There have been countless songs, poems and stories written about people that come into our lives and then move on like smoke in a breeze. I think about that often. Do you?
In each of our lives, from the moment of self-awareness as a young child, infant maybe, people begin passing through and leaving impressions beginning early and then afterwards for a lifetime. The person that leaves that indelible print on our psyche may never personally reappear in our lives but, that individual shares responsibility for who we were, become, are, and will be. We are undeniably products of that presence, no matter how brief.
Of course there are parents, siblings, first loves, classmates and friends but that’s not necessarily who I’m referring to. It’s all those others; doctors, neighbors, teachers, friends of friends, people met in passing at dances, restaurants, church and other public functions—people on the periphery that touch us and move on.
How many events, situations, faces, or verbal exchanges have you had, good or bad, that is burned so deeply that you’ll never forget them? Interestingly, I’ll wager there are many you can think of, that, to this very day, affect your opinions, how you feel about certain things, or maybe just a cozy feeling you want to hang on to for a lifetime?
There are many I claim as Facebook friends that my personal association with can literally be measured in mere seconds over four decades ago, yet, are crystal in my memory and have left their mark on my mind and in my heart. I would even go as far as to say that some do not remember me at all ... doesn’t matter, because they effected me profoundly in some way.
Of course, we should never forget our friends and family, but what about all the others?
Allow me to set a scenario, a true example of what I say here: It is 1986, Carnival Cruise ship, port of call-San Juan, Puerto Rico; passengers and crew with shore leave are disembarking. I find myself in a slow moving line and a young man with cottony blond hair turns to me with a smile and says, “Hi, I’m Afrikaaner. Are you American?”
I loved his accent and was touched that he took the initiative to strike up a conversation. “Yeah,” I replied, “I am. Are you on vacation?”
“Oh, no, I’m your cabin steward.”
Of course I was immediately embarrassed I didn’t recognize him out of his white uniform. In fact he had on a plain white t-shirt, beltless Levis and flipflops with a rolled-up Playboy magazine in his hip pocket. I’m sure I flushed red; my face was hot. “I’m sorry I didn’t—“
“Oh no, don’t apologize. You have no reason to remember me but I’ll always remember you.”
“Huh?”
“You’re the only person in my section that shook my hand when I showed you your cabin. I’ll always remember that small kindness. Some bad things have happened to me lately and I wasn’t having a great day. But your smile and handshake changed that. I hope our paths cross again after this cruise.”
This was the first time in my life that it penetrated my thick skull that what we say and do, even the smallest things, can have a profound impact at times.
Now, I think of all the mental snapshots I carry from a lifetime of similar encounters and realize that not a single one can be discounted as unimportant.
This is my way of saying thanks for strolling into and then out of my life because you left your mark, and it is good.
Daniel (Danny) Lance Wright
Author of
"Paradise Flawed"/Dream Books LLC/2009
"Six Years' Worth"/Father's Press/2007
"The Last Radiant Heart"/Virtual Tales/August 2010
"Where Are You, Anne Bonny?"/Rogue Phoenix Press 2010/ ebook available
“Trouble”, short story/CrossTIME Science Fiction Anthology, Vol. IX
“Dancing Away”/short story/Untreed Reads
COMING IN 2012
“Defining Family”
“Annie’s World: Jake’s Legacy”
Novelist
Daniel (Danny) Lance Wright, Author
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth
You know, it’s not supposed to be the geek that shall inherit the earth.
Something I think about often, and worry about a little, too, is that our entire functioning world hinges on those things that can be plugged in to a power source. As tech toys flood world markets at an alarming rate, we as humans, and supposedly sentient beings, are actually losing our humanity at the same speed. We are but a collection of numbers and symbols in a database somewhere and, therefore, living and existing at the pleasure of people who know how to manipulate those numbers and symbols.
I think, though, I want to take this discussion in a slightly different direction. Let me set a hypothetical scenario for you. Let’s say it’s the year 2012 and Osama bin Laden’s replacement is much savvier about technology than his predecessor—not how to use it, but what ceases to happen without it. Politicians and power moguls can argue all they like that we have too many redundancies in our grid system to worry much about terrorism on electricity production. I’ll only buy into that premise to a point. For the most part, I choose to believe that such talk is self-serving to maintain central control even as many different companies distribute power. The reason is simple, distributors distribute, they don’t produce.
How many remember the northeastern power outage of 1965; how about the one in 2003? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_1965
It’s not worth boring you with technical jargon or excuses for the outages. I’m not intelligent enough for that anyhow. But, what is fascinating to note, is how little it took to take down a huge chunk of the northeastern United States in an instant. And both times it stayed down for a frighteningly long period. Now, multiply that by two or three other central power producing locations.
I think you know where I’m going with this; the U-S, with the possible exception of the military, would be blind, deaf and dumb. How long do you think it would take for panic and mayhem to set in, sides chosen and warring tribes to emerge battling over scraps of food?
I challenge each one reading this to look around and count the number of young people you personally know that have no clue how a loaf of bread is made or what from, where ham comes from or how to make it, how to make cheese or butter, have never gathered eggs from a coop, have no idea how to spin yarn, sew, weave, build a chair from tree branches, or even something as simple as walking into an open pasture and knowing what is edible and what is poison. This list could go on and on. Unfortunately, these are the people that now rule the world and are currently breeding offspring that think their futures hinge on new products from Apple and Microsoft or how well the stock of one investment company does versus another, or what political party will best serve them.
I think I’ll get to work writing a novel of catastrophe and call it, “The Geek That Inherited The Earth” or maybe, “The United States Unplugged”. Of course neither have much hope of a happy ending if I insist on too many truisms. I would have to go whole hog and create a fantasy world because, really, who’d believe society could collapse just because someone pulled the power plug. Absurd. Right?
Daniel (Danny) Lance Wright
Author of
"Paradise Flawed"/Dream Books LLC/2009
"Six Years' Worth"/Father's Press/2007
"The Last Radiant Heart"/Virtual Tales/August 2010
"Where Are You, Anne Bonny?"/Rogue Phoenix Press 2010/ ebook available
“Trouble”, short story/CrossTIME Science Fiction Anthology, Vol. IX
“Dancing Away”/short story/Untreed Reads
COMING IN 2012
“Defining Family”
“Annie’s World: Jake’s Legacy”
Something I think about often, and worry about a little, too, is that our entire functioning world hinges on those things that can be plugged in to a power source. As tech toys flood world markets at an alarming rate, we as humans, and supposedly sentient beings, are actually losing our humanity at the same speed. We are but a collection of numbers and symbols in a database somewhere and, therefore, living and existing at the pleasure of people who know how to manipulate those numbers and symbols.
I think, though, I want to take this discussion in a slightly different direction. Let me set a hypothetical scenario for you. Let’s say it’s the year 2012 and Osama bin Laden’s replacement is much savvier about technology than his predecessor—not how to use it, but what ceases to happen without it. Politicians and power moguls can argue all they like that we have too many redundancies in our grid system to worry much about terrorism on electricity production. I’ll only buy into that premise to a point. For the most part, I choose to believe that such talk is self-serving to maintain central control even as many different companies distribute power. The reason is simple, distributors distribute, they don’t produce.
How many remember the northeastern power outage of 1965; how about the one in 2003? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_2003 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_Blackout_of_1965
It’s not worth boring you with technical jargon or excuses for the outages. I’m not intelligent enough for that anyhow. But, what is fascinating to note, is how little it took to take down a huge chunk of the northeastern United States in an instant. And both times it stayed down for a frighteningly long period. Now, multiply that by two or three other central power producing locations.
I think you know where I’m going with this; the U-S, with the possible exception of the military, would be blind, deaf and dumb. How long do you think it would take for panic and mayhem to set in, sides chosen and warring tribes to emerge battling over scraps of food?
I challenge each one reading this to look around and count the number of young people you personally know that have no clue how a loaf of bread is made or what from, where ham comes from or how to make it, how to make cheese or butter, have never gathered eggs from a coop, have no idea how to spin yarn, sew, weave, build a chair from tree branches, or even something as simple as walking into an open pasture and knowing what is edible and what is poison. This list could go on and on. Unfortunately, these are the people that now rule the world and are currently breeding offspring that think their futures hinge on new products from Apple and Microsoft or how well the stock of one investment company does versus another, or what political party will best serve them.
I think I’ll get to work writing a novel of catastrophe and call it, “The Geek That Inherited The Earth” or maybe, “The United States Unplugged”. Of course neither have much hope of a happy ending if I insist on too many truisms. I would have to go whole hog and create a fantasy world because, really, who’d believe society could collapse just because someone pulled the power plug. Absurd. Right?
Daniel (Danny) Lance Wright
Author of
"Paradise Flawed"/Dream Books LLC/2009
"Six Years' Worth"/Father's Press/2007
"The Last Radiant Heart"/Virtual Tales/August 2010
"Where Are You, Anne Bonny?"/Rogue Phoenix Press 2010/ ebook available
“Trouble”, short story/CrossTIME Science Fiction Anthology, Vol. IX
“Dancing Away”/short story/Untreed Reads
COMING IN 2012
“Defining Family”
“Annie’s World: Jake’s Legacy”
Friday, May 20, 2011
Are Print Books in Danger Of Extinction?
The following is a partial reprint from the May 19th edition of Business Wire. It is a fascinating sign of the times in the publishing industry. I wonder where it will go next. -dlw
(NASDAQ:AMZN)--Amazon began selling hardcover and paperback books in July 1995. Twelve years later in November 2007, Amazon introduced the revolutionary Kindle and began selling Kindle books. By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books - hardcover and paperback - combined.
"Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books. We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly - we've been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years," said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com. "In addition, we're excited by the response to Kindle with Special Offers for only $114, which has quickly become the bestselling member of the Kindle family. We continue to receive positive comments from customers on the low $114 price and the money-saving special offers. We're grateful to our customers for continuing to make Kindle the bestselling e-reader in the world and the Kindle Store the most popular e-bookstore in the world."
Recent milestones for Kindle include:
Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
So far in 2011, the tremendous growth of Kindle book sales, combined with the continued growth in Amazon's print book sales, have resulted in the fastest year-over-year growth rate for Amazon's U.S. books business, in both units and dollars, in over 10 years. This includes books in all formats, print and digital. Free books are excluded in the calculation of growth rates.
In the five weeks since its introduction, Kindle with Special Offers for only $114 is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family in the U.S.
Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010.
Less than one year after introducing the UK Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover books, even as hardcover sales continue to grow. Since April 1, Amazon.co.uk customers are purchasing Kindle books over hardcover books at a rate of more than 2 to 1.
(NASDAQ:AMZN)--Amazon began selling hardcover and paperback books in July 1995. Twelve years later in November 2007, Amazon introduced the revolutionary Kindle and began selling Kindle books. By July 2010, Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular format on Amazon.com. Today, less than four years after introducing Kindle books, Amazon.com customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than all print books - hardcover and paperback - combined.
"Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books. We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly - we've been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years," said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com. "In addition, we're excited by the response to Kindle with Special Offers for only $114, which has quickly become the bestselling member of the Kindle family. We continue to receive positive comments from customers on the low $114 price and the money-saving special offers. We're grateful to our customers for continuing to make Kindle the bestselling e-reader in the world and the Kindle Store the most popular e-bookstore in the world."
Recent milestones for Kindle include:
Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
So far in 2011, the tremendous growth of Kindle book sales, combined with the continued growth in Amazon's print book sales, have resulted in the fastest year-over-year growth rate for Amazon's U.S. books business, in both units and dollars, in over 10 years. This includes books in all formats, print and digital. Free books are excluded in the calculation of growth rates.
In the five weeks since its introduction, Kindle with Special Offers for only $114 is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family in the U.S.
Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010.
Less than one year after introducing the UK Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover books, even as hardcover sales continue to grow. Since April 1, Amazon.co.uk customers are purchasing Kindle books over hardcover books at a rate of more than 2 to 1.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Politics and Religion
It is said that if one wants to keep a party light and happy then avoid the topics of politics and religion, and rightfully so I believe. It shouldn’t take a genius to realize that every war ever fought since the beginning of time had one or the other as root justification for mayhem and death.
One possible argument against this notion might be disputes over real estate. Maybe. But, even then, I think if one backtracks from the geographic boundary disagreements a contentious argument over politics and/or religion will be discovered that set the territorial dispute in motion.
I am of the mind that no one on this planet can change my beliefs when it comes to either of these topics. So, when a friend or acquaintance broaches the subject of either, I don’t just avoid it, I run. If I know they can’t change my mind; what would make me believe I could alter their opinion? These are not things that can be discussed when stands differ. It will quickly escalate into a debate, then into an argument and then, voila, the seeds of another war have just been planted.
Consider this: When a friendly discussion of politics or religion begins, the first to speak will open by saying, “In my opinion...” But, what the discussion partner really means is, “And, now, listen to my undeniable, indisputable fact...”
Yep, if I find myself in that scenario, I smile, listen to the, so-called, opinion and usually say something tremendously clever like, “Really?” I’ll quickly wrap with, “Nice talking to you”, and then walk away—no harm no foul and that person remains a friend.
Now, if you take this micro example and apply it to the macro, respect for other nation’s views on politics and religions would be a giant step toward elusive world peace. Everyone says they want it. Do they really? Or, do people just want a planet filled with clones of themselves? The clone thing makes sense to me. And, as far as world peace goes, I'll quote my daddy. “Ain’t gonna happen ... just ain’t.”
So, reeling back this world view to a personal one, my wife will just have to suffer through my political and religious rants whenever I feel the need to give opinions a voice. I guess this means there’ll be no peace in my world either.
"Paradise Flawed"/Dream Books LLC/2009
"Six Years' Worth"/Father's Press/2007
"The Last Radiant Heart"/Virtual Tales/August 2010
"Where Are You, Anne Bonny?"/Rogue Phoenix Press 2010/ ebook available
“Trouble”, short story/CrossTIME Science Fiction Anthology, Vol. IX
“Dancing Away”/short story/Untreed Reads
COMING IN 2012
“Defining Family”
“Annie’s World: Jake’s Legacy”
One possible argument against this notion might be disputes over real estate. Maybe. But, even then, I think if one backtracks from the geographic boundary disagreements a contentious argument over politics and/or religion will be discovered that set the territorial dispute in motion.
I am of the mind that no one on this planet can change my beliefs when it comes to either of these topics. So, when a friend or acquaintance broaches the subject of either, I don’t just avoid it, I run. If I know they can’t change my mind; what would make me believe I could alter their opinion? These are not things that can be discussed when stands differ. It will quickly escalate into a debate, then into an argument and then, voila, the seeds of another war have just been planted.
Consider this: When a friendly discussion of politics or religion begins, the first to speak will open by saying, “In my opinion...” But, what the discussion partner really means is, “And, now, listen to my undeniable, indisputable fact...”
Yep, if I find myself in that scenario, I smile, listen to the, so-called, opinion and usually say something tremendously clever like, “Really?” I’ll quickly wrap with, “Nice talking to you”, and then walk away—no harm no foul and that person remains a friend.
Now, if you take this micro example and apply it to the macro, respect for other nation’s views on politics and religions would be a giant step toward elusive world peace. Everyone says they want it. Do they really? Or, do people just want a planet filled with clones of themselves? The clone thing makes sense to me. And, as far as world peace goes, I'll quote my daddy. “Ain’t gonna happen ... just ain’t.”
So, reeling back this world view to a personal one, my wife will just have to suffer through my political and religious rants whenever I feel the need to give opinions a voice. I guess this means there’ll be no peace in my world either.
"Paradise Flawed"/Dream Books LLC/2009
"Six Years' Worth"/Father's Press/2007
"The Last Radiant Heart"/Virtual Tales/August 2010
"Where Are You, Anne Bonny?"/Rogue Phoenix Press 2010/ ebook available
“Trouble”, short story/CrossTIME Science Fiction Anthology, Vol. IX
“Dancing Away”/short story/Untreed Reads
COMING IN 2012
“Defining Family”
“Annie’s World: Jake’s Legacy”
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