to be able to govern themselves. They admitted that a nation filled with uneducated and immoral people will flee asking others to govern them.

Next Project

Now that Survival Tautology is out and available to buy, I have begun work on my next book tentatively titled The Immune. I don't really have a synopsis right now, but the setting is around a biological outbreak that wipes out 90% of the world's population. A small group of people try to make their way across America to find a future. Right now I am developing character profiles.

The only similarity this book has with Survival Tautology is that the human population has been decreased. Instead of a community that is stationary, this one will be small--I haven't decided on what size it will be. I played too much Final Fantasy 11 years ago that six always seems like the appropriate number of people for a group. Right now I only have ideas for four, so the number will probably be around 4-6.

ASC Cover Art Contest Winner

I am happy to announce the winner of the ASC Cover Art Contest is Nicole Binns. Her art will be featured on my book "Survival Tautology" scheduled for release February 6th. If you are interested in contacting her for further work, you can check out her website. Here is the winning drawing, and check out "Survival Tautology" when it comes out on Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, and Google Books.

Supporting Local Talent

For all the crap that may come out of America's Got Talent, you see often times a tiny jewel of a person who has amazing talent. The show tries to spin it that they discovered this new talent because they held auditions. This is only meant to lend them credibility for a show that only pumps out singers while advertising that the show is open to all acts. These people who only sing in the shower or only sing at church, and come out with amazing voices is something that we do not always hear about. A lot of times you have local bands who are singing about issues and topics that really matter. But the same concept of supporting a local band is the same as supporting US companies. Supporting local stores instead of big box stores helps the local economy, and has a direct impact on a local business in your town. If you spend $100 a week at Wal-mart, you are not going to see Wal-mart suddenly start hiring in your local town. But if you spend your money at a local store, you are more likely to see a direct impact in your life by seeing that small company hire new employees.