Down town LA

As a quick and cheap way to keep a three year old entertained we took Wyatt for a trip down the gold line stopping at a number of places along the way.

Stay tuned.

Working on the Nexus S and I'm interested in seeing how adding an image is handled.

In the meantime, I've added some new social links for your entertainment.  The Yelp reviews are especially fun. 

I'll be back soon. 

Cheers. 

I should have a second installment to the "The Rise" (though I'm now contemplating a new title "Under the Burning Sun").  The story line has under gone some minor changes as well. I'm a bit influenced by other writers... and so I sometimes take on the writing style of others with my twist.

So stay tuned this weekend is when I expect to get more than 10mins of time to post my second issue of The Rise...

...across the sweeping red rocked plateaus, to the out stretched sunbaked desert. The storm stirs...a force born of innocence will soon rise...

 The young boy dressed in his Sunday best was walking on the decaying concrete path between the back of the fellowship hall of his father’s church and the ancient and long forgotten missionary tenements on the backside of the church property.  

He had slid, well more like wriggled, under the pews from the second row to the back of the sanctuary as his mother was playing the church organ.  He ducked out through the backdoor that led to the nursery when everyone bowed and closed their eyes in prayer.  And now he was exploring outside.

He knew he'd get in trouble for skipping out on his father's sermon. His mother had made him sit on the second row pew next to her when she wasn't playing the organ. She wanted to make certain he stayed put. But all that was on his mind was exploring and playing; the general mischief that drove any eight year old boy who was overly curious and filled with perpetual energy.

There was always evening service and he'd likely stay put through that one, he thought to himself. Besides, it would be too dark to explore then... right?

But! There was always the back access to the church attic he had wanted to explore. He thought about the strange built-in ladder he had discovered in the janitors closet last Sunday. Maybe he'd get a chance to check that out tonight.  

For now, he was set on discovering what these strange little houses were doing in the back of the church property.  They looked like little cottages with a tiny front patio and large sash hung windows framing a small front door.  He could tell there used to be a screen door because half of the frame was still there, with only a small remnant of screen hanging on what was left of the frame. The door was also filled with small, and very dirty, glass windows in a diamond pattern.  But even with all the glass in the front of this small little cottage, the amount of dirt covering them all, made it almost impossible for him to see inside.  

He rubbed, with his left hand curled in a fist, at one of the small diamond windows on the front door to see if that would make it easier to see inside; and a small spark of fear shot up his spine as he noticed the very large black widow spider, sitting in her mishmash web lurking behind the remains of the screen door.  He's heart was pounding has he noticed how close he had come to getting his hand tangled in her web.  But he didn't run.  He wanted to, but there was something different here.  There was a small something that made him pause. His heart was still racing, his fear was very very real, but he stayed.

Fist still near the window pane he had just tried to clean. He noticed, in a short instant the sleeve to his powder blue suit jacket was just as dirty as his hand was... He was going to get in a lot of trouble for that, on top of skipping out on his fathers sermon... but his attention was suddenly drawn back to what was driving his immediate fear, the black widow spider.  

He could only partially see the distinctive red hour glass as she hung there unmoved. There was something more he was trying to make out.  It looked to be glowing in a faint sunlight.  He leaned back a bit to see if there was a beam of sunlight or something to cause the faint illumination. He didn't notice a thing.  He took a half step back so he could wave his hand above where he thought the light was coming from. But he didn't see the shadow he was expecting.  And then the black widow moved.  He jumped back a bit, but not so far back he could still see her. She started to move down and away from him. He still noticed the glow, it was a constant light, even though it seemed she was moving back into the dark shadows of the screen door frame.  

He said, "Okay. The front door. No...  The front porch is yours." And he backed down the two steps that had led him to the landing on the porch in the first place.  

He headed for the back of the small cottage, hoping that was the only black widow, but now a bit more on edge and cautious as he went to the small side door toward the back of the cottage.  It had a large platform of concrete stairs that lead up to the door.  The stairs looked more like an after thought as it was not a part of the foundation of the house, he could see a large gap between the house and the stairs. And it was obviously really old, as the pipe hand rails protruding from the concert were rusting where they met on the second and fifth step.  He climbed the six steps up to the side door of the cottage and noticed that at some point there had been a doggy-door cut out of the wooden door.  It was now mostly covered with a large piece of plywood and the layers of yellow paint obviously made an impenetrable seal with the  peeling plywood and the old doggy-door.  

"Too bad," he thought out loud, "I could have fit through there." 

He tried the doorknob.  It didn't move; and  it was as equally dirty as the front window pane he had attempted to clean with his left hand.  And now his right hand was just has dirty as his left. Instinctively, he wiped his hands on his powder blue suit pants.  He paused at his stupidity as he looked at the brown streaks of dirt he left on the front of his pants.  Mom is not going to be pleased, he thought, as he let out an audible, "Utt-Oh!" 

Well there wasn't a thing he could do about it now.  Time to keep exploring... 

------------------- Start Scenario ------------------------------------

It's a typical day at the Brushwood homestead...

Bonnie is out in the garden with the kids, romping about picking vegetables as the kids play in the Texas sun, laughing and digging in the dirt;  Brian is, of course, sulking in his office as he reviews his podcast stats, book sales and canceled event notices wondering where he made his mistake.  Talking to himself, "Why? Why did I let Kuhan...argh!!!"

Brian is now contemplating his escape. No, not escape, we'll call it a triumphant return to Venezuela due to last week's incident when things went so terribly, terribly wrong. 

So, all seems right with the world as we know it... and then suddenly, a darkness approaches...

Bonnie screams.  Brian hears the kids running inside with Bonnie rushing them in.  Brian looks out the window and sees a dark and un-natural shadow crossing the fields outstretched before his home...  it hits the house with a shudder... all goes black...

Brian, laying on the floor, wakes to a warm but dark room. There's a dim light coming from the window; it's dawn.  He see's movement to his right. There's another person coming to on the floor next to him. He can't quite make out who it is.  But then he hears his voice... which is weird, he didn't say anything. He hears his voice again, saying, "Bonnie? Are you okay?"   He keeps looking in the direction of the other person trying to make out who it is; when Bonnie turns on the lights. He looks up and she lets out a scream, quickly followed by another identical scream.

Brian thinks he must have hit his head hard because he sees TWO Bonnies screaming wide eyed, looking at him lying on the floor... When Brian looks back to his right at the other figure next to him, he lets out an even higher scream than Bonnie! He's looking at himself screaming like a little girl...

There are two of everyone in the room!!! Two Bonnie's, Two Brian's and even the kids have duplicated...

After everyone wakes up from fainting, again... the duplicate adults hear the duplicate kids playing outside... (Brian, your kids survive this round...)

Brian and Brian work out that something very weird has happened. Bonnie and Bonnie are heading out to check on the kids.

Brian 1 and Brian A (they've had a small fight...make that, a lively discussion about this) decide to call Justin and Andrew... only to find out that there are two of everyone... It appears to be a Global event...

*** what do you do?? ***

added scenarios...
Months pass... Russian scientist declare they have figured out how to determine which is the original and which is the copy; though we still don't know what caused the phenomenon.  Do you want to know if you're the copy?

(more...)
As people across the world figure out who the copy is, there are reports of escalating murders occurring as Originals are killing their Copy and as Copies are killing Originals... Do you still want to find out? do you tell your duplicate? has he already learned the truth?

Cheers! :-)

-- this Scenario brought to you by Bradley @ ManusFerrea.com

 There are many definition of Net Neutrality; but to me Net Neutrality is making certain we have the ability to connect to the Internet across a variety of carriers agnostic of the technology by which we send and receive data/information.

 The Duopoly would not have networks, last mile access and the right of way access that facilitates their network but for the will of the people.  So my view is, if there is going to be an FCC, there needs to be a requirement to allow wholesale access of network; including last mile; without restriction.  The wholesale price points should be under tariff monitored by an independent group to make certain there is fair and equitable competition in the market place. 

  But to give some history and color to my position...

  I worked for EarthLink from 1996 t0 2007.  What you may not know is that I worked in the capacity as a Network Vendor Manager.  So to me the Network Neutrality issue is not so much a content play (data limitations, QoS controls, etc.) as it is a bandwidth commodity discussion.  That is, there is plenty of bandwidth out there and only a few companies that control it.

 My point is, the Duopoly are the behemoths in bandwidth ownership today.  For this Duopoly to keep gross-margins at a level bringing profit to shareholders, they need to keep demand high and supply low.  There is no motivation to provide greater and more access to bandwidth; less motivation to sell bandwidth on a wholesale basis.  So where do we go from here?