“Pizza,” According to Lynn Steigleder

There’s one food on which the majority of people in the United States seem to agree–pizza. I suppose, cheese or pepperoni would be the favorite topping nationwide. As far as I’m concerned, I could go with these toppings, but they are not what would fall into the category of pizza according to Lynn Steigleder.

The first pizza on which I remember dining was one assembled by my father from a box. The Chef Boyardee cheese pizza was complete with a flour and yeast mixture for the crust, tomato sauce, and cheese to sprinkle on top.

I realize, based on current standards, this does not sound like the most appetizing dish; however, add a pound of sausage and you have my number-one comfort food which I still enjoy with my son to this day.

When it comes to my favorite pizza toppings, I must go with a combination, as most pizzerias have a pie topped with multiple ingredients. I also find pepperoni, green peppers, and bacon to be a delicious blend of fixings.

I’m the one in every crowd who enjoys anchovies. I’ve gone so far as to order these tasty little fish a la carte to place on my slices when dining with others in a restaurant setting. On one such outing, pairing these salty fillets with my love for heat, I ordered a small anchovy and jalapeno pizza, not having to worry with anyone asking for a piece of this concoction. Just as most things go, there is a wide variety of ingredients and a large percentage of people who choose within this realm of variation.

No matter your favorite, eat and enjoy.

Have a wonderful week and may God bless you richly.

As an Author I Hold the Fate of Many Worlds

Being an author is something that gives me a great deal of enjoyment. As an author, I hold the fate of many worlds and even more, character’s, in my hands. I can allow them to live or sentence them to die. I’ve always found it amazing that such emotion can be felt for a character that exists only in the mind of the reader; however, it is my duty to bring that emotion to the surface, so that I pull the reader into the story. In this way, the reader is vested in the story line and if I do my job, participates throughout the entire novel.

Talk about a non-sequitur segue, I believe this takes the cake, pie, cookie and anything else you can imagine, but here goes.

NASA has big plans to farm in outer space. I think my reasoning for jumping to this subject is my love for science fiction. After all, it is the main genre in which I write, though now it appears raising crops in zero gravity is no longer fiction. I guess my question is why spend time piddling with a small amount of vegetation for food in space when we have such a desperate need for food that can be grown now on the earth’s surface?

Don’t misunderstand my comments as I am a huge fan of space exploration, and I am sure space farming will be a viable option someday; however, let’s not put the cart before the horse as we often do.

Have a great week and may God richly bless you and yours!

I Make it a Point to Write Every Day Except Sunday

I make it a point to write every day except Sunday. Even though I’ve said it before, I’m still fascinated by the way a reader will embrace a character that is contrived by little more than a thought. I will have to admit that bringing emotions out of one who reads my work is extremely satisfying. It confirms that I am doing my job as an author.

Writing YA and NA I feel it necessary to avoid bad language and sexual situations; however, when one is destroying vile entities and the like, violence is unavoidable.

Most of my plots travel along the lines of science fiction, fantasy, and action adventure. I have the pleasure of creating new domains, a plethora of good and bad creatures, and story lines that travel through primitive and advanced worlds. These realms occasionally delve into time travel, bringing me a great deal of gratification, as I write.

I enjoy pleasant endings; however, it’s not always possible to conclude each novel in such a fashion. In fact, I find myself ending books in the negative to make them more believable or even more conducive to a sequel.   

In short, I love every aspect of creating a story from conception to completion. I guess, I chose the optimum career path as I have heard, “If you find a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” Now, I can confirm this quote is about as accurate as a quote can get. Since it is attributed to Confucius, Marc Anthony, and Mark Twain, it truly takes time, distance, and geography into consideration.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the ravings of an author and allow the love of God to penetrate your heart. Please be in pray for the children, teachers, law enforcement, families, and friends involved in the Uvalde School shooting.

Once Again, I Find Myself Forging Through Another Bout of Wondering

Once again, I find myself forging through another bout of wondering. If you remember in a blog post not so long ago, I was caught in the dilemma of archaic typewriters. This time I seem focused on things I did as a young adult, some good, some not so good, and some not so good, good. I do believe, my mind’s eye, ear, nose, and throat are pulling me toward the days I spent at the bowling alley.

At one time, I bowled on a league. Our team consisted of me, my girlfriend, her brother, and another gentlemen from her work. We accessed this league through her employer.

One night a week, we bowled three games with all the included teams placed by rank based on their weekly scores. We usually hovered somewhere around last place knowing that if we strove for mediocrity, there would be nowhere to go but up.

At this particular time in my life, I was known to diligently search for the bottom of a beer bottle. Of course, being a young man in my early 20’s, I was not opposed to saving a buck wherever possible.

Now, what could be better than knocking down a few cold brews while enjoying one’s favorite pass time? Therein lies the problem.

• Dumb kid, who likes to drink but isn’t endowed with an overabundance of cash.

• Bowling alley where the dumb kid bowls sells beer out of the dumb kid’s price range.

• The beer that the Bowling alley sells is the brand sold in local convenience and grocery stores.

• Dumb kid owns bowling ball and a bowling bag with enough space for ball and 6 bottles of said favorite beer.

• Problem solved. All dumb kid has to do is purchase one beer at the beginning of the night, store empties in bowling ball bag, and walk softly to prevent clinking and/or breakage.

I believe we captured sole possession of last place that year. That was quite a while ago and I do not recommend attempting to copy my shenanigans. For one, it was dishonest, and two, no one needs to drink that much – period.

Have a great Monday, a fantastic Tuesday, a wonderful Wednesday, a stupendous Thursday, a marvelous Friday, and a great weekend.

May God keep you and bless you. May God shine his countenance upon you!

I Do Believe the Past Two Weeks Have Been Slow…Not

I do believe it seems the past two weeks have been slow as far as writing, rewriting, editing or further changing the present story line in my latest novel are concerned. Of course, I know that’s not true for I have enough work to keep me busy for quite a while. Maybe, I feel as though the thoughts I wish to convey to the readers of my blog are too important to pass by . . . yeah, that’s the ticket. That’s the pretense I’ll use to publish this post on useless information . . . and they’ll be none the wiser.

Do you realize that the fruit enjoyed by nearly everyone come summertime is not the fruit we all think it to be? Attempting to pass itself off as cantaloupe, the muskmelon worked its way into our hearts via the taste bud.

Allow me several seconds to sneeze . . . . . . Thanks, as you well know, no one can sneeze just once. It’s those multiple sneezes that get me, knowing my heart stops with each swoosh of air . . . or not. Once again, we are led down a road of deception. Contrary to popular belief, the heart continues to pump blood through our circulatory system when sneezing.

Guess what other ploys of deceit have been thrust down the paths we trod? You do know that a frog will jump from a boiling pot of water, but a frog placed in tepid water and slowly brought to 212° will cook to death in his own stupid.?Slow down a moment, even the tiny-brained, web-footed, amphibian has more sense than that. C’mon, give a guy a little credit. (This was so important; it held ground in an earlier blog.)

 Last but not least, the iconic Hollywood sign is something we have all seen. Whether from a movie theater, the television screen, or an airplane window, the verbiage making up the image at one time read, “Hollywoodland.”

Thank you, for allowing me several minutes of your day. I do so hope you were able to glean a bit of information or enjoyment from my humorous brain blast. As always, have the best week you’ve had in your time on this Earth, and may God bless you and yours richly!

 

As I Sit in Front of My Computer Screen, Hashing Out My Next Novel, Occasionally My Mind Will Wonder

As I sit in front of my computer screen, hashing out my next novel, occasionally my mind will wonder. One topic that seems to be my go-to (brought about by the ability to write on an electric screen) concerns the way people accomplished tasks not so many years ago, as opposed to today.

I remember watching someone type. The die would physically strike a piece of paper through a ribbon infused with ink transferring the letter. By pressing any number of keys labeled with the alphabet, numbers, and a plethora of various symbols  printing process actively delivered letter to paper. These older keyboards are not unlike today’s computer keyboards save where the years between the two would dictate that necessity.

 Heaven help you if the misfortune of making a mistake ever crossed one of your hard fought words. You had two options: discard the page and totally retype or use an archaic small piece of white paper. This you held over the offending letter, struck the paper and letter a second time to transfer the white substance that, in theory, covered the mistake and gave you a clean surface to retype the correct letter . . . Good luck.

The fun part of a day’s work with one of these machines was maintenance, such as changing a ribbon. If by fortune you inherited this task in the morning, you could spend the remaining hours of your day covered in a non-removable black ink.

As an author thinking, about using one of these ancient devices to pen a novel makes me want to pick up pencil and paper.

Well, how about that trip down memory lane. It’ll make you think next time you complain about your modern-day typing device.

Have a great week, and may God bless you and yours!

London Bridge is Falling Down

Of course, you remember the childhood song, “London Bridge is falling down, my fair lady.” As the story goes, the bridge construction took place in the early 19^th century. Being meant to handle 19^th century foot traffic, horses, wagons, and the like, the overpass became obsolete.

As modern traffic took its toll on the viaduct, the need for a transition became obvious. Entrepreneurs purchased, dismantled, and shipped the London Bridge to America to become a new thoroughfare across the Colorado River, in Lake Havasu, Arizona.

According to history.com, to ensure the bridge could handle modern traffic, construction crews built a hollow core of steel-reinforced concrete, which was then covered with 10,000 tons of the original 19th century granite.

Workers began by labeling each of its granite bricks with markers that indicated their arch span, row number and position. The bridge was then disassembled, packed away in crates and shipped to Long Beach, California, via the Panama Canal. From there, a small army of trucks carried it across the desert to its new home at Lake Havasu.

All told, the shipping, assembly and dredging took over three years and cost Robert McCulloch and C.V. Wood some $7 million.

Ya know, the last time I asked someone if they wanted to buy a bridge, things didn’t go so well.

Have a great week and may God bless!

Ever Think About Living in a Dictatorial Setting Where One Person Wields All of the Power?

Ever think about living in a dictatorial setting where one person wields all of the power, surrounded by a plethora of minions who, though they argue with this supreme ruler, do his bidding just the same? Not only are you instructed what and what not to do, but the female population around you are subject to mistreatment, including sexual misdeeds from said ruler and associates (male and female).

Doesn’t sound like an optimum way to enjoy life, does it? Well, that’s just about the way things supposedly were under the watchful eye of the Greek gods.

First off, Zeus treated the world as his brothel and relegated himself to partake of the Goddess population on Olympus. He had more illegitimate children than the ocean has fish.

One incident, that for the life of me I cannot understand, took place in the Temple of Athena. A beautiful, avowed priestess acted as custodian of the keys and caretaker to Athena’s Temple. Unequaled in beauty, Athena forbade any man to touch her out of jealousy.

Unfortunately for her, the god, Poseidon,  found the priestess’ looks enthralling. He entered the temple and raped the Caretaker breaking her vow of chastity. As punishment for losing her virginity, Athena cursed the maiden, Medusa, with a heinous appearance. Snakes grew from her scalp like hair and all who dared look upon her beauty turned to stone from that day forward.

Greek gods acted rude, crude, selfish, petty, and all-in-all, socially unacceptable. I would hate to live under a supposed supreme being who behaved no better than me.

On top of that, the Greek created a god for everything. Can you imagine irritating the god of the porcelain lazy boy? Imagine sitting down for your morning constitutional with him in a bad mood . . . of course I guess it could be a her . . .no matter, either way it couldn’t be pleasant.   

Have a great day, and not only that, have a great week, and may the one true living God, created by no one, bless you richly!

As Human Beings, We Live Our Lives in a Way That, Over Time, Becomes Familiar

As human beings, we live our lives in a way that, over time, becomes familiar. This may show itself in the words and phrases we use, the way we conduct ourselves, the food we eat, and  other ways too numerous to count.

For instance, ever since we were children I bet you called a four-legged, female bovine a cow.  In actuality, said bovine is not a cow until it has  birthed its first calf. After an initial pregnancy, it’s a first-year heifer. Once its calf is old enough to birth offspring, making the first year heifer a grandma then, the first-year heifer becomes a cow. Now, isn’t that just a syllable from being poetic?

I did a post that included the 17-year locust a week or so ago. What I failed to mention, was what most people call a locust is actually a cicada. A locust is nothing more than a grasshopper that swarms, takes flight, and eats all plant life in its path.

How about these for various collections of animals according to dictionary.com:

1. A flamboyance of flamingos

2. A lounge of lizards

3. A bloat of hippopotamuses

4. A conspiracy of lemurs

5. A convocation of eagles

6. A smack of jellyfish

7. An obstinacy of buffalo

8. An unkindness of ravens

9. A business of ferrets

10. A mob of kangaroos

11. A zeal of zebras

12. A shrewdness of apes

13. A leap of leopards

And just in case you are wondering, a mountain lion, cougar, puma, panther, catamount, mountain screamer, Mexican lion, painter, red lion and American lion; along with 30 or so additional names are all the same wildcat.

Go figure, once you delve into things you find out, other things about the things you didn’t expect to find about the original things and for that matter the secondary things  are a bonus because you learned an overabundance of things about things.

Having just celebrated Easter, remember the gift of our savior, Jesus, and what he endured to save us for all eternity. Have one great week . . . as a matter-of-fact, have the best week you’ve ever had until next week!

Have You Given Any Thought to How Much of Our Lives Revolve in Cyclical Patterns?

Have you given any thought to how much of our lives revolve in cyclical patterns? For instance, the very time that structures each moment, boils down into seconds, then to minutes, minutes to hours, hours to days, days into weeks, weeks into months, months into years, etc.

Our year is divided into four seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. The years usher in hot summers and cold winters that within themselves change as time progresses, bringing warmer winters, cooler summers, and then back again.

Certain species even cycle their life spans in this manner, like the seventeen-year locust. They dine during the summer. The adults lay their eggs in small branches on the host tree. The limbs die and fall to the ground. The eggs hatch, the larvae bury beneath the ground, spending the next seventeen years eating succulent tree roots until time to emerge, starting the seventeen years process anew.

El Niño and La Nina make an appearance every seven to eight years, one ushering in cold water in the Pacific, and the other ushering in warm water into the Pacific. This little boy and girl can change weather patterns in the Atlantic, especially during hurricane season, which has a cyclical pattern in and of itself. Hurricanes wax and wane in intensity every couple of decades, kinda like our generations.

Even in our solar system, we find evidence of cycles in returning comets, asteroids, and meteors.

We have only been keeping accurate records for a short number of years. When  compared to the age of our Earth, it is impossible to determine whether the changes we experience are part of a larger cyclical happening or not. This is because the last cycle may be so far removed we have no record of the happening.

I hope this post gives you something to think about. May God richly bless you and remember:

You don’t have to agree on anything to be kind to one another . . . unknown.