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Showing posts from 2012

What to do, what to do?

What to do, what to do. I think I am going to comb my hair- Pantene Pro V commercial. Exactly my point. I am typing out Part 4 for my book right now. Dreaming to publish it, one day. If it is done, before I publish Part 3, should I combine them to make a sort of double big mac? A 440 approximate page book. Have the two books in one?  Just like a big sales event! Two for one, only you pay double and probably save on the shipping.  Yes, I am afraid it probably will be a little savings of a few bucks on my end of the book, on the wholesaler, but the publisher will still ramp up the cost per page. It could result in pretty good savings, for the purchaser. Only problem, is how do I get two covers on one cover? Two titles, on one cover. It will surely make a mess. 440 pages of comedy! Part 3 and 4 together. I cannot get it out of my head. But, postponed for the instant. We know the story, sales are lacking. I will be patient. I do not want people to buy my book like crazy, either. I

Cold and windy day, minus 20 C coming this way!

Exposed to turn really cold by the middle of this week. In Northern NB, already the winds have picked up, and even at minus 6 with the windchill, it feels like minus 15 C or so. We are more used to the warm winters now, that perhaps we are getting unaccustomed to the cold. Isn't that  strange to say. Wrote 4 pages of Part 4 last night. Had to backtrack, improvise, and get back on track. I was heading in the wrong direction, but it took a bit of a pause in my writing to figure something out. And in the end, it has come together to get another 4 or so pages done again to some other point in the future writing scheme of things. Then, I will be looking for link ups, right until the finally. Part 4 is mid way finished. It does need to be finessed again, maybe a few times over. I am hoping it will come together alright in the end. Well, time to go rotate winter tires. The treads are looking a bit worn on the back. Till next time... Have a good afternoon...

My Hawaiian fan base is reading my books! Right now!

My Hawaiian friends have begun to read my books! A wonderful lady bought a few for gifts to her friends, who read the book all the way home. Now her friend who gave her the book advised her to follow me!  Wow. She seemed to love my book, and has found happiness again! My Hawaiian team is doing very good at getting the word out there for my books, and how crazy they really are! My mainland USA branch,  talks the walk but do they walk the block? So far, Hawaii has out shown them by a great amount this month. Reviews are slow to come, and the heat is really on them to pass the puck! Hockey is locked out, it does not mean that you guys cannot score one for The Supermarket Guy! Maybe it is not fair to compare the Mainland USA to Hawaii. Hawaii has a few hundred people, compared to the millions on mainland USA ( I am not Wikipedia, nor ever claim to be)! Within hours, the whole town of Hawaii could know about my books!!!! Watch out, mainland USA, get your act together! Get some gasoline

What do you do when you run out of ideas?

What do you do, when you run out of ideas?  Does not matter what profession you are into. You have come towards a wall. A stumbling point. Or you could think of it another way. You have been climbing a mountain.  Reaching halfway, you see no other grabbing points to get up further. Any other type of movement, maybe costly, or risky to your journey. You think, of walking down to the start. The point of depart, then to retry another avenue around the mountain in order to reach the top. Thing is, it is a hard, arduous journey to even do it all again. Do you feel like stalking up on the food, expending the energy, using freeze free beer, to make it and to have the chance to come down to the base of the mountain again, without getting to the apex? The book business has been that sort of a climb for me. I totally realize now, that without a miracle of sorts, nothing is truly going to happen. I have tried to get the message out. Strangers have told me they liked the book, but when things d

Learning to play the guitar!

Just had a fender guitar as a Christmas gift, a little while ago. It was a message, to go into a new direction in my spare time. Instead of using it to write books that do not sell, I could listen to music to occupy my time. That is the  message that sunk in to me as of late. The only problem is, the guitar is a difficult instrument to learn. It may take a year, or so, to get things straight. Maybe longer. They say there are as many guitar notes as you want to create. Meaning to say, a vast dictionary of music notes out there! No use to memorize them all, people say you will never be able to do that! Just try to learn the most used ones, that can enable you to play pretty much any song, at any time. Interesting. The strings going from the top, are labelled e, a, d, g, b and e minor. 6 strings. I have an auto tuner on my guitar, and when it gets into the green range, the string should be good to go. It measures the vibration of the string, not the sound.  So why does my guitar does

Boxing day specials!

I know many will be hitting the malls today, to get to those boxing day specials. I will be taking a tour to see just how busy it really is in this neck of the woods. You would think, everyone would be shopped out just before Christmas! But, if you can save 40 % on some brand name items, it produces a frenzy to get to the shopping malls! Personally, I am not geared to get up that early, to get in the line ups to rush for the savings. I did go once, to a locals retailers 50 % off event. This was not a boxing day event, that I can think of. But, the line ups around the specials, were huge. People grabbing stuff. One lady had a package in her hand, just to be snatched up by some other guy. I found that was a little too much. And when I went for stuff that I really wanted, allot of the cupboards were bare. I should have gotten up earlier.  Way earlier. Maybe tent outside? I hope this year the boxing day event goes well, and everyone respects each other in the malls. No pushing, jostli

A Merry Christmas to all!

I would like to wish all the blog followers that came to see me near the Holidays, and who have checked this blog out in the past, a very Merry Christmas. It is a time to share, a time to give, and a time to give thanks for the things in life that are so important to us. Here are the few things, that I found really special on Christmas. 1. The Little Drummer boy -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZvjPCcHI4g 2. Feed the World-  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lePkdXPZPwg 3.  Nationals Lampoons Christmas Vacation-  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=decUIVkZ4GI Some of the best, Christmas productions of all, time, in the music, video, world. There are many others, but right now, those are what comes to mind.. And usually, what comes to mind, is what stands out.... Merry Christmas once again, and to all a Great night!

I just got to have the 25 th of December off!

The 25 th of December, Christmas day. Everybody wants it off. Yours truly, and many others, had to work much of the holidays in the past. This year I am lucky to have it off as well, as many government workers. There are some years, I do have to be away from family on the 25 th of December. Many of us think that Jesus may have been born a few days, possibly months, before and after the date. The reason my mother left the Christmas lights up until a week past Christmas, was for the old Christmas idea. A Christmas that was marked by a different calender. When working on the 25th of Dec, the family usually arranges something the day before or the day after, or a few days before or the days that come up. But, there were a few years in the past that stood out for me that was special. The thing that surprised me of these years, is that the family actually waited to open their gifts, many days after the 25th. I would come in the house. People would smile, laugh and cheer me on. I just ar

It is passed.. It is safe to come out of the mudhuts right now!!

2012 /12 . 12 is over!!! So is 2012 /12 /21 is now over too!  The solstice is over ( Pontiac stopped making them long ago, not to mention, there is no more Pontiac- May have caused GM to go bankrupt!). This just in, GM is still making vehicles!!!! You can all come out of your Mud Huts now!! The danger is past. Astrologers say, it is just that we are heading into a Silver Age. The Golden Age (Pyramids, ect, ect, moon landing) is over. Lets look forward to less spectacular things to happen-  1. A new toilet, the turbo toilet, will revolutionize the flush! 2.1- The attic of your house, will become, the new, closet!!! 3.2.1.a-  Beer is in,  vodka slush sugary drinks are on the way out!! (Finally some real good news and hope for the world!). Yes, these are the only few, and great things mankind will achieve in the next few thousand years! There is still hope, grab my book and read it. It may bring us back into the age of the Rock again!!

Merle Haggard is coming to town!

The Hag is coming to town, to Bathurst, in a little bit. I bought some tickets. I said, I will take my time buying these tickets. This will be a slow sell, for this town. Especially, the young people would rather see Bruno Mars come to town.. Maybe... To my surprise, the first 8 sections were sold out!  Just like a George Jones concert! I quickly got seats, in the next section as close to the stage as I could get! It appears it will be a great sell, and maybe sold out come May. I think the concert is around that time. My memory is so bad, but I am sure in a month or two I will check the tickets again to make sure I will not miss it :) We know of the Hags songs "Okie from Musgokee",  "Branded Man", and the ever famous "Mamma Tried".  We all know mamma's love to try to keep us straight, but their pleading eye denied! Yes, I will be there at this concert. I may throw out a book of "The Supermarket Guy" right at the Hags guitar, and get it

Grandma 100 years old.

Went to see my Grandmother the other day. She is a few months past the 100 year old mark! She still has that light in her eyes, that sparkle, as my wife noticed. I think of some of the things she went through. No electricity back when she was young, and much colder, frigid winters having to heat with wood stoves. Washing clothes by hand, cooking everything by hand. She even worked on a farm when she was young. Very different times from now, that we have the power of electricity in our homes. Back then a few people used to steal chickens, and make delicious chicken bouillon. Some people needed their chickens to lay eggs for the year. I would like to see a movie made in the near future, called, "Hen Robbers: Cluck on the run".  This happened to her family, and many others during that time. During a cold winters night, people would sit around the table thinking of those fast pecking animals in their neighbors yard. Maybe hearing the clucks from the chickens. Especially clos

Sometimes it takes many years before knowing the side effects of stuff.

Last year, the CBS did a news report on the use of fire retardant chemicals on baby seats. This was, quite startling, as you would figure a baby seat would just do its mainstay function of keeping a baby safe. But, allot of people noticed a strong smell emanating from the seat, after being taken out of the package. The smell, was that of fire retardant chemicals, which could slow intellectual development of the baby, or possibly do other things. Here is a link to a Discovery news article about the whole thing. http://news.discovery.com/human/baby-products-flame-retardants-110518.html If 80 % of childrens products fall into the fire retardant chemically treated column, then we have to ask ourselves if this is good for the baby over a period of time. Environmentalists and those on the side of nature say it is not safe, while those on the chemical side of it will say that no harm will occur.  You can take your side of the fence on how you see it, but many baby seat manufacturers have

Another 5 on 5 rating!

Glad to announce that I have received another 5 on 5 rating from a reader on Goodreads! This has given me an average rating of 4.29 out of 5 stars so far!  This one was totally unexpected, as I did not see any readers finishing my book on the horizon. There are now 5 "Five Star" ratings for a total of 8 ratings for Part 2: "Rise of the Market Overlord", mostly from the USA. The Average star rating for Part 1- 4.6 stars out of 5, from Goodreads readers. The Average star rating for Part 2-  4.11 stars out of 5, from Goodreads readers. Much thanks to the readers!!! Till next time...

A fan questioned my age awhile ago!

A fan did not believe that I was a middle aged man. She thought I could be in my 80s, on the beach in Brazil in Rio DeJanario. Well, that could be a future scenario (Most likely not), but right now there I am in the right hand side of this web page. Doing something I used to do so well in my 20s. Weight training, and drinking beer. The drinking beer thing has to be moderated a bit. Drink in moderation, trust me. In my 30s now, I have recently felt a surge of when I was in my days at 21. At 21, probably was the range when I was the strongest in my training. But I was following the regiment religiously, going to the gym at least 4 to 5 times a week. Now, I am lucky to get in 2 times a week at training. If it was not for the legendary Joes Gym that is still operating in J.R. -  A picture taken there, near the legendary J.R. beach on the Baie of Chaleur. Now in my 30s, I do feel discomfort here and there. I do feel slight pains, back, shoulder, and knee at times. These pains do come a

I decided not to go yet.

I have been thinking it over as of late. This strategy of giving up cannot truly work. I never give up. I remember when people told me, you will never do this or that in your life. Well, I did get to many points in my life, and I did actually slow myself down from going farther. Strange indeed. It helped that two of my fans out of ten told me to continue to blog. They loved my new Yazzieland theme park of ideas. They said it was a place, they truly wished to live in... I reaffirmed it was a great place. Our planets resources managed ecologically, with a system for sustaining the ecosystem. Planting trees, that we take away from the rain forest. Oh, maybe we should just ban cutting in the rain forest all together. Get an agreement on the fisheries, make sure there are fish for future generations.  Gradually get away from pesticides and antibiotics in food. Go natural again. There are allot of books out there, that tell you to think positive. "The Secret" is one of them. I

Shootings in Connecticut

Just recently I have heard about the shootings in Connecticut. We feel a sense of mourning, enormous loss, for the good people who are in anguish over this tragedy at the school. Micheal Moore said on the news that there have been 31 shootings since Columbine. What is going on, and why has this statistic increased over time?  I sincerely do not recall this amount of shootings in the 70s, or 80s. In the United States you have the 2nd Amendment, the right to bear arms. While personally, I was always in favor of this Amendment to bear single shot hunting rifles. I am not in agreement where automatic weapons, handguns, should be protected under this Amendment. But, it is something for the US Congress and its government to decide. Apart from that, schools need a security system in place. Do they need metal detectors? Do they need an armed, security guard? They need a security plan of action, an alarm system in each room, and practices on how to deal with such an event. I think it c

Paid my vehicle insurance the other day.

It is not fun when the bill comes around. Especially around Christmas. Vehicle insurance. You go through the options again. If the vehicle is totaled, I get full replacement value like new. Collision, fire, theft, and a few hundred dollars deductible to bring it down. First accident is forgivable. That is something new, and well appreciated. After all, in the 20 or more years I must have paid approximately 15 thousand or more on vehicle insurance. I may have only used it for a windshield. Deductible was 50 dollars, and the windshield was 500 at that time. It is a money losing scheme. And there are scams that all fall around the insurance industry. People walk into the registrars office to get their vehicle registration. They bring in their insurance card. Walk out, then cancel their insurance. Get a refund check in the mail, and then still drive. I have never done it, but I have heard about it. Personally I would be too afraid to get caught, or get into an accident without insuran

Men in Black, the latest one.

I do not really know which part it is. Men in Black 1, 2, oh it gotta be 3. What a great film. It has been a long time, since I seen a Sci Fi film or Extraterrestrial film since ET, where I nearly cried in the end.. Nearly.. My heavens, you had a villain named Boris. Usually this should be a warning and tell you that it is boring.. Not so at all. It was a real pleasure to see Tommy Lee Jones future replacement, a younger, talented, clone of his own self.  He got the looks and the voice of him! But the characters stayed true all through the film. K was the same old rough, dry, style of himself. Agent J is just as groovy as what he was, but Will Smith is probably just playing his own jive self anyways. Anyways, the film is well done. I bought this film, thinking that I would be disappointed. Not at all. It will be hard to top this one. 5 on 5 for, this film... Till next 2.5243 days..

Have been in high level meetings.

Have been in high level meetings with my relatives, here in Canada. No way, do they think it is wise, for me to produce Part III of The Supermarket Guy:  Supermarketdominium. Grandpa said I am far to way out on a different genre, that does not appeal to the young folk. Dad said it was not generating enough sales to cover production. My wife said she would let me eat tv dinners for the rest of my life, if I went ahead with a Part 3. Some TV dinners are delicious, by the way. All the time though, nah. My dog, Pushkin, said I would be better off talking her to the park more often. That is where it all stands. I do not regret making the series. I had allot of fun, and it was a wonderful period in my lifetime. Being a struggling author, does have some interesting times. They say it is when you are at the top, that you become lost. When you strive, work, so hard to get to the top and then you make it. You achieve a good feeling, but then a loss comes into play. I do think the best par

4 inches of snow here in Northern NB.

We had 4 inches of snow, or approximately 10 cm of snow the other day. We are expecting snow in the week coming ahead, a much bigger storm. I will have to go test the snow blower out. Actually, it is not all that bad to just use the scoop. Maybe laziness will set in, and I will use the snow blower... I read an interesting book last night, called "Achieving Objectives Made Easy", by Raymond Leblanc. As reading this book, it had plenty of great points and life efficiency tactics. That came to bring me the question. Am I efficient at life? And, how can I change what I am doing today to make myself more effective tomorrow? How can I make myself succeed? I know people, even relatives, that want a drive into town for to do some affairs. You are doing these people favors, right? So you get into your car, and drop them off and wait for them. On the return home, just about getting to the door, they remember that they forgot to get something in town. This does not happen once, but

My New ranking from Amazon!!!

My new rank out of the millions of books out there, 1 million rank! It dropped like crazy in the past few days. It just goes to show, you have to have consistent sales to keep the number high. This is really fascinating. As the number was 500 000, just a few days ago. What a difference does 3 days make! A funny thing did happen yesterday on the Amazon Blogs. While in one blog, I pasted my link to my book, and a small blurb about it. Then, one of the blog moderators come around and said "What you are doing is spam! It is damn wrong, what you are doing. This is not the place for that". The spiel was much longer than that, actually. Ok, so here is the thing. I am in a forum that promotes authors stuff. I could not care less, if I was in a different topic of discussion, and placed my book up there ( a small link to look at), for all peoples of the grand world to see. It is not as if I put it up there, one after the other in second sequential sequences. I put up one message, an

Crazy night brings about crazy thoughts.

Driving home from my Dads place, I met somebody driving with their brights on. I quickly flashed my brights, at least 500 feet away. The vehicle would not turn off their lights. I then flashed my brights again real quick, and gave the a---hole comment. Then I seen the side of the vehicle, was a police car, as it rode on past me. I let out a giggle. I thought, watch if he comes back and fines me. Well, he had his brights on. It was a new cruiser with beautiful high bright white lights. Made it even worse on the eyes.  He did not turn back. I think he knew he was above the law, anyways, on that one... Oh, and in this blog when I first started it, I talked about having 10 fans. I always said, for my ten fans I will do this or that. At that time, I may have had 2 fans a long time ago. Probably a year and a half ago. Now I really do have, 10 fans. On Goodreads. This is really funny, to myself, personally. Other authors have hundreds, or thousands of fans. I have actually achieved my joke

Sales rank changed just in 24 hrs.

740 000 is the new, updated sales ranking from Amazon. Yesterday it was in the 500 thousand range. It can change really fast, when you sell one per week like that. That is totally understandable. I was checking to see how quick it would react to a pause, or an increase in sales. I had a pause in sales the last 24 hrs. The book that is in the top of my publishers ranking for humor, has a #99 000 ranking. Part 1 of my book is not registered in the humor list, on my publishers page. If it was, it would be in the top 5 of the 68 humor books listed on that page.  It would probably be on the 1st or 2nd page on the Amazon ranking lists for my publishers fiction and literature. But, it is not there. This is all very interesting. It shows probably, how flawed the rating systems are for ranking books on Amazon. It must take a few days, before they actually click in. I will wait, to see for any updates. I e mailed Amazon with my concerns, about not being on the humor list for my publishers b

Finally obtained an Amazon Sales Rank!

"It is a long way, to the top, if you want to Rock and Roll"- ACDC. I was wondering when I would see a number to see where my book stood, on the rankings. The rankings for sales, on Amazon. While unveiling the number here, I must admit it is nothing fantastic. It is nothing to brag about. But, it surely sparks interest in any authors mind. My ranking today at 2:18 pm Atlantic time, was 593,261 in Best Selling books! I am sure Amazon has millions of books on their site. This means I have sold one copy. Per week. If I would have sold one per month, it would be in the millions of rank. I would need to sell nearly a 100 per week to be in the top 1000. This comes across as well received, actually. I remember a Barnes rank of 1 million my nook version of Part 1. To believe the numbers or not?  I believe this number, as sales has totally sucked for my work. For now, I do believe them. Till next time..

Contractors are quite the cats at times.

You call a contractor for a job. They tell you on the phone, they will be there tomorrow. In the afternoon between certain hours. You wait. You put off your affairs, and the clock ticks past the suggested time frame of the meet. So much for the first check evaluation. I call back again a little later in the afternoon. No answer. After waiting an hour, another call. Finally the absentee picks up the phone. I ask again, when will he come to check out the job. He is unsure at the moment, but continues on that line of thought. Simply I put it to him this way :  If you are too busy to do the job, just tell me. Do not waste both of our time. He then coughs up, and admits that he is too busy working on other projects to do the job. Thanks for writing off an afternoon of my time. He may have lost some future business from me. I had another project for next fall, a big project, but his company will not have the chance to get work from it. Why is it so hard for a contractor, to just say,

Christmas decorations are up.

Put out my Christmas decorations the other day. The wind came, huffed and puffed, and blew my two reindeer down. I put them back on their footing, and attached strings and sunk some spikes in the ground. The fine rope and anchors should do the trick. The ground is not frozen here yet, which is odd for this time of the year. I have a reindeer, a moose, a snowman, a dog, as lit up displays. Then a full tree of lights, a wreath, and some garlands around the deck. The tree in the house, I will have to put up real soon. I remember when I was young, 2 weeks before Christmas was the time when people put up their decorations. It has gotten earlier and earlier over the years, yet in some areas less decorations as what was back when I was a young stallion. I threw away two old reindeer. It seems only half of it would light up. I replaced them this year with the moose and the other reindeer. It was a little frustrating, as I had those two reindeer only 3 years or so. I got really close to th

Father Andre In Montreal, the famous St Joseph Oratory.

I started to actually advertise for a friend in the local area a little while back on some social media. His story was about an unexplained event, where the doctors could not answer on how it was remedied. This story of course, focuses around a famous Canadian Saint who built the St Joseph Oratory in Montreal. Below is a link to the book and the St Joseph Oratory site. http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16175067-healing-by-brother-andr http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhrXcQjGZpo The Saint lived a with lack physical health, yet is said to have healed many in St Josephs name. He raised monies over time for to build the beautiful Oratory in St Josephs name, which now lies in the great city of Montreal. The proceeds to Mr. Ouellettes book goes towards helping the sick and the poor. There is no way to lose here. Two great reasons to buy it, not only for its wonderful story of a life changing event, but the profits from the book goes to lift someone up who is down on their luck.

Part 3 cannot be created at this point in time.

Part 3. I thought of some material to add to it, this very night. A near page of humor, of new material. Strange how you sit back, and when resting, things enter into the thought process about your writing works. I never suspected the thoughts would come out at that time. During a thought deleting night shift. I put it away in the box with the Part 3 materials. Never know, I may get enough sales to put together Part 3 when I am 90 years old. Maybe not. I can always pass Part 3 down to my next of kin. They may have a great laugh, while I am floating through the clouds. I was thinking of just doing the book of Poems. It has a great title, and approximately half of the pages of Part 2. It would only cost around 1 / 3rd to produce as well. It would be a great break, from creating another blockbuster ( block luster?) novel at this point. Who knows, maybe poetry sells better than humor. I sincerely doubt that.. It is worth a gamble, maybe. That is what is going through my mind right n

Another 5 on 5 rating for Part 1.

I am thankful to say, that I have received another 5 on 5 rating. This one was for Part 1 of "The Supermarket Guy". The average rating for the two books is a astounding 4.23 out of 5 stars... This was far beyond my expectations. I got a pile of 5 on 5s, on the greatest book site of them all, Goodreads! That could be the last review I get till past Christmas. The book world does revolve, ever so slowly for me. Thanks to the reviewer, much thanks. Till next time.

I met the man that met the man.

Have you ever been lucky enough to meet the man? What I mean is, maybe someone you keep in high esteem. Someone that is a true star in some arena or other. It could be a hockey player, a politician (that is rare), or a movie star.  You get what I mean. I remember meeting friends who would say "I have met the man". I would say, wow. That is super. You are very lucky to have met the man. The stories fascinate us. Even more so, if they spend a little more than a half hour with the star.  Incredibly lucky if you spend the afternoon with them. A few months, then you are quite the cat yourself. I met a man today who met an important figure. He told me of the story, of how it all went. Over a cup of coffee at Tim Hortons, a successful Canadian doughnut shop. We must have talked for a half hour. The thing was, he was asking me for advice on how to sell books. Something that I had not much real success with. But I told him what he should do. What he could do. And what is expose

First step in how to create jobs. In Yazzieland.

You are a great leader of a nation. Your unemployment rate is through the roof. You have no idea on how to even begin to turn the tide. This is one step on what I would do if I was Leader of Yazzieland. Ok, I will reveal two steps.. You all listening out there. Very simple.. Ok, Yazzieland has a few multinational corporations and allot of service industry. We have primary resources, but as the leader of Yazzieland I will tell you the best resource is your "People". Give them education first, a good university system that is accessible to all. Get the minds thinking, and focus your youth  on what I like to call competing technologies. Tell them they can compete. Tell them they would be very good, small business people. Tell them interaction and pooling resources is the key, and to have a business plan. Make sure my opportunities agency helps with a good 75 % of the funding with grants. But, with a payback scheme over a 10 year period with an interest rate of inflation. Bu

Are you tired of rules?

Seems like we got allot of them. Rules are everywhere. Who can forget the song "Signs" by Five Man Electrical Band. A few of the lyrics go something like this.. Sign, sign, everywhere a sign Blockin' out the scenery, breakin' my mind Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign? And the sign said anybody caught trespassin' would be shot on sight So I jumped on the fence and-a yelled at the house, "Hey! What gives you the right?" I do not know if the lyrics are actually based on a true sign. Maybe they are. From a song that we can never forget. Just lately signs have been put up in front of my face. Twitter saying I have reached a limit to people I follow to people that follows me. I cannot follow anyone now. I got up to 2500, now that number is dropping relatively fast. This makes twitter a little less fun for me. Good thing there are some fantastic people on twitter to make it fun, or i would be off to a different site. In t

Sold an old hitch today. Why can't I sell a book?

Sold an old truck hitch today. A reese 5000 lb hitch. It was only 10 years old. Never used though. I sold it for approximately half of the retail price. The age was there, but was only connected to my truck for approximately 3 months before I traded it in for a new model. That is when I tore it off the back again. Before trading it in. I think making half off of something after 10 years is not a bad deal. The years are there, after all. It took maybe a day or two to sell it. Just a local add. A guy from the area came and got it right away. No jostling, no bickering at the price. He was happy as glee. I was thinking I should just put my book up there on a buy and sell. It should move. I was successful at everything in selling (95 %). I could sell anything I owned. Always taken care of my stuff, it left in pristine condition. Cars, furniture, appliances, all sold within days of putting it up on the market. Now here I have a book. Average rating 4.17 out of 5 total reviews on Goodr

Amazon warned me not to promote my own works in certain forums.

Amazon warned me today not to promote my work in certain discussion forums. I had a feeling I was over doing it, and I thought at the point of where I was standing, I might as well poke the dragon. Well, the dragon breathed fire at me. And, said the only place for that stuff was in the Amazon meet our authors forums. I was dissing it out in the humor forums, where my book truly belongs. There are probably ways to get around Amazons rules, I will play later on. But it is comical how Amazon e mailed me to say they would take away my posting power if I continued the trend. I felt like I was in grade school again, and I am all grown up. My book was being promoted where it should be. In a humor forum. People asking for, wanting, looking for good comedy books. Being socially conscious, and helpful, I decided to help these people get to the point a little faster than never. I put up a few Amazon links to my book in there. God forbid it. An Amazon link in an Amazon discussion forum on a

Did not find the silver bullet yet.

The silver bullet is long but far from the chamber of my colt 45. As an author, trying to get your book across to the masses, you wonder what public relations or marketing scheme will work. What silver bullet will pierce through the darkness of under exposure, and lighten up the room with sparks? I have not found it yet. I am sure many authors have tried the same things I have done. Consignment may work if you live in cities with populations with over several hundred thousand. Lots of bookshops right at your doorstep. Personally, this is a trek for yours truly. Did not work, distance is too far. The gas costs would over ride my profits by a wide, wide margin. Of course I have been utilizing the only thing, source, of true empowerment of sales through the internet. The new age media. The new age media probably was better when things were just rolling with it. Now, there are   10s of thousands of authors with book sites, blogs, and on social networking sites. Not only them, but mill

The Life of Pi

I knew it had to do something with pie squared. This movie was 4 out of 5, for myself personally taking away my lust for action movies. If I would put my action movie bias on, it would be a 3 on 5. Now, the tiger was very good effects. The computer generated effects, are definitely going to be up for an Oscar or Razzie award. Probably the first. It is a story of someone finding himself, probably his spirituality, and the changes of a person within. Maybe you will take something different from the show than what I think about it. At any rate, the wind blows the right way right at the very end. Being on a boat is a tiring thing, crossing the great Pacific ocean. It is quite something to write, such a story, on a small little boat. I was thinking a little bit of Castaway with Tom Hanks, only with him stuck on the island. When it comes down to it, we are all survivors. Just looking at the best way, to get it done. Living life in the modern jungle. Have a great evening, till ne

Got a Christmas card from my Aunt the other day.

Got a Christmas card from my Aunt in Niagara Falls the other day. It was sent very early, and it was gladly received. She is in her late 90s, and is a part of the Greatest Generation.  The generation that saw the second world war, and with it, the great depression and the greatest challenges of the past century. These people were something else. The thing is, they could do allot of things that we could not do. Great cooking from scratch, prepare food for winter months, knit, make own clothing if necessary, and use the washboard by hand. Now technology does all this for us. I am thinking of a time when things were made locally. A time when the Model T ford was just starting to be seen in small rural communities around Canada. Picket fences and farm, fishing, blacksmiths, cobbler shops, sawmills dotted the area every 10 or 20 miles. Now, one sawmill can handle all the wood from a 200 square km range. My grandfather worked in one of the old sawmills. His wife would knit him a pair of

Only after 48 hrs you can discuss stuff in Amazon Forums

I should have put in the title, only after 48 hrs after you buy something, you can then start typing in Amazon discussion forums. Just that the title would have been to long. Now, do not get me wrong, Amazon is a super site! A distributor for just about anyone, big or small, any business, anywhere. They are a crusader for the small print on demand publishers too! There is allot of great discussions on books in Amazon forums. I would like to participate, big time. Great thinking, great directions, great debates. But, amazon says you have to buy something first. I did so this past while, and now can participate in the forums. I was wondering if it was to Amazons advantage for to be able to say to everyone, everywhere, that you have to buy something first. Then wait 48 hrs to post. I can see some advantages. You really want to get in there and post. You really want to get into discussions, to be heard. Well, you got to buy something. Sorry. Just have to. Then you can start doing wh

Beer bellies a problem when you drink every night.

Yes, the notorious beer belly. You are a man. You love beer. You wish you could drink it every day. But, those calories all stack up. Is it true, that there is approximately 300 or more calories per beer. That is like eating a meal during the day. This is what made me cut back a bit during the past week. I looked down, realized my belly was expanding a little bit. If I continued, I know I would not get it down. I am not a big sweet eater, so it is a good thing as the two would not mix very well. My family keeps telling me I could get diabetes in the future if I would continue on the bandwagon for very long. So, I intend to drink only once per week. It is going to be tough. It also stops me from getting allot of things done during the evenings. Now, I do not drink a dozen a day. It is more in the range of 2 to 6, per day. Just enough, to over time, get me into a larger frame with no activity. I started to weight train again the past month or so now, that should help somewhat. I may

Is Bacon the universal key to world Peace?

You can fry it up in the morning. Some people mix it in their thanksgiving stuffing. On top of burgers, it can have a pyrotechnic effect. Just like hamburger, cheese, or deep fried scallops. Bacon probably tops them all.  Great pricing, easy to handle, and can go with so many different things. It is accommodating, and does not prejudge. Could Bacon unite people and finally achieve world peace? I remember cooking bacon here awhile ago. Some friends were over for breakfast. I had to cook this humongous breakfast. I took out the tried and tested bacon, which would accompany eggs over easy and some pan fried potatoes with toast. I filled the pan with delicious slices of bacon. All of a sudden, I looked down to the side of me. My friends kids were watching my every move, as they all shouted "Bacon!". It produced huge excitement. This is the first time I had a reaction like this to my cooking. So I contained my surprise, as only my dog used to watch me intently as I cooked bac

When are you going to catch your wind?

Your sailboat is in the water. You got your sail up. No wind. No inspiration. It happens to us all, at times. We feel left out at times. How many of us are like that? Depressed, or down in the dumps? Waiting for the wind to blow in any or one direction, to take us somewhere. Seems like in this life we try to create our own "winds of change", to follow in a direction in which we think, may take us somewhere to a more comfortable place. Some people are fortunate enough not to have to create their own winds. The wind was already in place to take them to where they were destined to go. Maybe you are a painter, an engineer, or a writer. Looking for that propellant to take you into a niche that can keep you going. Keep you creative, with lots of brain activity. Thinking, being constructive, is good! I think we are all, big and small, but through it all we are just looking to keep an edge. Make us feel that we are still wanted out there, by somebody, sometime, in this time at

Another 5 on 5 review on Goodreads!

Just obtained another 5 on 5 review on Goodreads! This is the next after a string of a few 5 on 5 s. This was a surprising one. I did not see it coming. I did not think I would get a review for a long, long, time. This one was a lonely 5 on 5.  No words from the reviewer, just the grand star rating. This has been done to me, a few times on my book. Many people do this, and a friend of mine said it was probably an even better thing. A sign of respect. It is very interesting. And a very good way of just putting the thought out there, that let people see my rating, but the words are not needed to describe it. It was amazing, and that is all they wanted you to know. It may change forever the way I also rate books. Why place my thoughts, or impose them, on your way of thinking. Should you never read someones reviews before you pick the book up? Would that only allow you to prejudge, or to become imprinted to someone elses prognosis? Would you take a bit from what was reviewed into th

Skyfall vs. Casino Royal

Skyfall. I heard good things from the relatives that went to see it. I love Bond movies, so I had to go see this one. So many good words about it. A movie critic from the CBC gave it 5 on 5. I thought Casino Royal was the top of the top of the top. I had to see this one, as the Quantum of Solace was alright. But it was no Casino Royal. The first part of the show was alright. The motorcycle scenes, good. But you get tired of watching hundreds of people running out of the way of the chase when on the over crowded streets. How does no one get hit? Maybe I am to much of a realist. Then the battle on top of the train. How could Madame M give such an order. Has she lost her brains. Especially when a chance was had for Bond to overcome his struggle. One of the bond girls only lives a short while. This really surprised me. Alright then. When the villain was on the ladder. He shot the steel bar twice. Let off on the trigger. Why not shoot him then and there? Finish it. Then a rail way

Frost on windshield this morning.

Frost was heavy on the windshield this morning. Minus two Celsius out there, the coolness could be felt all around. It was during one of those times when you are in a rush to get somewhere. You hate to leave your vehicle warm up. But in Canada, or in any northern country, it is a fact of life. Better to leave your windshield heat up, than driving with a small hole of sight through the frost. It may take 5 minutes, but the wait has to happen. I will have to get up much earlier now. A little bit, or program myself to get out faster to start the vehicle a little earlier. Are we all in a rush these days? We ask ourselves, why are we in such a rush. What is so important that we have to rush. There were times when I rushed to make social functions, only to see that someone, always seems to appear late. What is wrong with appearing late. I am starting to think it is, the cool thing to do. I see it all over. And people do have great excuses for it. Real excuses too, the alarm clock, or

Hockey strike in the NHL

The Hockey strike is taking its toll worse on the fans, than anyone else. We keep hearing on how the fans, are always on the worse end of the hockey stick. With the owners wanting a 50- 50 split from the 57 - 43 arrangement ( correct me if I am wrong), they have a long way to go in reaching a concession. The owners do want to cut them down quite a bit, in my view. My advice to the NHLPA, is to get better pension revenue for the players that are retired today. I think the players should get together, and start playing in other rinks across the USA and Canada. Give the fans a good show, at a reduced ticket price. Go to the towns, divide up the teams accordingly, or even play against the locals just for fun in some sort of game arrangement. It would boost the players popularity and give the fans a cooling off period. We see the old timers do this all the time. Come to our local towns, and play for fun, usually against local talent or mix up the talent with the local talent. Hoping

Had a book sale the other day.

Whoa! A book sale the other day. From off of my website. Part 1 still does better than Part 2. Fascinating. I still do not understand this conundrum. Part 1 is approximately over a year and a half old. Part 2 is now 6 months old. Part 2 has more intense fight scenes, a more competitive edge to it. Part 1 has more to deal with some fate, as things unravel over time. It also takes the characters connections in life and brings his situation into full view. Maybe that is why it is more successful than the first. Updates on twitter, is that now I have approximately 2473 followers. This is without directly or first initially  following that many people on the site. I found i did pretty good, without using any programs to gather people to my twitter page. This is for approximately a time frame of 7 to 8 month period. I have heard out there that you would need approximately 100 000 followers to make a 1 % dent in sales. That is, if you are a celebrity. I am going to keep an eye on that

Fan entered me to win best Humor book 2012 on Goodreads!

If it only were offered in Florida. Hanging chads. Maybe I could win, the best humor book for 2012 on the Goodreads site!!! Long lineups, machines that punch out the wrong candidate you chose! A twilight zone of election results! It was very nice of this person to put my book up in the running, but I do not believe it made it past the first rung through the competition. I am thankful for the gesture, it was grand indeed! If you think my book should belong to win a Pultzer, a Booker, or a Nobel prize, then just go ahead and nominate it! It is great to try, anyways. You never know unless you try.. Have a good afternoon. This remembrance day, we remember those who sacrificed so much that we can enjoy our world as it is offered to us today. Till next time..

The "Call of Duty: MW3" on WII

A few days ago, I played the "Call of Duty: MW3" on the Nintendo WII. I opened up the package. It says on the package for "Mature Audiences +17".  I booted it up. At my age of 37, I was wondering if I could handle the intensity of this game. Not so much the blood and gore, but the controls. The thing I hate about these games, is the controls. You need a numbchuck and the regular handheld device hooked together. Too many buttons, sometimes can cause you to lose a game just over how your thumb or finger reaches for that button in time. The WII fit is a great game also, getting away from the above paragraph. It is amazing what you can do now, with a video game console. Exercise and compete too. I played the game. It was ferocious at times. It is a good feature where the game loads after getting through to the next segment, or you would just never survive. Never get through it. At least, me personally. No doubt a teenager would get through there without probably ha

Dec 15 th may decide to delete this blog.

Time to throw in the towel, perhaps. This blog has not really got me going anywhere. I must admit defeat. Move on to greener pastures. I am not a very good blogger. Book sales have stalled. No Part 3 can be released next year. It is next to impossible. Will I miss it? Yes, somewhat. Blogging is addictive in some forms. You always hope to have one blog that may spark a few hundred hits in one day. Although, this has never happened to me. I believe only one blog garnered 50 or so hits. I even had someone who monitors the action on blogs, respond back to me, telling me of congratulations! It is time to pack in the bags. I will wait until Dec. 15 th. Then start the slow, tedious, process. Who knows, I may give out my last and final blog with a big bang! To all the viewers, thanks for your support over this time. Till next time.. All good things must come to an end, as the old saying goes, somethings a little quicker than others...

Examining the Mortgage racket

Lets say you got a 3 % interest rate on a 100 thousand dollar mortgage. Great rate. Yes, beautiful. You did great in negotiating! But, in the back of my mind, that is still approximately 2989 $ you will pay for one year of that mortgage, just in interest payments. At 50 thousand, it will be 1500. You could pay weekly to really reduce the interest charges down faster. And the banks will tell you this, which is really good of them to do. In the above case, 3000 dollars maybe one months salary for a family. Maybe one and a half for many. Lets go up to 200 hundred thousand. 300 hundred thousand mortgage? Interest payments, up the yoodlie! This is something that we were lucky to have. Low interest rates, due to a recession in many parts of the world. We know if the economy was on rocket fuel, these interest rates would go up like an oil gusher. The economy should come back, we hope soon. To be truthful, I always thought governments should somehow regulate the interest rates on house

News on the book front.

The book front. I have really just let the winds blow as they may. Thankful to have some good reviews that had come my way during the past. One ardent reviewer has done allot for me. This person even asked if they could put their review on Barnes and Noble. I have no review there yet. For sure, thankfully to this person, as every little bit should help. That is what the old folks would say. Every little bit should help. I was going to publish my book of poems this past little while. I am holding off. Things are not going quite as planned. I did garner another 3 pick ups from the 86 people I had to read my book. The only problem is, as I have mentioned beforehand, their reviews may come by in a year or two. These people read 100s of books before even purchasing my own. It is a long, long wait, for more reviews to come across the line. I have really given up, this past while. Stopped writing Part 4, even though it is 40 % done. No inspiration. When I cannot even publish Part 3, how

Banks and Government love to tell you it is going to be that way.

My last blurb about money and banks. I remember when I changed my mortgage at my bank, over to another bank. Also, all of my investments. The bank I was dealing with said "That is too much trouble to do that. It is going to cost you allot of money to do that". The reason for the change was that our branch was being cut. They were there with us during the good times, but during the lean years, they decided to go move to the branch in a local town 30 minutes away. Make people drive, old people, poor people, would have challenges at getting their banking done. To their credit, they did leave one ATM machine behind. Still, there is other business that cannot be done at an ATM machine. While convenient for some, these things can go out of order at times too. Not following the advice of the worker at my old bank, I switched banks. They are very persuasive, these people. Trying to say you have to take it, everyone else is taking it, or it is going to cost you big time. So, I swit

Thanks for the Option VISA!!

I would like to personally thank Visa, for the option of not having a Pay Pass or Pay Wave card. A few days ago, I called various banks to apply for a credit card. My new Mastercard had a Pay Pass function on it. I thought it was good, at first. Until I seen on U Tube how hi tech individuals can steal the radio wave frequency, and take all of the information on your card. Sell them to organized crime, so they can upload it to their cards. I destroyed my Mastercard Pay Pass. I called them again (Mastercard) to apply for a card without that feature. I thought, choice, is nice. No choice with Mastercard, at least on that phone call to the bank. All their cards, the bank woman explained, had Pay Pass. I called another bank. All their cards had pay wave and pay pass. So I called Another bank. This bank had, A visa card with no pay wave! Finally a company that gives us Options, gives us Freedom. Give people the option, of what they want to do with their money. I know we hear it no

I knew Obama would win.

I had a good feeling that Obama would win. I just did not want to say it on here. None of my business, really. I am a Canadian. But here are my after thoughts. Safe to say them now. He did do some good things. He took credit for the auto bailout that saved GM and Chrysler. The thing is, I thought it was W. Bush who got the ball rolling on that one. Maybe I am mistaken. But, I thought Bush got that scenario rolling, and Obama kept it rolling. The unemployment rate did go down a tad bit, as did the job creation went up a tad in the USA. He also, did keep his promise of pulling troops out of Iraq, and now Afghanistan is coming to a close. It seemed like a hard 4 years for some Americans though, as the jobs may not have come quick enough for to support his second re election bid. Mistakes on the Romney side. Gaffs. The 47 % speech, his hard talk on going into another conflict with Iran. His awkwardness at many times, made people question his true motives. The big money that backed him

Snow Blower fixed to get through another year.

My old, 13 year old snow blower, ready for another year. Took it all apart. Greased the bushings, replaced the friction wheel, and even made a new part for the movement of the shaft for the aluminum round plate that butts up against the friction wheel for the drive movement. It was a redesign in motion. It was difficult because the shaft did not protrude that much out of the casing. Maybe a little more than a quarter of an inch. I had to put a plate there for a protection for the casing. As this shaft was rotating, it wore through the casing of the main body. I was wondering how any company could over see this. In time, when it is new, it works great. Over time, parts wear down. Any rotating parts without any type of bearing, bushing, will wear through eventually the casing. So, I had to improvise and drill two holes, place the plate up against it and then drill the plate down so a cotter pin could lock it in place. Bolted it to the frame, and it will protect the casing from weari